Version 1.0 (Alpha 22) Dev Diary

[Chaton Noir]

1 minute ago, bluewizard said:

See i dont have this problem your having. Have you tried update video card drives, pcs are a funny thing video cards can get issues with game updates. Or could be a bug only a few are having. This happens all the time.

I always update all drivers and system. The problem is in the game. Everyone's bright at night. Everyone's game has become brighter overall.

[Riamus]

4 hours ago, bluewizard said:

See i dont have this problem your having. Have you tried update video card drives, pcs are a funny thing video cards can get issues with game updates. Or could be a bug only a few are having. This happens all the time.

Everyone is having the problem.  There have been a lot of posts about it ever since 1.0 EXP came out.  Most posts are complaints about it and there are a few who say they like it better.  The game is way brighter than in A20/A21.  This isn't settings or monitor/TV.  The devs have even admitted to increasing brightness levels.  They feel it's better that way, I guess.  They have even made very minor adjustments to decrease brightness compared to initial 1.0 EXP levels.  Now, you do get some darkness in a room that has no windows at all.  But it is still very visible.  In A20/A21, I always got the light mod for my helmet as soon as possible so that I could see at night in POI because there were times you couldn't see a couple meters in front of you, which was perfect for a game like this.  Now, I don't bother with one at all.  There is also a lot of overexposure during the day, as was mentioned.  But it's the night that I have the real issue with.

 

If the game gave you an option for brightness that actually worked well (the current brightness setting in the game doesn't), then it would be fine.  People who want bright games can have it and those who like a dark game at night can have that.  But there isn't one.  The brightness control in the game turned to the lowest value should make the game extremely dark such that you'd never lower it that far, but it barely changes anything and just makes the days look bad.

[Jay_ombie]

Tree Animation

 

Now I wonder if this is the normal for all gamers and tree animations supposed to be Halloween themed jitter things in the wind ?

 

Its like they are moving at 2 frames a second, and the likes of Skyrim has better tree swaying.

 

Just looks odd, and I wonder if I can improve anything my end even if it comes to Turning the animation off.

[GigglingZombie]

The brightness has most definitely been changed since 1.0. Very strange as lighting in A20 and A21 was very realistic, and more importantly lighting at night was realistic. Now it's just odd to have so much light most of the night, especially when there's no moon or lights creating said light. Hopefully thr devs will 'see the light' and fix it at some point. As i said in last post, i use a great lighting mod until they fix it

Edited October 27 by GigglingZombie (see edit history)

[Adam the Waster]

Yes the game needs to bring back its horor roots.. 

 

On a side note why is the burnt forest has more wild life then the forest like it makes no sense lmao 😂 

 

I miss when the pine forest was somewhat dangerous with bears and wolves 

[Arez]

The brightness setting in the game is not really how a typical brightness setting works. It's more of a contrast setting or a combination of things. 

When you lower the brightness, the dark parts get darker but the bright parts get brighter. A 0% setting can be almost painful on the eyes if you're in the snow biome during the day. 

 

Lowering it can make night time very dark but the trade off is near blown-out whites and saturated colors. 

 

But as I said before, there are people that don't want the game to be dark and that is fine. Just give us an option. Either change how the brightness setting works or give us a setting that reflects how previous versions of the game looked.

[Chaton Noir]

5 hours ago, Riamus said:

Everyone is having the problem.  There have been a lot of posts about it ever since 1.0 EXP came out.  Most posts are complaints about it and there are a few who say they like it better.  The game is way brighter than in A20/A21.  This isn't settings or monitor/TV.  The devs have even admitted to increasing brightness levels.  They feel it's better that way, I guess.  They have even made very minor adjustments to decrease brightness compared to initial 1.0 EXP levels.  Now, you do get some darkness in a room that has no windows at all.  But it is still very visible.  In A20/A21, I always got the light mod for my helmet as soon as possible so that I could see at night in POI because there were times you couldn't see a couple meters in front of you, which was perfect for a game like this.  Now, I don't bother with one at all.  There is also a lot of overexposure during the day, as was mentioned.  But it's the night that I have the real issue with.

 

If the game gave you an option for brightness that actually worked well (the current brightness setting in the game doesn't), then it would be fine.  People who want bright games can have it and those who like a dark game at night can have that.  But there isn't one.  The brightness control in the game turned to the lowest value should make the game extremely dark such that you'd never lower it that far, but it barely changes anything and just makes the days look bad.

I really hope that the developers will solve this problem.

[DocRussel]

Just as a sanity check, a high number of players are not hardcore players, as evidenced by the default difficulty being lowered a while back from Nomad to Adventurer without changing the damage multipliers.  This was done to satisfy the large number of players who thought the game was too hard.  7D2D is not a hardcore horror game, so no surprise that the lighting has become consistent with that.  Frankly, if all players (not just the voices on the forum) were surveyed about the current night brightness, I think many here would be disappointed by the results.

 

So if the night illumination settings are not significantly changed, there may be more of a marketing (mass appeal) reason than a nostalgic hardcore fanbase satisfaction.  Ideally, it would be a setting that all players can personalize.  I frankly would like many more aspects of the game customizable.  And maybe that will be incorporated into a later update, but let's pump the brakes about demanding or expecting it to be immediately changed.

 

I went camping this past weekend in a group of about 30, no electricity or running water, partly/mostly overcast skies at night.  Many people didn't even use a flashlight at night since you can get around without one 4 hours after sundown.  That's common when we go rustic camping.  Not that the game is trying to reflect all elements of reality, but the current settings are not unrealistic in the real world.  And if the moon is out and the ground is snow covered, you may even need shades. 😎

[Riamus]

9 minutes ago, DocRussel said:

I went camping this past weekend in a group of about 30, no electricity or running water, partly/mostly overcast skies at night.  Many people didn't even use a flashlight at night since you can get around without one 4 hours after sundown.  That's common when we go rustic camping.  Not that the game is trying to reflect all elements of reality, but the current settings are not unrealistic in the real world.  And if the moon is out and the ground is snow covered, you may even need shades. 😎

As someone who camps and who lives in the country, where there isn't any (much) light pollution, I can tell you that this is not entirely accurate.  Yes, if there's a decent amount of moonlight, or if you are in a place where there is enough light pollution, you can see fine at night.  However, on other nights, it can be pitch black and you cannot see within a couple feet without some sort of light.  Even tonight at my house, at 7:45pm, it is dark enough that I cannot easily see very far without a light.  There is some moonlight, so it's not as dark as it can be on other nights, but it's definitely dark.  I'll add that the amount of darkness also is dependent on where you live in the world, and it depends on what time of year it is.  For example, it doesn't get very dark for half the year in the far north for half the year.

 

And we aren't just talking about outside lighting.  In the basement of a house without any lights on and in the middle of the night, you shouldn't be able to see much of anything without a light.

 

As far as why they did it, it probably is because too many players want "easy mode".  But that doesn't mean there shouldn't be a setting.

Edited October 27 by Riamus (see edit history)

[DocRussel]

6 minutes ago, Riamus said:

As someone who camps and who lives in the country, where there isn't any (much) light pollution, I can tell you that this is not entirely accurate.  Yes, if there's a decent amount of moonlight, or if you are in a place where there is enough light pollution, you can see fine at night.  However, on other nights, it can be pitch black and you cannot see within a couple feet without some sort of light.  Even tonight at my house, at 7:45pm, it is dark enough that I cannot easily see very far without a light.  There is some moonlight, so it's not as dark as it can be on other nights, but it's definitely dark.  I'll add that the amount of darkness also is dependent on where you live in the world, and it depends on what time of year it is.  For example, it doesn't get very dark for half the year in the far north for half the year.

 

And we aren't just talking about outside lighting.  In the basement of a house without any lights on and in the middle of the night, you shouldn't be able to see much of anything without a light.

 

As far as why they did it, it probably is because too many players want "easy mode".  But that doesn't mean there shouldn't be a setting.

Lol, yes, what I said is the experience of many people over the course of many years.

[Morloc]

22 minutes ago, Riamus said:

But that doesn't mean there shouldn't be a setting.

 

Even Kentucky Fried Chicken has both Extra Crispy AND Original Recipe!

 

 

-Arch Necromancer Morloc 💀

Edited October 28 by Morloc (see edit history)

[Vaeliorin]

20 minutes ago, Riamus said:

As far as why they did it, it probably is because too many players want "easy mode".  But that doesn't mean there shouldn't be a setting.

While I'd be happy with a setting, "It's hard because it's dark!" is one of my most hated gaming tropes of all time, ever since I first spent several hours looking for a switch in Doom 2 that I never saw because it was in a dark corner.  So personally, I'm perfectly happy with the lighting the way it is now (and I often turn the brightness up to 100% at night.)

[beerfly]

I think we all would agree that darkness adds a layer of being much more aware, watching our every step and sound we make, while being scared of where we are. 

 

Remember when we were kids and our parents send us to the basement for the first time to get something, alone?

 

 

 

Oh, bears in Forest biome, also

[Vaeliorin]

44 minutes ago, beerfly said:

I think we all would agree that darkness adds a layer of being much more aware, watching our every step and sound we make, while being scared of where we are. 

 

Remember when we were kids and our parents send us to the basement for the first time to get something, alone?

 

 

 

Oh, bears in Forest biome, also

IRL, darkness occasionally freaks me out because I have an overactive imagination.  In games, it just annoys me because I can't see what the F I'm doing.  To me, it's not a real challenge, it's at best a test of your eyesight (and as someone who's blind as a bat without my glasses, that's not something I enjoy.)

 

That said, bears in the forest were kind of terrifying.

[beerfly]

20 minutes ago, Vaeliorin said:

IRL, darkness occasionally freaks me out because I have an overactive imagination.  In games, it just annoys me because I can't see what the F I'm doing.  To me, it's not a real challenge, it's at best a test of your eyesight (and as someone who's blind as a bat without my glasses, that's not something I enjoy.)

 

That said, bears in the forest were kind of terrifying.

As we have a talk about that one here in the forums, I think we are sure that The Pimps are working on a proper balanced solution about that. 

[Riamus]

2 hours ago, Vaeliorin said:

IRL, darkness occasionally freaks me out because I have an overactive imagination.  In games, it just annoys me because I can't see what the F I'm doing.  To me, it's not a real challenge, it's at best a test of your eyesight (and as someone who's blind as a bat without my glasses, that's not something I enjoy.)

 

That said, bears in the forest were kind of terrifying.

In many games, I would agree.  I often don't lower gamma as far as the recommended level (an image invisible or barely visible depending on what the game says) because I like seeing what I'm doing.  However, this game offers you options to make things visible that are easy to use and don't require constantly swapping to it.  The helmet light works great and made it easy to see in any darkness level.  So it was something to work towards rather than always be a pain to see.  I'm fine with that.  Add in other options - weapon lights, torches, flashlights.... there wasn't any reason not to be able to see if you needed to.  But it gave you that darkness to make things more interesting.

 

Besides, right now, I often don't even notice that it's night instead of day unless I notice the sound for night when it changes to night, or if zombies suddenly are moving faster.  It just isn't really all that much darker at night.  I mean, when it's darker in the middle of the day when it's raining than it is in the middle of the night when it's not raining, that's not good lighting.

[4sheetzngeegles]

This is not a complaint, but a personal observation regarding the darkness
or lack there of. The main culprit is a medium that is beyond the reach of most,
unless you have a third party piece of extraction software , the latest unity
installed and a third party archiver that focuses on  LZMA compression protocol.

 

It would be possible to have a compromise to allow the legacy darkness and the
new introductory darkness with a simple adjustment from the side of the devs.

 

The gradient for moon and night ambient can be painted closer to black, while
the slider can have a preliminary or default setting closer to 100, whereas 100 is
the present lighting scheme.

 

This way win/win for both sides and no intrusive changes. I use to do this alot
before to set up my own LUT combinations, to set different moods. The indoor fog

gradient would be painted closer to 0 0 0, making interior light change darker also.

 

The xml option, would be to make it at least 50% cloudy all of the time. An alternate
option could be to include "isnight" in the biomes weather manager, this way it would
separate different types of weather and lighting between day and night.

Edited October 28 by 4sheetzngeegles (see edit history)

[Jost Amman]

53 minutes ago, 4sheetzngeegles said:

This is not a complaint, but a personal observation regarding the darkness
or lack there of. The main culprit is a medium that is beyond the reach of most,
unless you have a third party piece of extraction software , the latest unity
installed and a third party archiver that focuses on  LZMA compression protocol.

 

It would be possible to have a compromise to allow the legacy darkness and the
new introductory darkness with a simple adjustment from the side of the devs.

 

The gradient for moon and night ambient can be painted closer to black, while
the slider can have a preliminary or default setting closer to 100, whereas 100 is
the present lighting scheme.

 

This way win/win for both sides and no intrusive changes. I use to do this alot
before to set up my own LUT combinations, to set different moods. The indoor fog

gradient would be painted closer to 0 0 0, making interior light change darker also.

 

The xml option, would be to make it at least 50% cloudy all of the time. An alternate
option could be to include "isnight" in the biomes weather manager, this way it would
separate different types of weather and lighting between day and night.

Hi @4sheetzngeegles, the way you format what you write is... peculiar!

Are you, by any chance, still using something like this? 

Spoiler

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

That was funny, No, I have never used any artificial medium to write. I have been doing it the same way since I

first joined 2017. Do you mean it sounds robotic, or is it because I box format? I'm trying not to make a wall of

text, and I also figured a lot more people are reading on their 5 inch phone screen. I type it out on notepad++,

then copy and paste it. The other reason is I separate each thought so a persons can copy a quote to respond.

 

Still laughing when i look at the image. My style has also been likened to R'lyehian. 🤣

Edited October 28 by 4sheetzngeegles (see edit history)

[Jost Amman]

9 hours ago, 4sheetzngeegles said:

Do you mean it sounds robotic, or is it because I box format?

Box format for sure!  

[bluewizard]

I think this light issue is more personal preference.  I need a flash in alot of areas because for me i can barely see. im on xbox. I have read a lot of the comment an a few of you that are PC users and like the versions before 1.0. Alpha. the great thing about steam is just go back to A.20 Or A.21. Play that version. That you like best. Problem solved. Anyway camping in the woods at night. Well it can get very dark. But thats if you have heavy cloud cover or if your in dense forest or wooded area. I been open fields with no clouds in the sky, away from smog and city pollution. Even with a quarter moon still see everything around me. Honestly their are so many factors that can play a part in how bright or dark it is at night. Their fog, half moons, full moons, clouds, tree density, tree high and thickness. The game has a lot of this. Here the thing graphics card and game engines cannot  a account for all of these different scenarios. Game developers. try and do their best to do a middle ground for all of it. That looks good on most condition. So that new and old player will like and accept.what they done If new player think its to hard, they wont play and will not recommended. The game to other new players. New player is revenue.new money keeps the game going and we get new updates and content because of this. To get my point across games and video cards and game engines can not make ultra realistic lighting and environments as of yet. To many things. The technology not quite their yet. But every year we get closer. Example ray tracing. My two cents lol

[bdubyah]

12 minutes ago, bluewizard said:

just go back to A.20 Or A.21. Play that version. That you like best. Problem solved.

That doesn't solve the problem. Just because you think it is fine doesn't mean it is. Odd hill to die on. There have been nonstop complaints about it since 1.0 dropped. Maybe if there were only a few nights with a full moon that were kind of bright, but not every single night other than BMs. It's too much.

[GigglingZombie]

yeah this is nothing to do with adjusting gamma, for example (what's this, the 1980's again) ?), or anything else; lighting in A20/A21 was realistic; full stop; since 1.0 dropped that has ceased to be the case ; exaggeration by me but it just might as well be daylight the entire time;  but hopefully the devs will fix it soon ; and as i keep saying, i , for now, use the "7D2D World Lighting Tuned (v1.0 b333) mod. of course that's only for single player, when i play on friend's server we can't use mods........ and lighting........... is well, unrealistic (no need for helmet light mod most of the time)

[falloutcloud]

With the 1.0 release there has not been a single instance where I thought I needed to add a head lamp, flashlight, or even turn my vehicle headlights on. It doesn't get dark

[Riamus]

7 hours ago, bluewizard said:

I think this light issue is more personal preference.  I need a flash in alot of areas because for me i can barely see. im on xbox. I have read a lot of the comment an a few of you that are PC users and like the versions before 1.0. Alpha. the great thing about steam is just go back to A.20 Or A.21. Play that version. That you like best. Problem solved.

Considering there are a LOT of improvements to the game since A20/A21 and lighting is hardly a reason to deny yourself those updates, that's not a real choice.  It's different if people just like an older version better.  In that case, they can play that version.  But when people like the current version except for lighting, that's not a reason to play an older version.  They had lighting really good before 1.0, so it's obviously clear that they can make good lighting in the current version as well by just reverting to what was in older versions or making a setting that lets you use that older lighting.  *That* is the solution; not going back to older versions.

 

And you continue to ignore that this isn't just about outside lighting.  It also affects lighting inside, so even if you can't accept that outside lighting in real life can actually be very dark at night, you can't tell me that a fully enclosed (no windows) room or basement should be perfectly visible at night.