In really dark maps, do you increase the brightness settings or just deal with it?

[TootsyBowl]

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=37763

 

*presses F*

 

The darkness can suck it.

[yakfak]

every option ZDoom provides for flattening, contrasting & raising the light levels alters the gameplay in a way that makes me map for prboom-plus instead. think about how you play E1M5 in software and then imagine that exit room not really being dark at all and that's half the appeal of the game vanishing with one keystroke

[VGA]

Let's have a little test of lighting methods, the Spectre's fuzz effect and the resolution effect on practical visibility. Load this wad in your port(s) of choice, leave your settings at your usual, no cheating! If you can count the spectres in the opposite platform, then you lost the game.

 

In my testing, I can count them in OpenGL ports only. In Chocolate Doom, Doom Retro, Crispy Doom, Eternity, prboom-plus they are totally impossible to make out. Not even close. (That is a 144 brightness sector, 576 units away from the player)

SpectreAnd BrightnessTest.zip

[The_MártonJános]

I turn up my computer gamma, so the map will display all-gray instead of all-black.

[Spectre01]

I always play with gamma at 1 in GLBoom+ using the default sector light mode, where the gamma range is 0-4. 0 looks unpleasant for whatever reason while looking alright in other light modes.

[Rosh Fragger]

I try not to break the immersion of the map by increasing that.

[Urthar]

It depends which source port the author tested their map on. A map built for Chocolate Doom at gamma 1 will look very different to a map built for GZDoom GL 'Standard' sector lighting with dynamic lights.

 

Of course, you don't necessarily know which lighting model an author intended, so I tend to try a map with software rendering first, and if it looks off, I'll try it in GZDoom Standard.

 

 

[RedDash16]

If I can't see at all then I would sort the brightness out for sure, if it's really dark but playable I find it really can enhance the experience in some ways.

[LexiMax]

I do try to use default gamma if at all possible, but if thinks are just way too dark, why not.  It has its own dedicated key, after all.

 

The only thing that bugs me is if you take screenshots with increased gamma and the port doesn't normalize it somehow.  IIRC, ZDaemon used to default to 1.5 ZDoom gamma, and you could nearly always tell who was using it just by their screenshots.

[Major Arlene]

I try not to unless I really can't navigate. If it's a map worth its salt, it'll have at least 1 light amp to help you out. Otherwise, making it dark can be (not always though) due to just poor level design that a map maker is trying to cover up. 

[idbeholdME]

Never touched brightness in any WAD I played. An example of a very dark level done right is 1Monster WAD level 15. Best used spectres I have ever (not) seen. Going purely based on audio made for one of the best Doom experiences I have ever had.

[Major Arlene]

2 hours ago, idbeholdME said:

Never touched brightness in any WAD I played. An example of a very dark level done right is 1Monster WAD level 15. Best used spectres I have ever (not) seen. Going purely based on audio made for one of the best Doom experiences I have ever had.

I remember that map! That was a very well done map with the spectres placed perfectly.