Lighting and gamma

[Scheneighnay]

Food for thought: ark has a bit of a lighting problem. Darkness is annoying for anyone trying to get things done during the day, but it feels cheaty to turn up gamma like everyone does.

Troodons of course got introduced as a way to encourage the use of light sources, albeit poorly, and it's possible to disable the use of gamma on a server.

So the question is this: will Ark 2 eliminate the need for gamma adjustments by making the night brighter, or do you think we'll see more things like the troodon that will become more aggressive if you're in the dark without a light source?

[Pipinghot]

4 hours ago, Scheneighnay said:

Food for thought: ark has a bit of a lighting problem. Darkness is annoying for anyone trying to get things done during the day, but it feels cheaty to turn up gamma like everyone does.

Troodons of course got introduced as a way to encourage the use of light sources, albeit poorly, and it's possible to disable the use of gamma on a server.

So the question is this: will Ark 2 eliminate the need for gamma adjustments by making the night brighter, or do you think we'll see more things like the troodon that will become more aggressive if you're in the dark without a light source?

Based on WildCard's intention of having "souls like combat" in ARK2, and the overall darker tone that they've discussed, I suspect that their original intent was to make ARK2 a bit harder than ARK in some ways.

The reason they added the ability to change gamma was not to make the game easier, it was because they realized that people with more technical knowledge about their PC's could use graphics utilities to change their gamma no matter how the game is set. This meant that players with less technical knowledge were at a disadvantage against players who have more technical knowledge about their PC's. So rather than let people who are less technical suffer, they added the ability to gamma up as a way to level the playing field for less computer-savvy players. It's worth noting that this is still an option for the server admin. If someone runs a private server they can disable the gamma command which effectively gives their server a harder difficulty setting (as long as their players agree to not raise their gamma with external tools).

So, no, I don't think they have any plans to eliminate the need for gamma adjustments, since not everyone likes adjusting gamma and some people prefer to play with the extra darkness. I don't see any reason why WC would make night-time less dangerous or threatening, other than enabling the gamma command. They want to include as many options to make the game harder as they can, so that people who like their survival games to be hard can play it that way. Personally, I don't like it that much and I tend to gamma up, but WC knows that there are people who like having the game extra dark & dangerous.

[Scheneighnay]

On 5/28/2023 at 7:07 PM, Pipinghot said:

Based on WildCard's intention of having "souls like combat" in ARK2, and the overall darker tone that they've discussed, I suspect that their original intent was to make ARK2 a bit harder than ARK in some ways.

The reason they added the ability to change gamma was not to make the game easier, it was because they realized that people with more technical knowledge about their PC's could use graphics utilities to change their gamma no matter how the game is set. This meant that players with less technical knowledge were at a disadvantage against players who have more technical knowledge about their PC's. So rather than let people who are less technical suffer, they added the ability to gamma up as a way to level the playing field for less computer-savvy players. It's worth noting that this is still an option for the server admin. If someone runs a private server they can disable the gamma command which effectively gives their server a harder difficulty setting (as long as their players agree to not raise their gamma with external tools).

So, no, I don't think they have any plans to eliminate the need for gamma adjustments, since not everyone likes adjusting gamma and some people prefer to play with the extra darkness. I don't see any reason why WC would make night-time less dangerous or threatening, other than enabling the gamma command. They want to include as many options to make the game harder as they can, so that people who like their survival games to be hard can play it that way. Personally, I don't like it that much and I tend to gamma up, but WC knows that there are people who like having the game extra dark & dangerous.

Gamma makes the game look like hot garbage, but the alternative is not being able to do anything productive for the duration of the night cycle.

It's not that he night is dangerous but rather because it's annoying that people use gamma.

[Pipinghot]

1 hour ago, Scheneighnay said:

It's not that he night is dangerous but rather because it's annoying that people use gamma.

That depends on where you are and what you're doing. In your base or mounted on a good fighter it's just annoying, if you're on foot in a cave it's dangerous.

But really that's the least important part of the discussion. Speaking directly to your question, and looking a ARK's history, it seems highly likely they'll treat darkness the same as they do now.

[mlndfreak]

 

In my opinion, finding a balance between realistic darkness and gameplay visibility is crucial. It would be great to see Ark 2 explore innovative solutions that reduce the need for gamma adjustments while still creating an immersive nighttime experience.

[Haumea]

Unreal Engine 5 has a great lighting system from what i know, so i assume they will utilize that to solve this issue.

[ArtixzAbra]

I hope the gamma continues to exist, it makes the nights more beautiful

[Luizza]

I don't mind the nights, it's the constant gamma correction I have to do to stop the snow blindness from the bleached out bright background (especially in the distance or while flying), I hope the new lighting system gives us more control over that. We all use dark mode these days, Ark is far too bright in parts to play for long stretches (and yes, I have bloom and shafts turned off)

I can't even play crystal isles at all without turning the gamma right down so I can't even see my inventory clearly. Well, tbh I don't bother, I don't play crystal isles anymore, solely due to the over brightness and bleached out backgrounds.

[Chuky2k]

I like the forza Horizon 5 light system it depends where you look at the light it will look real

[Mery2023]

Es verdad, siempre dependemos del gamma.

[JMA]

El gama creo que es obligatorio ya que este juego es muy obscuro (por lo menos el primer ARK) y dentro de una cueva es aun peor 

[Expecter]

estaria bien que hicieran un buen sistema de iluminacion porque es un poco raro tener que estar subiendo el gamma en un juego de supervivencia

[Emiyoshin]

Podría ser mejor