Minor cosmetic/Usability fix; no night while chooseing base loation

[Catty Nebulart]

It would be nice if when building a new base (or at the very least the first one) the earth would not have shadows (night) so that you an see where you are placing the base if you want to place it somewhere on the night side.

it's just a minor annoyance, but i would still be grateful if it's fixed.

[Profit-]

PLEASE!  Although I am capable of advancing the time to when I want, I really would like to have the night/day disappear when I am placing a base.

[Destructavator]

On my computers I can still see things on the night side, it just looks a little darker, but not dark to the point that it makes things difficult.

There was some past discussion on how some people have blackness when they run the game, being totally unable to see anything in dark areas, yet others don't have this issue.  The really strange part is that even the screenshots don't match, when viewed on the same computer.

Do both of you have completely dark areas?  Or is it just dark to the point where you can still see a little but it is inconvenient and a strain on your eyes?

[Profit-]

It was completely dark when I was looking at it earlier, but looking at things I think it was because I reinstalled my videos drivers, the gamma was reset to neutral, and I had daylight on my monitor.  now that I have turned up the gamma and it's dark in my room it's easily visible...  Dunno.. Might have also been a glitch with my graphics card..

There are also specific area's that get hard to see....

Mexico area, and India.

[Catty Nebulart]

It's dark enough that with eyestrain I can barely make out the alps. (I like to place my first base at CERN). I suppose i could fiddle with the gamma settings...

ok turning gamma all the way to max, making the screen bright enough to hurt when looked at it is a lot better (dark but visible), aside from the washed out colours. I can actually make out details like the English channel. Not a solution because it make the rest way too bright. maybe I can tweak the dynamic range settings of my graphics card. anyway they should all be set to default, since this is a fairly fresh install, and other things display fine with the default settings.

[Destructavator]

Some video card drivers that have game-specific settings misidentify UFO: AI as UFO: Afterlight, and sometimes do this "out-of-the-box" with a clean install of everything.  That might or might not be where the issue is coming from.

What video card do (both of) you have in your computer(s)?

The last time this issue came up, a long time ago in development, it was with just the maps during the missions.  Long story short, that was eventually fixed in the end by one of the coders making adjustments to lighting settings for all the maps in night missions.  I don't recall if that fix was also applied to the geoscape or not - One of the project coders might have to answer that.

BTW, so the coders can help better - please also give other hardware information as well as the type of video card, along with the version of the game you are playing and where you downloaded it or if you compiled it yourself from SVN.  Also I think the default for taking screenshots is F12 in-game, and screenshots would also help.

[Catty Nebulart]

Here is the output of glxinfo for my Nvidia GT 9800. i'll do an update and take screenshots tomorrow or so.

Code: (glxinfo) [Select]

name of display: :0.0           
display: :0  screen: 0           
direct rendering: Yes           
server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
server glx version string: 1.4             
server glx extensions:                     
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
    GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGI_swap_control,   
    GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_multisample,
    GLX_NV_float_buffer, GLX_ARB_fbconfig_float, GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB     
client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation                                 
client glx version string: 1.4                                               
client glx extensions:                                                       
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info,       
    GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_SGI_video_sync,       
    GLX_NV_swap_group, GLX_NV_video_out, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer,
    GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_NV_float_buffer,       
    GLX_ARB_fbconfig_float, GLX_EXT_fbconfig_packed_float,                   
    GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB,                   
    GLX_NV_present_video, GLX_NV_multisample_coverage                         
GLX version: 1.3                                                             
GLX extensions:                                                               
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,           
    GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGI_swap_control,               
    GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_multisample,
    GLX_NV_float_buffer, GLX_ARB_fbconfig_float, GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB,   
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address                                                 
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation                                     
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce 9800 GT/PCI/SSE2                             
OpenGL version string: 3.0.0 NVIDIA 180.44                                   
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler           
OpenGL extensions:                                                           
    GL_ARB_color_buffer_float, GL_ARB_depth_buffer_float,                     
    GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_draw_buffers, GL_ARB_draw_instanced,         
    GL_ARB_fragment_program, GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow,                 
    GL_ARB_fragment_shader, GL_ARB_half_float_pixel, GL_ARB_half_float_vertex,
    GL_ARB_framebuffer_object, GL_ARB_geometry_shader4, GL_ARB_imaging,       
    GL_ARB_map_buffer_range, GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_multitexture,         
    GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_object,                       
    GL_ARB_point_parameters, GL_ARB_point_sprite, GL_ARB_shadow,               
    GL_ARB_shader_objects, GL_ARB_shading_language_100,                       
    GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp, GL_ARB_texture_buffer_object,                 
    GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,                       
    GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,                       
    GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_ARB_texture_float,                             
    GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two,           
    GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_texture_rg, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix,     
    GL_ARB_vertex_array_object, GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object,                   
    GL_ARB_vertex_program, GL_ARB_vertex_shader, GL_ARB_window_pos,           
    GL_ATI_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_texture_float, GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once,     
    GL_S3_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra,             
    GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate,                       
    GL_EXT_blend_func_separate, GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract,   
    GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array, GL_EXT_Cg_shader, GL_EXT_bindable_uniform,   
    GL_EXT_depth_bounds_test, GL_EXT_direct_state_access,                     
    GL_EXT_draw_buffers2, GL_EXT_draw_instanced, GL_EXT_draw_range_elements,   
    GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_framebuffer_blit, GL_EXT_framebuffer_multisample,
    GL_EXT_framebuffer_object, GL_EXTX_framebuffer_mixed_formats,             
    GL_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB, GL_EXT_geometry_shader4,                         
    GL_EXT_gpu_program_parameters, GL_EXT_gpu_shader4,                         
    GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_depth_stencil,                     
    GL_EXT_packed_float, GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_pixel_buffer_object,     
    GL_EXT_point_parameters, GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,   
    GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shadow_funcs,                       
    GL_EXT_stencil_two_side, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_texture3D,           
    GL_EXT_texture_array, GL_EXT_texture_buffer_object,                       
    GL_EXT_texture_compression_latc, GL_EXT_texture_compression_rgtc,         
    GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_cube_map,                 
    GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine,                     
    GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic,               
    GL_EXT_texture_integer, GL_EXT_texture_lod, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias,       
    GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_object, GL_EXT_texture_sRGB,   
    GL_EXT_texture_swizzle, GL_EXT_texture_shared_exponent,                   
    GL_EXT_timer_query, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_EXT_vertex_array_bgra,         
    GL_IBM_rasterpos_clip, GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat,                     
    GL_KTX_buffer_region, GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_copy_depth_to_color,       
    GL_NV_depth_buffer_float, GL_NV_conditional_render, GL_NV_depth_clamp,     
    GL_NV_explicit_multisample, GL_NV_fence, GL_NV_float_buffer,               
    GL_NV_fog_distance, GL_NV_fragment_program, GL_NV_fragment_program_option,
    GL_NV_fragment_program2, GL_NV_framebuffer_multisample_coverage,           
    GL_NV_geometry_shader4, GL_NV_gpu_program4, GL_NV_half_float,             
    GL_NV_light_max_exponent, GL_NV_multisample_coverage,                     
    GL_NV_multisample_filter_hint, GL_NV_occlusion_query,                     
    GL_NV_packed_depth_stencil, GL_NV_parameter_buffer_object,                 
    GL_NV_pixel_data_range, GL_NV_point_sprite, GL_NV_primitive_restart,       
    GL_NV_register_combiners, GL_NV_register_combiners2,                       
    GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_NV_texture_compression_vtc,                   
    GL_NV_texture_env_combine4, GL_NV_texture_expand_normal,                   
    GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_NV_texture_shader, GL_NV_texture_shader2,     
    GL_NV_texture_shader3, GL_NV_transform_feedback, GL_NV_vertex_array_range,
    GL_NV_vertex_array_range2, GL_NV_vertex_program, GL_NV_vertex_program1_1, 
    GL_NV_vertex_program2, GL_NV_vertex_program2_option,                       
    GL_NV_vertex_program3, GL_NVX_conditional_render, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap,
    GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SGIX_depth_texture, GL_SGIX_shadow,               
    GL_SUN_slice_accum         


84 GLX Visuals
'snip'

140 GLXFBConfigs:
"snip'


[Profit-]

I am running a Nvidia 9500gt.  version 190.62 on the drivers.  
And the problem came back...
I did not change versions of the game but I might have updated my video drivers... I have been fiddling with fallout 3 trying to stop it from crashing constantly... Dont remember all I have done... Here is a screenshot.
As you can (or cant?) see.. There is just nothing you can see in the dark area's.

[Profit-]

I think I (might) have found the cause.

Here is a screen with the same version of everything except my drivers were turned to 32 bit color depth instead of 16bit. It looks dark but I can easily make out everything inside of there.

[shevegen]

Can't say much about the rest here, but I would like to comment on one thing here:

There was some past discussion on how some people have blackness when they run the game, being totally unable to see anything in dark areas, yet others don't have this issue.

I sometimes had this on one computer. I now have another computer and did not notice this (but this may be because I played an older version)

The bug was strange in that it seemed to appear randomly... often you could play maps without this darkness bug. But sometimes this almost-complete darkness appeared. Was strange will try to find it again when i play

[Profit-]

My computer gives me a headache somedays,  The same picture I posted that when I was looking at it on my machine a couple days ago was completely black in the dark area's now has like a green highlighting in it..

UNless the forum has done some kind of compression on the PNG.... * nope just looked at the origionals they now have green highlights in the dark areas...

That green highlighting was not there a couple days ago...

This is so confuzzling....

(Or maybe not now that I have had a chance to think about it, I recently have went on an uninstalling spree to free up space for a repartition and possibly a switch to winders 7.... maybe one of those games had been interfering with the color or something)

[Gunner]

your computer will save what is it trying to show not what is shown.that can end up being completely different to what you see, especially if you are changing settings.

probably means that the problem is between your computer and the monitor, (ie video drivers, video hardware, monitor hardware) but you knew that all ready

[Profit-]

LOL yes, I am sure that somewhere probably at the driver level, there is an issue that's causing UFO:AI to be too dark on occasion.

Since it is not an all the time thing for me, Perhaps this should be listed under bugs rather than a suggestion?

[Destructavator]

Just FYI to anyone with this issue - Mattn (the lead developer) has updated the code with a potential fix for this in the SVN.  This fix is not in the latest pre-built Windows installer, but the project wiki details how to grab an SVN copy and compile it to build the latest version of the game.

Or, you could wait until I upload a new installer in a day or two.

[Catty Nebulart]

Well I have been busy and disapeared, so I pull the latest version of ufoai from svn and this problem still persists .

Oh well.