Thief 2: The Metal Age Graphics too Dark
Wayne
with an ATI Xpert@Play AGP (Rage Pro) with 4Meg RAM graphics card. As
I started to play this game I noticed that the really shadowy areas of
the screen remain completely black even after I crank the gamma all the
way up! For instance, when I'm walking down the corridor in the first
level all I see are the doors and the very end of the hallway. I do
not see the hallway walls at all! The only time I have actually seen
the walls is when I use a torch. Is this a problem with the graphics
card driver or is the game supposed to be like this? Is there any
other way to adjust the brightness of the really black portions of the
screen (ie. editing the user.cfg file)? I'm using the latest graphics
drivers as far as I can tell. Also, I have not had this problem with
Thief 1, and it occurs in other resolutions. Please email me if you
have suggestions! Thanks!
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Perseus
how about correcting the 'brightness' on your monitor?
btw, in the first level, you're NOT supposed to see the floor in that particular
hallway anyhow....this is taken from the game's readme about gamma correction:
================================================
Proper gamma correction (screen brightness) is vital for the most enjoyable
Thief 2 experience. Given that different monitors and video cards exhibit a
wide range of gamma values, it is important to understand the optimal setting
for gameplay. The ideal gamma settings allow you to see the basic outline of
terrain and objects even in deep shadow, but only barely. Darker settings than
this won’t allow you to see where you’re going in dark areas (of which there are
plenty in Thief 2), and brighter settings tend to wash out shadows, making it
hard to tell where you’re safe from detection and where you’re exposed. Also,
dark shadows look a lot cooler.
The easiest way to set your gamma is to start the first mission. There will be
a sidewalk to your left and a grassy area bordered by a hedge on your right.
The sidewalk is brightly lit while the grassy area is dark. Adjust the gamma
with the + and - keys on your keyboard until you can barely see the outline of
the hedge on your right. It will probably be helpful to adjust your monitor
brightness as well. You can also use the Gamma slider on the Video Options
screen to adjust your settings.
Note: under DirectX 7, it is possible to directly adjust the gamma settings of
supported 3D hardware accelerator cards. If your card supports this feature,
the Thief 2 gamma controls will address it. If your 3D accelerator card does
not support this feature, you should be able to adjust your gamma settings by
going to Settings/Control Panel/Display from your Windows taskbar.
================================================
Wayne
Perseus <Per...@telus.com> wrote:
> did you download the patch?
> how about correcting the 'brightness' on your monitor?
>
I have not downloaded the patch yet. I have a relatively snow PC and
there are some people that mentioned that the patch slows down the FPS
noticibly with the patch. I was not aware that the patch would address
brightness issues.
I understand that the floor should probably be very dark, but I would
think that the walls should be at least slightly visable. I'll have to
play with my monitor brightness I guess. Thanks for your comments!
Perseus
with all the lights turned off.
also, you just have to play around with the gamma and the brightness of your
monitor.
On Fri, 21 Apr 2000 01:38:33 +0800, "Guan Foo Wah" <jg...@iname.com> wrote:
>> > did you download the patch?
>> > how about correcting the 'brightness' on your monitor?
>> >
>>
>> I have not downloaded the patch yet. I have a relatively snow PC and
>> there are some people that mentioned that the patch slows down the FPS
>> noticibly with the patch. I was not aware that the patch would address
>> brightness issues.
>>
>> I understand that the floor should probably be very dark, but I would
>> think that the walls should be at least slightly visable. I'll have to
>> play with my monitor brightness I guess. Thanks for your comments!
>
>Thief 1 and 2 is dark on my monitor too... and this is what I did....
>
>Try to play Thief at night with in a totally dark room. You will be able to
>see those walls brighter.
>
Wayne
Perseus <Per...@telus.com> wrote:
> haha, that's a great tip, i'm like that too, i can only play the game
at night,
> with all the lights turned off.
>
excellent. The immersion factor could only be increase with via
hardware (stereo VR goggles, tactile feedback, etc.).
Even playing with my monitor and gamma adjustments all the darkest
portions of the screen remain COMPLETELY black. The only time I can
see texture is if I use a flare.... :(
I will try the patch 2nite.
Guan Foo Wah
Luke Edwards
not a cat, he's not suppose to have an advantage over the guards...he's not
a super hero, he's just quick, smart, quiet, and wears black...part of the
immersion of thief is that Garret is just like you and me (aside from the
eye part)...
But in all reality look for a night vision feature in Thief3...with Garett's
bionic eye...sounds kewl...
Mark Stevens
wrote:
>Try to play Thief at night with in a totally dark room. You will be able to
>see those walls brighter.
Does anyone play Thief any other way?! I can't imagine playing this
game with sunshine streaming into my room. Fortunately, the window in
my room is north-facing, so I don't get any direct sunlight and can
just pull the blinds to plunge it into darkness.
So, Thief/Thief 2/SS2 played in pitch darkness, with surround sound --
the only way to play them!
--
Mark Stevens
Mark Stevens
>Even playing with my monitor and gamma adjustments all the darkest
>portions of the screen remain COMPLETELY black. The only time I can
>see texture is if I use a flare.... :(
Did you follow the instructions that Perseus posted? Here's the most
important segment:
========
The easiest way to set your gamma is to start the first mission. There
will be a sidewalk to your left and a grassy area bordered by a hedge
on your right. The sidewalk is brightly lit while the grassy area is
dark. Adjust the gamma with the + and - keys on your keyboard until
you can barely see the outline of the hedge on your right. It will
probably be helpful to adjust your monitor brightness as well. You
can also use the Gamma slider on the Video Options screen to adjust
your settings.
========
If everything looks fine at this point, then stick with it. That first
corridor you encounter after first entering the house is *meant* to
look pitch black. Yes, it does look a bit odd, but that's the way it's
meant to be.
What do the other areas in this level look like to you? Are *all* the
corridors in the game pitch black? If so, your video card definitely
has "issues".
Jeffrey Michael Grimm
just can't wait until dark,especially now that it's staying light
out.But it isn't the same ambience,obviously.Usually I'll play other
games if I'm not working or doing anything else during the day but T2
just tears everything up.I do agree,it's best played with the lights
out,and a good sound system.I still play it at night believe me.I'm
gonna try using some headphones tonight.
Mark Stevens wrote:
>
> On Fri, 21 Apr 2000 01:38:33 +0800, "Guan Foo Wah" <jg...@iname.com>
> wrote:
>
> >Try to play Thief at night with in a totally dark room. You will be able to
> >see those walls brighter.
>
> Does anyone play Thief any other way?! I can't imagine playing this
> game with sunshine streaming into my room. Fortunately, the window in
> my room is north-facing, so I don't get any direct sunlight and can
> just pull the blinds to plunge it into darkness.
>
> So, Thief/Thief 2/SS2 played in pitch darkness, with surround sound --
> the only way to play them!
>
Yee Har
wrote:
>I just installed Thief 2: The Metal age on my PC which is a 300MHz PII
>with an ATI Xpert@Play AGP (Rage Pro) with 4Meg RAM graphics card. As
>I started to play this game I noticed that the really shadowy areas of
>the screen remain completely black even after I crank the gamma all the
[sorry - can't cross-post to the other group as they're not on
my server]
I guess you've tried this but just in case you overlooked it in
Perseus's first reply to you in this thread...
"Note: under DirectX 7, it is possible to directly adjust the
gamma settings of supported 3D hardware accelerator cards. If
your card supports this feature, the Thief 2 gamma controls will
address it. If your 3D accelerator card does not support this
feature, you should be able to adjust your gamma settings by
going to Settings/Control Panel/Display from your Windows
taskbar."
(The reason I say that is because most of the thread just refers
to 'gamma' adjustment - which might be taken to mean only that
within the game.)
The last part "Settings/Control Panel/Display from your Windows
taskbar." is the bit I mean. Then select the Settings tab then
the advanced button. Finally check the 3DFX Tweaks tab or
similar. Here, my Voodoo card offers separate gamma adjustment
for Desktop, Direct 3D, Glide/Open GL and Video Overlay.
Probably Direct 3D is what you want.
When I started T2 I was blundering about in the dark for a while
until I adjusted this gamma.
It might help to set the gamma adjustment within the game to
halfway first then you can easily tweak it slightly when playing
the game using the + and - keys.
Yee Har
wrote:
>On Wed, 19 Apr 2000 19:35:09 GMT, Wayne <wptas...@yahoo.com>
>wrote:
>>I just installed Thief 2: The Metal age on my PC which is a 300MHz PII
>>with an ATI Xpert@Play AGP (Rage Pro) with 4Meg RAM graphics card. As
>>I started to play this game I noticed that the really shadowy areas of
>>the screen remain completely black even after I crank the gamma all the
>>way up! <SNIP>
Ignore everything I said previously as it not true - I just
checked it!
I HAVE found a way to increase brightness up to total WHITE on
my system and in Thief 1. I have uninstalled Thief 2 at the
moment so cannot check it but I bet it will work in that too.
Edit the file cam.cfg in the main Thief directory using Notepad.
This MUST be done when Thief isn't running else it will ignore
it. Look down for the line starting 'gamma' with a value to the
right of it.
The top bright allowed by the game controls appears to be .5 (or
.5249999762 I saw sometimes).
The mid range appears to be about 1.
I didn't check the lowest dark value.
Change the gamma to below .5. Try .3 for a start. I tried right
down to .1 which was blinding white on my system.
The downside is that as soon as you touch the gamma adjust from
within the game - whether the +- keys or the slider bar in the
Options - the game reverts to the maximum .5. You might want to
disable the +- gamma keys in the Options/Customise controls.
Hope this works for you.
Wayne
appears to have cleared up my problem... So far I finished
the "Shipping and Receiving" level and I'm off to "Framed".
thanks again!
Adam Balcomb
I know the feeling, I've been running Metal Age on a PIII 600Mhz with the
ATI 128 card. I've noticed some improvement when combining the gamma
settings with Garetts own bionic (if you can call it that) eye setting.
If during gameplay you press the + or - keys, it opens and closes his eye
allowing more light in. Although the more you open his eye, the grainier
the picture gets. This might help you in those real "hard to see" areas.
Good Luck!!
Adam
Wayne wrote:
>
>
> I just installed Thief 2: The Metal age on my PC which is a 300MHz PII
> with an ATI Xpert@Play AGP (Rage Pro) with 4Meg RAM graphics card. As
> I started to play this game I noticed that the really shadowy areas of
> the screen remain completely black even after I crank the gamma all the
> way up! For instance, when I'm walking down the corridor in the first
> level all I see are the doors and the very end of the hallway. I do
> not see the hallway walls at all! The only time I have actually seen
> the walls is when I use a torch. Is this a problem with the graphics
> card driver or is the game supposed to be like this? Is there any
> other way to adjust the brightness of the really black portions of the
> screen (ie. editing the user.cfg file)? I'm using the latest graphics
> drivers as far as I can tell. Also, I have not had this problem with
> Thief 1, and it occurs in other resolutions. Please email me if you
> have suggestions! Thanks!
>
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.
--
Posted via CNET Help.com
http://www.help.com/
Kevin Goodsell
doesn't have a light adjustment.
-Kevin
Adam Balcomb wrote in message ...
tinyc...@my-deja.com
> >Wayne wrote:
> >>
> >> I just installed Thief 2: The Metal age on my PC which is a 300MHz
PII
> >> with an ATI Xpert@Play AGP (Rage Pro) with 4Meg RAM graphics card.
As
> >> I started to play this game I noticed that the really shadowy areas
of
> >> the screen remain completely black even after I crank the gamma all
the
> >> way up!
I'm having this problem as well - playing on a notebook with 800MHz
processor and 8Mb RAM. The graphics chip is an ATI Rage Mobility M.
The problem seems to be with my notebook's TFT screen rather than the
graphics drivers or anything. I know this because we connected the
notebook to a PC monitor and had a look at the graphics on that. You
could see into the shadows in a way that you can't on my notebook
screen.
Anyone seen this problem with notebooks before, or better still, got a
fix? I'm downloading the T2 patch just now, see if that makes a
difference.
Cheers,
Tiny
Kevin Goodsell
know. It is a known problem that can only really be fixed by opening the
missions in DromEd and relighting them with a higher setting for ambient
light. Some people seem to think that there's nothing wrong, so maybe some
hardware makes it bright enough, but for a lot of us there are plenty of
areas that are simply too dark to navigate without constantly using flares.
-Kevin
tinyc...@my-deja.com wrote in message <8m1i4d$69m$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
tinyc...@my-deja.com
"Kevin Goodsell" <good...@bridgernet.com> wrote:
> This doesn't have anything to do with any specific hardware, as far as
I
> know. It is a known problem that can only really be fixed by opening
the
> missions in DromEd and relighting them with a higher setting for
ambient
> light. Some people seem to think that there's nothing wrong, so maybe
some
> hardware makes it bright enough, but for a lot of us there are plenty
of
> areas that are simply too dark to navigate without constantly using
flares.
>
Sorry, I think my brain was back in its jar when I wrote my previous
post :( Ignore what I wrote about it being a TFT screen problem. That
just exacerbated the existing problem:
The real problem here (with ATI Rage Mobility graphics card on notebook
computer) is not that the shadows are too dark - you can make them paler
by turning up the gamma - but that they lack any gradation - that is,
any area that is at all in shadow is *pitch*black* - "No visible
texture" says bf helpfully over my shoulder.
Turning up the gamma makes this a paler darkness but does not improve
actual visibility and does not introduce any kind of texture.
We know this is specific to my notebook because it runs OK on the PC.
Bf has also just installed Deux Ex demo and says something similar seems
to be happening occasionally with that (runs fine on PC, as does T2).
My notebook manufacturer's website doesn't seem to have any pointers and
ATI don't support notebook graphics drivers, leaving that to the
notebook manufacturers. Grr.
David Byron
>The real problem here (with ATI Rage Mobility graphics card on notebook
>computer) is not that the shadows are too dark - you can make them paler
>by turning up the gamma - but that they lack any gradation - that is,
For lots of information about the problem of dark, undifferentiated
shadows in Thief II (on some hardware and in some missions), see the
thread at http://www.ttlg.com/forums/ubb/Forum15/HTML/002625.html
Cheers,
David Byron
david...@yale.edu