GWX3G - Is it normal to experience this level of darkness?I mean ZERO visibility!

[Paul Riley]

I know this has been explained before,and I know the nights are meant to be darker in GWX3G,but is it normal to be that dark you cant even see any of your watch crew?,I mean I cant see ANYTHING,vis is zero!.All I can see is the lightning strikes.Weather is overcast mind you,and rain looks imminent.Starts getting noticably lighter about 04:00 (northern Europe)

This has forced me to submerge to avoid any collisions (again,I have been told the Watch Officer should do his job and warn me),then to surface again due to dangerously shallow water (NW tip of Germany,just south of Norway),10km off the coast.

The same goes for underwater,its totally black.I would have liked to have at least SOME visibility,like in stock SH3,but I appreciate what the GWX team have tried to do here,and that is make things much harder and more demanding about decision making.

Thanks for any info here :up:

NOTE: Initially I was thinking a conflict with my AGP card (Sapphire ATI X800 Pro 256MB),but its looking doubtful.Latest drivers are installed.

[Paul Riley]

I know UBoats carried lights in order to communicate with other UBoats or friendly/neutral ships,but could they have used them as sort of navigational/safety aid?,during such dark nights?

Probably not,as their location would then be discovered.Still...

[KeptinCranky]

I used to have an ATI x800 card, and yes the nights were very very dark, exactly as you described in fact, this works as intended (sort of) but does make things fiendishly difficult at times. :shifty:

I didn't really find a solution except tweak the brightness and gamma a little, eventually i switched to an Nvidia (temporarily) and the problem went away.

Now that I have an ati 4870 I also don't have the extremely dark nights anymore,

sorry mate, but I don;t think there's an easy fix

[mookiemookie]

It can get pretty dark in GWX, but that's pretty close to what it's like being on a boat in the middle of the ocean on a moonless night.

You may want to fiddle with the contrast/brightness settings on your video card and monitor to see if that helps. If not, I do recall some mods being made that lightened things up, but those were for GWX 2.1 and I'm not sure if they're compatible with 3.0.

As far as making underwater visibility better, if you really want to, you can adjust the water clarity in SH3 Commander's options screen under "gameplay settings"

Good luck.

[mookiemookie]

I know UBoats carried lights in order to communicate with other UBoats or friendly/neutral ships,but could they have used them as sort of navigational/safety aid?,during such dark nights?

Probably not,as their location would then be discovered.Still...

Doubtful. I've heard that crews of merchant ships were not allowed to smoke on deck at night for fear of the lit cherry on their cigarette betraying their position. A U-boat, or merchant ship for that matter, using their navigational lights would have been like saying "Here I am! Come torpedo me!"

[Paul Riley]

Yes,just as I thought :shucks:

[lafeeverted]

the only way i could fix the night visibility issue was to disable the 16k Atmosphere mod, you could try that as well.

[sharkbit]

I used to have an ATI x800 card, and yes the nights were very very dark, exactly as you described in fact, this works as intended (sort of) but does make things fiendishly difficult at times. :shifty:

I didn't really find a solution except tweak the brightness and gamma a little, eventually i switched to an Nvidia (temporarily) and the problem went away.

Now that I have an ati 4870 I also don't have the extremely dark nights anymore,

sorry mate, but I don;t think there's an easy fix

On my previous computer, I had an ATI card and the nights were very dark, but I felt it was realistic. I could start making shapes of my targets out at a couple thousand meters although identifying flags could be a problem. I tweeked the brightness and it was pretty bearable.

My new rig has a NVIDIA card and it is not near as dark. Sometimes I think it may be too light now. I don't have to touch my nose to the screen to see anything now, especially when trying to identify flags.
:)

[Jimbuna]

Try putting the SS back into the ammo CFG and have your crew fire one every couple of minutes http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/eviljester2.gif

[Paul Riley]

i'm hoping its not related to ATI cards,I mean sometimes it is impossible to make anything out,even with my face close to the monitor.

I tried disabling the 16k atmosphere and reverted back,the graphics were awful without it,cameras were all screwed,the sky and sea looked terrible with no detail,and it looked TOO bright also,not as moody looking.

I guess it is normal after all,and I will get used to it.

[Paul Riley]

All in all,no further problems yet,no more CTDs,no corrupt saves (apart from missing save,putting an x cured that),no graphical problems (other than this issue,which seems normal),and just a few performance issues when close to ports,which everyone will probably experience.

[Jimbuna]

What monitor are you using Paul?

Personally speaking mine is a 22" flatscreen and whilst it's dark, it's never pitch black :hmmm:

http://www.new-monitors.co.uk/fulldetail.asp?ID=253

[RoaldLarsen]

A couple of thoughts about visibility at night:

1) The amount of available light on a clear moonless night is a couple of orders of magnitude greater than on a completely overcast night. The amount of available light on a clear night with a full moon is at least a couple of more orders of magnitude greater. It is possible to see a large ship at a few hundred metres in starlight, but not in overcast conditions, partly because of the starlight illuminating the target but also because the target will block out stars near the horizon and will therefore appear as a shadow. Too many people in various threads have treated the issue of moon / no moon as the only significant factor in whether things should be visible. Overcast / no overcast is also signifcant.

2) Lights on your own boat make it harder for you to see things far away, not easier, because they have a much greater effect on your pupil than on illuminating a target.

[Paul Riley]

What monitor are you using Paul?

Personally speaking mine is a 22" flatscreen and whilst it's dark, it's never pitch black :hmmm:

http://www.new-monitors.co.uk/fulldetail.asp?ID=253

Good question jim,

While I built a good PC about 8yrs ago (with numerous upgrades over the years),I still have my old 17" 'Tiny' CRT monitor (getting a 19-20" Viewsonic LCD in the near future).Its not a bad monitor,brightness and contrast have been tweaked to optimal levels,and colour temp is also set to optimal levels.Some monitors are darker than others,and unless this is normal behaviour in the game,it could be the case with my monitor,yet in all my other games (I have well over 100) brightness is at the correct level.
The way I configure my contrast and brightness is to -

1. Contrast
Adjust contrast to maximum,then find an object or screen that should be white in the game,a sheet of paper is ideal.Then lower contrast until the object isnt as glaring but still produces the correct 'white' ,and not washed out white/grey effect.White should be white,and not a blinding white.
Result = contrast set at 90%

2. Brightness
I find an area dominated by shadows,if possible.Then,lower brightness until you can see no detail at all in the shadow,and the shadow is a black mass.Then,raise brightness slightly each time until detail JUST becomes visible,but only just.This is the correct method for tweaking your brightness.
Result = brightness set at 89%

So,I know my monitor is tweaked to optimal levels.I must also mention as Roald mentioned,there are no stars AT ALL on this particular night,so actually,it may be normal to experience no illumination whatsoever.Its very cloudy,and the clouds have just broke too.

NOTE: Tiny went bankrupt a few years ago.I am not surprised,their PCs were s**t,forcing me to learn how to build and repair my own,and for a living.

Thanks.

[onelifecrisis]

Paul, you may be interested in this (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=151733).

[Paul Riley]

Thanks OLC,

I tried the callibration you sent me,contrast maxed out,brightness all the way down.Increased brightness to 95%,this the level I can just see a difference in the first 2 black boxes.The result is a poor washed out screen,with black looking more like a dirty thinned out grey,and white is too dazzling.My previous 89% is about as perfect as I can get it,without losing detail in shadows.I actually got my method of callibration from the readme of an old game of mine,Thief Deadly Shadows,which is virtually all played in shadow.

It appears all monitors clearly have differing black and white points,and you would expect different,sometimes extreme results.Interesting though about the Gamma correction.

And,would you recommend a 100% contrast?,as it makes bright objects very dazzling,sometimes blurring out the true 'white' effect.

I will play around a bit more yet :yep:

[Pisces]

Also, if you have bright user-interface elements in your view your eyes accomodate to include that level of brightness. The same goes for your immediate computing environment, playing in daylight ruins your perception of dark silhouettes (sp??). I often play in a dark room with true red light (battery powered LED) to allow me to see my keyboard. :) You could disable the message panel (numeric pad Del/point button) if you are in bridgeview (F4). And avoid switching to the map or use the fairly white course compass of GWX. But if you use views like the periscopes/UZO with bright interface elements then you may need to customize (mod) the brightness of certain game graphic files with an editor. But that is easier said than done. Or just use a mod that allready is a 'dark'-mod, like OLCs GUI(special).

In regards to your 'white contrast' solution and seeing things in the dark. Forget that! If seeing dark things in Sh3 is a priority you don't want ANY white, but rather grey. (but other uses ofcourse you do, so try to find a way to change color/brightness profiles easily in your videocard settings) Make contrast as low as possible and increase brightness until you start to see something in the darkness. Test it using a screendump where you know your crew spotted something. (to not be cheating in relation to your crew)

[melnibonian]

Paul, you may be interested in this (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=151733).

OLC. Do we have something similar for LCDs?

[onelifecrisis]

OLC. Do we have something similar for LCDs?

I'm not sure. My (limited) experience with LCDs is enough to know that what one LCD calls "50% contrast" is not the same as another, and they even have different methods of adjusting contrast. I mean some of them "cheat" by doing a sort of software-level contrast adjustment which causes all the bright colours on the screen to white-out. Kind of hard to explain, especially as I'm not entirely sure I know what I'm talking about. I think Danlisa knows more about this sort of thing, maybe he can give a more definitive answer...

[melnibonian]

I'm not sure. My (limited) experience with LCDs is enough to know that what one LCD calls "50% contrast" is not the same as another, and they even have different methods of adjusting contrast. I mean some of them "cheat" by doing a sort of software-level contrast adjustment which causes all the bright colours on the screen to white-out. Kind of hard to explain, especially as I'm not entirely sure I know what I'm talking about. I think Danlisa knows more about this sort of thing, maybe he can give a more definitive answer...
Thanks a lot for the answer mate. I really appreciate it :yep::up:

[onelifecrisis]

No bother. :up:

[kuchciol]

I'm having something of an opposite issue. It seems things are not dark enough for me. Is it normal that at midnight, full cloud cover and heavy rain I can see everything? Things are sort of greyish looking more like dusk than night and it never gets any darker. I'm around the Bay of Biscay so the white nights are not the case.

[onelifecrisis]

I'm having something of an opposite issue. It seems things are not dark enough for me. Is it normal that at midnight, full cloud cover and heavy rain I can see everything? Things are sort of greyish looking more like dusk than night and it never gets any darker. I'm around the Bay of Biscay so the white nights are not the case.

It all depends on what mods you've got installed.

[KeybdFlyer]

Monitor calibration is pretty-much essential, though a royal pain in the backside to do (unless you want to lay out hard cash for a calibration tool). I do a fair amount of product photography and more than half of the complaints regarding colour mis-matches are due entirely to client monitors being uncalibrated. It can take a little while to do, though if you have an nVidia card you should have some software on the support CD that can run you through a Wizard to set the monitor fairly well (maybe ATI has similar as well). The end result can be an eye-opener though - well worth spending the time to do.

[John O]

Try putting the SS back into the ammo CFG and have your crew fire one every couple of minutes http://www.psionguild.org/forums/images/smilies/wolfsmilies/eviljester2.gif

I'm one of the few that liked the Star Shell in the locker. I know it was not realistic but it was convienent to light up a lone target on a dark night for gun action. I haven't tried lately with the new GWX but can it be done? In the past I could get star shells added to the locker but could not load them in the deck gun. Any Ideas?

[RoaldLarsen]

I'm one of the few that liked the Star Shell in the locker. I know it was not realistic...


Don't know why you think having star shells on board is not realistic. GWX designers didn't put SS in their mod because they couldn't find any reference to any boats carrying them. However, several months ago a few references were cited in this forum, of subs carrying SS IRL. So, some boats had SS on board on some trips, others did not. We don't have enough data to say much more regarding timelines or frequency.

Different boats used different loads. Some carried only AA shells for their deck gun. Some carried AP or SAP. Most had some HE.

Sorry, cannot help re shells in lockers not being loadable.

[USS Rustbucket]

I also need some guidence in this area. Night time even under cloudless full moon calm sea is almost completely black. I can see the stars the moon, but as for ships not a chance. I can bearly make out the silloutte of the bridge crew. This makes for night time engagements almost imposible.


I'm guessing this is a graphics card issue. I'm running with the ATI x1900. Is it possible to adjust the video card brightness settings some how?