It is very dark... in space...

[PvK]

Is it just me, or is it hard to clearly see some aspects of the tactical display?

I find that I can't really see the part of a map that is outside immediate line of sight but known from prior exploration, unless I play in a dark room, or use my video card settings to set gamma correction +2 (which makes other windows washed out).

[ibol]

Hi, PvK,
There have been mentions of the difficulty of being able to tell whether something is see, known, or unexplored.
in the next version, I've introduced a setting for "high contrast unexplored", which brightens up the unexplored areas.

but what you seem to be saying is you have trouble telling "seen" from "known but not seen".

I will look into that, but I wonder how to make it distinct, while showing you what's underneath, and still implying that you can't actually see it right now.

So many problems come from the fact that I work in a dark room on a small screen. Everything looks fine to me... But I hear you.

[PvK]

I've looked closer at this.

I can see it fine with gamma set to +2 or so. Nothing in Approaching Infinity really looks too bright with gamma +2, and even the text is slightly easier to read, for me.

However with normal gamma in a lit room, most things are actually ok. The things I know but are out of immediate sight are dim but visible. What is not visible, and almost impossible to distinguish, are the fog of war blues - both the blue grid showing "unknown" and the opaque solid blue for "once seen but not now" are both almost impossible for me to tell from the black of "space that's in view". So just brightening those two blue images might do it for me just as well.

[Kazeto]

I don't really have any problems with seeing anything as far as the tactical display goes, and I play with the default settings. So that one is probably hardware- and environment-dependent.

Though a high-contrast setting for that still would be nice to have, I admit.

[ibol]

here is a sample of the OLD method (left) vs. the NEW option (right):


I brightened the "unexplored" , and gave the "unseen" some texture. we'll see what the beta group thinks.

[PvK]

That example makes the unexplored areas go from almost-invisible to clearly visible, to me.

However I still can't see the "known but not currently seen" areas until I jack up my gamma settings.

[Kazeto]

Hmm ... how about making an outline for the currently visible area, then? Mayhap a bright blue one, since that appears to be a somewhat visible colour. I presume it to be somewhat possible to do (well, possible it is, it's the feasibility of it that might or might not be an issue) and that should be enough to get rid of PvK's problem.

[Rich]

I'll add my 2 cents. Yes, the seen area is dark, so much so it's difficult to find discovered planets. Even the discovered area seems dark. Funny, I was playing the demo a few days ago and I don't recall this problem.

[PvK]

The new High Contrast Unexplored option in version 1.20 seems to solve this for me. Thanks!

(Actually, I should re-test this in a brighter room, to make sure.)

[PvK]

Ok, it's still a bit subtle when there's sun outside, but it's a big improvement.