Author Topic: Am I the only person who thinks that most video games' lighting is too dark? (Read 2247 times)

HellHound · September 19, 2017, 12:19:30 AM

I dunno if it's just me, but I've found that most video games' recommended brightness setting is much too dark, especially for horror games. What's even the point in it, not being able to see anything in front of you?

EDIT: Made the title a little more clear.

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Dreams_Of_Cheese · September 19, 2017, 12:25:06 AM

I feel that. A lot of them want you to make it so you can't see anything at all with the calibration settings. It's really bad when the game doesn't have a flashlight like Dishonored.

HellHound · September 19, 2017, 12:28:17 AM

Exactly. The "recommended" brightness setting is always several times too dark. Turning it up until you can actually see anything makes the whole game look disgusting and washed out, which is also awful.

Shift Kitty · September 19, 2017, 12:29:01 AM

I'm not entirely sure but I think it might be that they're targeting that text towards people who wouldn't notice differences that we personally notice.
The problem with that is that the people who wouldn't notice the difference are usually mashing "Next", and us people that do notice are confused on why we need to set it to the absolute minimum setting.

Though the only game I've ever played that made me feel like I needed to obey it was Styx. It has some mechanics involving lighting and I felt like one of the abilities (being able to highlight things in the dark) was completely useless as I could see everything anyway. I turned the brightness down so that I couldn't see well in the shadows and that improved my immersion and gameplay experience in the game.

phflack · September 19, 2017, 01:46:13 AM

it does tend to be a bit dark, but I also have my monitor at a dark setting
if it's so bad that I can't actually see anything, normally I can just turn up my monitors brightness instead

also, don't remove the darkness in portal
it looks really bad without it
https://youtu.be/rAdtBksh31s?t=3m48s

hillkill · September 19, 2017, 11:58:26 AM

it's hard to make a definite default brightness setting because all monitors are different. what appears bright on one monitor might appear dark on another one.

Tactical Nuke · September 19, 2017, 01:58:32 PM

I know that some horror games will purposely turn down lighting to make you more scared

btw if you turn up lighting in horror games you're a pusillanimous individual

HellHound · September 19, 2017, 02:08:24 PM

Quote from: Tactical Nuke on September 19, 2017, 01:58:32 PM

I know that some horror games will purposely turn down lighting to make you more scared

btw if you turn up lighting in horror games you're a pusillanimous individual

not if i want to loving SEE ANYTHING.

TheABELBOTO · September 19, 2017, 02:29:32 PM

I notice a lot of games are using tonemapping that makes everything dark and it's really annoying because I've seen games pull it off without turning everything into a mess.

Shift Kitty · September 19, 2017, 03:13:38 PM

Quote from: HellHound on September 19, 2017, 02:08:24 PM

not if i want to loving SEE ANYTHING.

stop being a BITCH

K�tt · September 19, 2017, 03:16:22 PM

Quote from: HellHound on September 19, 2017, 02:08:24 PM

not if i want to loving SEE ANYTHING.

DAMN HOW TIGHT IS YOUR pusillanimous individual!!!!

crazy54311 · September 19, 2017, 05:14:10 PM

Quote from: Tactical Nuke on September 19, 2017, 01:58:32 PM

I know that some horror games will purposely turn down lighting to make you more scared

btw if you turn up lighting in horror games you're a pusillanimous individual

real brothers turn the lighting down to as low as it gets in horror games

Ayxrion · September 19, 2017, 06:00:12 PM

skyrim is a great example of it being too dark, but at the same time it has that "medieval" feel and i see why it is dark.

Tudoreleu · September 20, 2017, 08:50:32 AM

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/49472/?

mods like these piss me off

no i don't like my games dark i like being able to see where the forget i'm going please

Rally · September 20, 2017, 08:56:50 AM

I like extreme darkness in games for the immersion but only if the game offers competent mechanics to balance it, like flashlights or nightvision like in Amnesia