Lightening the Map

[Formaldehyde]

I am trying to figure out what image files are loaded to create the dark areas on the map (shadows of clouds?).  Is this controlled by code, or are specific DDS files being loaded?

See the attached picture to see what I'm writing about.  The middle and left of the picture are very dark.  These are the areas that I would like to lighten by about 30-50% 

[Ras]

You're tackling the problem from the wrong angle. You don't need to mod the image files, you need to raise your gamma.
Try 1.4 for 3D applications. My game looked like your screenshots before and now it's way lighter.

[Formaldehyde]

My monitor is perfectly fine as it is.   The darkness of the game, however I would like to fix.

[Regiment 0]

I don't know - increasing the gamma is a brute force method that is going to have an impact on the range of contrast.

Are you sure this is caused by shadow casting on the ground? It seems like it would be a resource-heavy way to do it.

Maybe instead the ground textures could be lightened slightly, although this is obviously going to be a bigger job.

[Formaldehyde]

I'm up to the job, if it's fixable by editing the graphics files.  I've already got some good looking trees modded up, so I want to lively up the ground now.

[Ras]

My monitor is perfectly fine as it is.   The darkness of the game, however I would like to fix.

I'm certain your monitor is fine. Mine is too. Mine is adjusted for photo manipulation. That's difficult and has to be precise.
However, for this game I had too adjust my gamma value or it would be too dark. I did that in the control panel of my graphics card and only for 3D applications.

I don't know - increasing the gamma is a brute force method that is going to have an impact on the range of contrast.
Are you sure this is caused by shadow casting on the ground? It seems like it would be a resource-heavy way to do it.
Maybe instead the ground textures could be lightened slightly, although this is obviously going to be a bigger job.

Of course the contrast is also affected. Well, you can also adjust contrast in the control panel.
But you're saying it may be resource heavy and that concerns me.

[Ras]

BTW, I saw those ground textures in dds files somewhere. Just browse through them and you'll find them.

[Formaldehyde]

I have found most of the ground textures and will be mucking about with them shortly, but there are no obvious candidates for the cause.

Photography is the reason I leave my monitor as is as well.  I know about programs for saving custom monitor calibration settings, but it's obviously a question of taste by the designers to have the game as dark as it is.  My taste differs, so I am amending to suit. 

[Ras]

It seems like it would be a resource-heavy way to do it.

Yes it is.  
I wouldn't have thought it would make such a difference. I first turned it down a notch and didn't notice anything. Then, I turned it off completely. Meaning no raised gamma. Or 1.0.
Then I realised a big difference. Much more fluid movements.
Well, now it's too dark again and I've to adjust the monitor. Which sucks.

The files are in \HistWar\Graphics\T_Base

Ras

[Regiment 0]

Well, you can also adjust contrast in the control panel.
But you're saying it may be resource heavy and that concerns me.

Just to be clear, my comment about being resource heavy didn't apply to changing the gamma. I meant that if the darkness on the ground was caused by in-game shadows being cast, then the casting of those shadows would be resource heavy, or at least I would guess so.

You can of course also change the contrast on the monitor, but by increasing the gamma I believe you are changing the 'range' of values that you can play with.

Now quite why you are noticing a slow down when you change the gamma I don't know. It sounds bizarre that it would do that.

[Ras]

My taste differs, so I am amending to suit. 

Iirc, a lot of people have complained that it's too dark.

Just to be clear, my comment about being resource heavy didn't apply to changing the gamma. [..]
Now quite why you are noticing a slow down when you change the gamma I don't know. It sounds bizarre that it would do that.

Heh, okay. It didn't occur to me that it could have an influence on performance to raise the gamma. Until I misunderstood you.
But I clearly saw a performance increase after turning it off.

[Formaldehyde]

I think what is happening is that the game layers the ground textures, which gives a nice variety- but becomes problematic when a dark texture (or textures) is layered over the main grass texture. 

So in essence, this seems to be a coded thing.  If I were to change out the darker textures to be lighter we lose density in those textures.  Not sure if it's possible, but I will think about this one.

[Broadsword]

I have found most of the ground textures and will be mucking about with them shortly, but there are no obvious candidates for the cause.

I'm excited about your project, Formaldehyde! I also like to play with ground textures in other games, and use Paintshop Pro to improve custom maps, etc. Here's one candidate for a texture mod:

Let's say you want to make a wintertime custom map, and you want the look of snow on the ground, but you don't want the constant snowflakes and blizzard-like conditions of the the LG "snow" weather effect and you don't want the streams/ponds to be automatically frozen. Could we have a "snowy" ground texture that has mottled snow and mud, etc., and then be able to use it on maps where we set the weather to "fog" or something else. This would be excellent for 1812 campaigns in Russia, and also for 1814 battles in France.

[Formaldehyde]

Broadsword-  Good idea.  I think that the code that decides what textures to load up is not mod-able  (as far as I can tell), though.  So if the snow textures were modded, they would be the default snow textures for any winter map.  That may not be a bad thing if it's subtle enough.

[Fusilier]

I don’t know if this is any use but Hook posted the address of this little gizmo on another thread a while ago.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/Gamma_Panel_d2796.html