Brightness/contrast

Gryphin · #1 April 2nd, 2002, 02:58 AM

I do have bad color vision and do reconize the problems you mention.
I would like to see MM let us change the background colors from inside the program. I wonder if it is possible to change the background file or is it hard coded? I belive the main maps can be modded.
I would like to see:
The text on the Resources screen changed to white and put at 10pts Courior New, (or other non profortional font). This would help the colums of number line up.
Meanwhile I keep al; magnifying glass at my computer and have removed ship sets that are too difficult to see.

geoschmo · #2 April 1st, 2002, 03:14 PM

Sallegans are another tough one. Not so much because of the brightness, but because the ships are so darn small. Some of the early ones just look like the stars in the background. Very frustrating.

Of course it could just be that we are all so addicted to this game that our eyes are going bad from staring at the monitor.

Geoschmo

Baron Munchausen · #3 April 1st, 2002, 06:07 PM

quote:
Originally posted by geoschmo:
Sallegans are another tough one. Not so much because of the brightness, but because the ships are so darn small. Some of the early ones just look like the stars in the background. Very frustrating.

Of course it could just be that we are all so addicted to this game that our eyes are going bad from staring at the monitor.

Geoschmo

The Piundon, Praetorian, Terran, and Sallega shipsets were all done by the same artist -- Tim McElwaine. He admitted that they were produced to MM's specs before the game was actually ready to test them. So, he had no idea how they would actually look in game play and had gone on to other things by the time the game was available for beta testing. Most of the other sets were tested in the game and modified to look better. Last year he posted to the SE4 discussion group that he was re-rendering his shipsets to look better but that MM would have to release the modified graphics since they owned the rights. I've been pestering MM for the improved graphics ever since but have not had the slightest reply.

You'd think that SE IV GOLD would be the perfect opportunity to use improvements like this, too. Has anyone compared the graphics on the gold disk to the originals?

[ 01 April 2002: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Bman · #4 April 1st, 2002, 06:33 PM

I've gone as far as editting the graphics for those ships and putting a big red square around them so that they can't sneak up on me in a game. I've wondered if anyone has used the dirty tactic of creating "invisible" ships and using them on PBW?

Gryphin · #5 April 1st, 2002, 06:37 PM

Brman,
Um, not that I ever would but now that you have brought it up, How do you do that?
< image Inocent Smile >

geoschmo · #6 April 1st, 2002, 06:59 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
You'd think that SE IV GOLD would be the perfect opportunity to use improvements like this, too. Has anyone compared the graphics on the gold disk to the originals?

I did a quick check and the Sallgan escort at least still blends in to the background. Almost invisible unless there is more than one, in which case the empire flag appears. Perhaps this would be the fix, simply make the empire flag appear for all single ships like it does for multiple ships.

Of course if someone pulled a nasty trick like having an empire flag that was black with a couple stars on it...

Geoschmo

Bman · #7 April 1st, 2002, 08:15 PM

Well, you'd have to ask a ship designer to be sure, but I think if you make the small Version of the ship as an empty black square (i.e. don't really draw anything) then the ship will be invisible on the game screen. Then the only time you could find it is if you clicked on the sector the ship was in, then it would show up in the ship info panel. The ship would also appear if it was over a planet or warppoint. If you also (as geo mentioned) made the empire flag all black then the ship would even not be visible in these instances and then the only way to find it was to randomly click in sectors to try and locate it. As a player, once you discovered someone was doing this to you, you could either (a) remove that shipset from your computer then the game would use a random ship picture so you could see it. or (b) go edit the shipset and put red boxes or something in each picture to make them visible.

quote:
Originally posted by Gryphin:
Brman,
Um, not that I ever would but now that you have brought it up, How do you do that?
< image Inocent Smile >