Lighting and you

[ECC 508]

Another one of my 'before we begin' things: First, this would probs do better as a standalone mod(excluding necessary forge/optifine integration/use). Second, this is only about how universal lighting works(its basically automatically sliding the brightness bar). It does not effect light sources, potions(directly), or anything other then your Gamma option in options.txt and your options menu.

I am a hardcore player. Like seriously, I play for keeps, make big talk, all that jazz. Good reason for it too: I am level 88(thats a lot of extra HP. 25 hp per) on my server, obtained though a lot of dead mobs and a lot of metal. I have never died on this map. Wont lie, there have been close calls, far too many for me to list. Bioxx did right by the death mechanic: I didnt want to die already, but now I have a reason to go and take risks as I get stronger every time I come out alive. I know I can loose it all, I know shit can go wrong, I know that eventually I wont pay attention and find myself grabbed by a horde and added to the monsters. but thats what I like. I know I am too powerful to be properly challenged. I know that no matter what I do I will survive because I mastered nature. I worked hard for what I got, but that was not enough. So, I figured out how to make the night something even I have to worry about. I got into my options.txt file and turned my gamma down to -.5. This, as you can imagine, is quite dark when in a mine. Not as dark as I could go, as I believe -.7 is pitch black, but I am not going to brutally suicide quite yet, waiting to get level 100 before I do that

now, thats a lot of flavor text, so if your reading by now your probs wondering two things: what the hell am I going on about and how the hell did you get so much xp? The latter is easy: Farm morning mobs, get to about lvl 25, challenge the night and never forget the golden rule: Run.

First one however is the idea inspired by setting myself up to fail. A mod/addition to TFC(either version.) that forces the client to a below average gamma, locks the option to turn up the brightness, then... adds in eye adaptation. Yes, eye adaptation, or the process where the eye adjusts how much light the eye can receive. Irl, humans and other beings eyes will adjust with light values. The higher the value, the less light the eyes allow in, the lower, the more. this does not occur instantly... usually. What I am saying is that if a user where to go into a dark room that their eyes would adjust the brightness so the player can see in even a unlit cave. a bit unrealistic on that point, but understand this is a game. the brightness would slowly move up or down depending on how much light they have at eye level and possibly if they are facing a light source or not. going from full night adaptation to daylight would cause a 'blinded' effect where the brightness flashes to one extreme. this effect lasts for a period of time. This works on the other end as well, though its less about throwing the bar to the extreme and more to kicking in night adaptation. This isnt entirely medically accurate, but this is the game mechanics as I see em:

In darkness: brightness slides up to defined max

In light: brightness slides down to defined min

Sharp change from dark to light: Bar slides up(if possible) and rapidly slides down over a small duration.

Standing still in darkness slides up brightness faster.

walking in darkness slides brightness normally

Sprinting in darkness slides brightness slow

speed/slowness potion effects do not effect this(pvp benefit)

Nightvision extends 'blinded' effect as well as reduces time to adapt to night

[Menoch 335]

Words.... stuff..

I really like this idea. I see where you are going with this, but would the coding be as simple as it may seem?

understandably it would only involve light scaling via the gamma visual control, but the coding involved for sensing when a character leaves from darkness to light and visa versa... it might work using the light level the character is currently on, factored by surrounding "block" light levels, but how resource heavy would this be I wonder. I envision the game engine trying to make all of these additional tweaks just for lighting and causing horriffic lag. :/

I really like the idea It adds ambience and visual flare... literally.

[Srgnoodles 1,030]

yeah this would be definitely a gread feature to add, i can see coming out of a cave into the light after a long mining trip, and being dazzled by the sunlight

but there is a point at which, no matter how long you stand there, you won't be able to see if there's conplete and total darkness so caves and stuff like that are likely to be that way

also, how about if you look right at the sun it will make the brightness go to the minimum imediately after

[ECC 508]

'coding be as simple as it may seem?'

nearly all the code for this exists in vanilla EXCEPT detecting the light level on the player for anything other then rendering. Or so I understand.The hardest part of this is deciding the values behind it. This is assuming I am right, I really have not looked into any decompiles other then Tale of Kingdoms way back when I was on the team. If you were to look into matamos, which btw seems to function very well despite constantly looking around the player, I am sure any gaps can be filled with what is learned from its respective decompile

'but there is a point at which, no matter how long you stand there, you won't be able to see if there's [complete] and total darkness so caves and stuff like that are likely to be that way'

I know this and did mention it(in other words). My reasoning for allowing any sight in such situations lay with two factors: Gameplay, and the impossibility for 'dim' lighting in minecraft. Quite literally you cant light a house with a single candle quite like you can irl. Things are very limited and so sacrifices are made for the ideal of gameplay.

OT:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation

With a small stretch of the mind, we can say you are using that in pitch black. Idk, if you wanna talk about this go to the IRC.

[Biodigious 211]

What about peripheral vision at night?

[FatPoulet 24]

I am all about making minecraft more challenging. That is how I found about TFC. I am delighted to find a companion here who wishes the same about our adventures: make the game harder in a believable and understandable way.

I made a big ass post in the minecraftforums a long time ago in the mod parts "Making the game more challenging" and I had listed quite a few ideas that might be just right for TFC instead. Like heating up when near lava and gradually take heat damage, oxygen meter when exploring deep caves (a bit hardcore but you know... ) and random mob squads spawn that chases you until their final demise.

When I read your post ECC it all came back to me. I think we have the same ideology!

[ECC 508]

'What about peripheral vision at night?'

Unless you have a screen that covers 32 degrees of a sphere, there is no way this can be a thing. Your vision is highly limited due to the limitations of your hardware.

[Biodigious 211]

Unless you have a screen that covers 32 degrees of a sphere, there is no way this can be a thing. Your vision is highly limited due to the limitations of your hardware.

What does the FOV of the monitor have to do with anything? Unable to think of a simple solution, like using a reverse vignette to simulate peripheral vision at night? But since, according to you, that's impossible, how would your suggestions be even remotely possible?

[ECC 508]

Unless I have my English wrong, peripheral vision is what is seen at the 'edges' of your sight. things your not looking directly at. There is nothing that can be simulated within minecraft that goes to that particular degree as your peripheral vision is mechanically forced down to if your lucky, 8-10 degrees(Rough guess at value).

in any case, even if hardware supported full vision, your natural eyes would account for this on their own

[killster550 401]

actually a texture pack or version of optifine or just vid editing that spumwack uses make hi peripheral vision blacked out, to simulate the looking through a telescope and if you game on a small enough screen, you see everything (most shooter gamers that are a grade above the average player (le moi) use smaller screens for their competitions