The missuse of INF286Glowfix

[Cleeus[JgKdo]]

Hi all!

I have to admit that i don't play very often on NA servers, but i noticed that Odie is running the INF286Glowfix mutator from Stinkmarder.

The pupose of this mutator was to reduce the AmbientGlow value of INF286's player model which made models pretty bright even in pitch black shadows. Back then in 2.86 the AmbientGlow value was 17

During the 2.86 Betatesting this issue was adressed by JgKdo and 121st betatesters. The betateam and the developers tested alot and found a value of 4 to be the best fitting value. You are nearly invisible in pitch black areas (the way it has to be due to RL reasons) and there aren't those black-body bugs that sometimes occure when you only partly are in a region with low lighting.

I have a few questions:
1) Why do you want to change that setting?
2) What setting do you use?
3) If the setting is a higher value then 4: How do you want to explain this self-illumination effect? (radioactivity? )

 

[NTKB]

Because we dont worry about campers. If the mapper felt it was dark enough to be hidden in complete blackness in that area then you should be able to hide appropiately. Besides, its not like you got money going on the outcome of the game. Its just a round in a map you got gayed, not like it happens every freiken round.

 

[Derelan]

I think he's asking, why are you changing a value that is set by default in 2.9?

 

[Cleeus[JgKdo]]

A setting of something <4 would be OK, but something >4 would be ... well ... not my style

But I just don't see a neccessity and am just curious what setting you are using.

 

[geogob]

The answer to that Derelan is pretty obvious... because models still glow too much in inf 2.9 (to our tast anyway).

 

[NTKB]

Yes, you see, the shadows that you really really want to hide in, tehy are usuaully pretty large black voids. So even if you glow a tiny tiny bit and you can see some pixels, you are not hidden. Its like you are out in the open anyway. So with the complete darkness setting on, you are invisible to the naked eye as yuou should be. Besides, when clearing areas with lots of shadows you should have the following:

1> Flashlight
2> Lots of nades

 

[yurch]

3> Better maps without unrealistic complete pitch-black darkness.

 

[{GD}Odie3]

I was asked not long ago about the ini file setting. I am not aware of this ini file nor can I find it in my in my system directory.

So, I can only assume it is using whatever the defaule vaule is.

For an exmaple - LondonCity in the vents. Without GlowFix you can see the player [since he Glows] with GlowFix you can not see him.

 

[NTKB]

What is wrong with complete pitch blackness? For instance, in the map me and my brother are making now, there is a mine area. Inside the mine many shafts are pitch black, either bring a flashlight or go around. I do agree though... Yurch is right when he mentions better mapping is in order, but lets also not disrespect the mappers vision by adding mutators you can see people where the mapper didnt intend. (it IS called glowFIX after all).

 

[geogob]

I don't think it is unrealistic yurch... in the room I am currently in, you can trust me on that, if I turn of the lights, I will not be able to see my hands at 5 inches in front of my face. Even less someone laying prone in one corner of the room.

Now I agree that some maps have areas of "total darkenss" in place where it shouldn't. But that doesn't justify an unrealisitc balancing player glow. That would be nothing more thant a dirty hack to fix a map design problem.

The solution is really on the mapping side. Then again, no one except a few are still actively mapping for Infiltration.

Suggestion:
Maybe some mappers could take the job to update some popular INF maps to fix this kind of lighting issues (without changing the geometry to avoid BSP crap). At the same time, objectives could be revised to make more dynamic EAS games.

 

[asmodeus]

What is wrong with complete pitch blackness? For instance, in the map me and my brother are making now, there is a mine area. Inside the mine many shafts are pitch black, either bring a flashlight or go around. I do agree though... Yurch is right when he mentions better mapping is in order, but lets also not disrespect the mappers vision by adding mutators you can see people where the mapper didnt intend. (it IS called glowFIX after all).

well, this is completely different, pitch black in a mine is totally normal, but pitchblack behind a crate in an otherwise well illuminated street?

 

[{GD}Odie3]

Asmo, that is a map issue and the player should not Glow. Do not Glow the player to fix the map, fix the map so the player has proper light.

Okay - I found this, however I do not understand the readme.txt

Neue Version des GlowFix, frei konfigurierbar (der alte setzt Ambient
Glow auf "0", was Unsichtbarkeit in Schatten bedeutet)...

In der Infiltration.ini des Servers müssen noch diese Zeilen
angefuegt werden:

[INF286AmbientGlowFix2.INF286AmbientGlowFix]
SetAmbientGlow="WERT"

Also "WERT" ist dann z.B. 5 oder so...

McDonald_[FOOL] im Auftrage [121st]Stinkmarders

I am not using this file ATM I am using the standard INF286AmbientGlowFix.

 

[yurch]

I don't think it is unrealistic yurch... in the room I am currently in, you can trust me on that, if I turn of the lights, I will not be able to see my hands at 5 inches in front of my face. Even less someone laying prone in one corner of the room.

Not if the hallway connecting to that room happens to have the lights on. Light doesn't work that way, it tends to reflect.
My point is the same as asmo's. I've never advocated anything but 0 glow ever since RAv2.

Edit, it's simple, the reason people can 'gammawhore' is that the player brightness with glow turns up at a disproportionate rate than the rest of the level does, making him stand out.

 

[UN17]

@ Cleeus: The answer is simple. UT engine sucks and people cheat by increasing their gamma so they can "see in the dark". By setting ambientglow 0, they can't see people in the dark and therefore, they lose their glow cheat. See the posts about glowfix in the forums. You can see the major difference in how easy it is to spot a player if you gammawhore vs if you play with proper gamma.

 

[asmodeus]

Asmo, that is a map issue and the player should not Glow.

I meant that as an example on unproper pitch dark areas, like yurch said

 

[geogob]

As I said, I understand your point yurch, but that is not fixing the problem to make the player glow.

I know how light works... woking with light is what I do for a living... and I agree that it should not be pitch black in areas like that. If it is it is a bad map design and should be fixed in the map, not with a dirty workaround.

 

[yurch]

I'm not asking for a workaround.

 

[Cleeus[JgKdo]]

Ah, seems like i mixed up INF296AmbientGlowFix and AmbientGlowFix2

As said before, a setting lower then the 2.9 default is ok whereas a higher setting would be lame

thats all i wanted to hear

 

[Blitzschlag]

Asmo, that is a map issue and the player should not Glow. Do not Glow the player to fix the map, fix the map so the player has proper light.

Okay - I found this, however I do not understand the readme.txt



I am not using this file ATM I am using the standard INF286AmbientGlowFix.

In this version u can set the ambientglowsetting by yourself, e.g. 2 or something like that

 

[Stinkmarder]

Just to clear up some things: There are two versions around, "INF286AmbientGlowFix" and "INF286AmbientGlowFix2".
The first one sets the glow of all players, bots, etc. to zero, so you can hide completely in dark areas. This is how I like it and IMHO the most realistic setting.
Someone expressed the wish to set this value to something higher than 0, so there is a second version, which does the same but let you configurate the glow value in your (or the server's) Infiltration.ini (or whatever your game configuration file is called):

Add this to your ini file:

[INF286AmbientGlowFix2.INF286AmbientGlowFix]
SetAmbientGlow=YOURGLOWVALUE

where YOURGLOWVALUE ist a value from 0 to 128(?) - IIRC.
Default is 0. IIRC 4 is what 2.9 uses.