Why is "Bastion of Chaos" so dark?

[ppundy]

Why is Bastion of Chaos so dark? I don't like to run this challenge dungeon very much because of the terrible lighting conditions where all the color tones are black on black, with some red occasionally thrown in (probably just to ensure the gamer that their monitors are not turned off).

I use +40% "light" gear, but still need to crank the brightness on my monitor by 20-30% just for this dungeon. Even that is not enough. It's the one place I can never see. If playing at night, its bearable, but running this dungeon in a brightly lit room is aweful.

In comparison, Steps of Torment just seems to be done much better. The lighting is great, you have room to maneuver, and there are far fewer annoying doors to open.

[Seamus]

I dunno, once you get past the skeleton key, the red lighting in the other floors is reasonably bright even with no +light gear.

[YontEvnKnow]

I have never noticed an issue there. may be a gamma issue on your monitor?

[Percello]

I would guess Contrast, not Gamma.

[susejmaster]

yea its not all black with some red theres something fed up in your settings.

[Eternal Wanderer]

Red and black (and some grayish tones) constitute the primary color theme of Chthonians, who are the inhabitants of the Bastion. I don't see what the problem is with that.

Also, did you try the ingame gamma setting? Cranking it all the way up might help, although it would make outdoor areas way too bright.

[Tórç]

Imo the enviromental lighting sets the right tone for the area...and is perfect while playing at night at least.

I tend to wonder is the overall look was inspired by a few areas within: Guild Wars-Nightfall-The Realm of Torment.

[ppundy]

it's not user error, i have over 400 hours logged. My observation and opinion is that the tile sets for Bastion of Chaos, and any field with the black obsidian shards is just way too dark. All of the other dungeons / locations are fine. It's specifically this tile set. For instance, its very difficult to tell when the walls meets the floor, I wish there was either more contrast or their was an option to outline the floors (like you can outline monsters). Even more annoying, the chests are same graphics as the walls. Who knows how many of those have been missed.

Unfortunetly, you can't adjust gamma on multi-monitor rigs. The best I can do is crank up the brightness and adjust the contrast specifically when playing on these tile sets. It's not a great solution. Everything takes on a white-washed effect which is lousy, but better than nothing.

it's playable, but I clearly prefer the tile sets of any other dungeon over BoC, simply because the lighting is crisper.

[ppundy]

Actually, this reminds me... Why can't I buy a torch or lantern from a vendor? Why can't I find a faction that offers augments like "light +X%"? Lighting already exists as a mechanic, so why can't we use it? I'd happily run around with a torch as my alternative weapon set and just toggle for fights. This alone would fix my issue.

My L85 Ultimate Warder still runs around with a L14 "+50% light" medal in his backpack.

[Eternal Wanderer]

Actually I did have the same problem as OP once. But it was all because I had reduced brightness, contrast and even gamma way too much in my gpu control center (I kind of hate the usual brightness of Windows).

I used to temporarily fix it by cranking up the ingame gamma everytime I started playing. Then I eased up on the control center settings and it is all ok. I really think you should do the same OP. Try to readjust monitor settings manually too. They normally have major display settings tuned to around 50%. You may want to increase them a little.

[ppundy]

i do manually adjust my monitor's settings (contrast and brightness) everytime i go to Bastion of Chaos.

Overall, I just prefer Steps of Torment over BOC because it's very apparent that more thought went into the layout of the design and the artwork. For example, in SOT, the floors are easily distinquished from walls both by color, the isometrics of the mortar, and the shadowing at the base of the walls. In addition, there are plenty of sources of illumination. Monsters, chests and the envirorment all have contrasting colors, which make them all very easy to identify. In comparison, BOC uses the same darned black obsidian skins for: walls, many monsters and chests, making it very hard to tell everything apart at a glance.

Most of this game has incredibly detailed artwork. For instance, have you ever noticed how much detail exists in Darkvale Gate? All the detail in the mattresses, ornamental rugs, and gruesome displays? Rooms have purposes. There are bedrooms, a kitchen, dining halls, mead rooms, sacrifice rooms, etc. The artist put a tremendous amount of time into all of those incredible stunning details. Though it's still dark, its easy to navigate because of all the fire burning torches, braziers and burning debris. BOC is really disappointing by comparison, where almost everything looks like a black obsidian shard in basically a long winding corridor.

[Eternal Wanderer]

I recently tried the Grim Cam mod to increase FoV and remove fog, and noticed that as you zoom out, pretty much all landscapes become somehow darker and harder to distinguish. Do you happen to use that as well?

[PXR5]

Originally posted by solemnpsalms:

Imo the enviromental lighting sets the right tone for the area...and is perfect while playing at night at least.

I tend to wonder is the overall look was inspired by a few areas within: Guild Wars-Nightfall-The Realm of Torment.

If I remember the correctly Realm of Torment used more browns and purples. The reds where more luminecent without hurting the eyes like in BoC. But overal I agree, heck I find the whole game makes me think of GW1 and that's in my eyes a very good thing.