Epsilon Ultra Build 2.0 Brightness and Gamma Settings

[Quake1]

Hi all!

This is my first post, I hope I have chosen the right forum for this kind of question!

Btw, the username Quake1 was free, I didn't expect that!

Anyway, back to my question. I installed Quake 1 DarkPlaces Epsilon Ultra on my PC and ... it is awesome!

I tried to configure the brightness and color settings according to my personal taste, but no matter what I do, the result is either too bright or too dark.

I searched on the Web in order to find some descent settings as a starting point and then perhaps change them a little-bit according to my personal preferences. I found in Quake Reforged page the settings recommended for DarkPlaces by Rygel whose textures have been used also (modified and enhanced as far as I know from Seven in the SMC project, GREAT work from both of them) in the Epsilon Ultra Build 2.0. After setting the colors according to these suggestions, I had to set also brightness etc. as follows:

Game Brightness: 0.625
Brightness: 2.0
Gamma: 1.0

The problem is that in Epsilon, the minimum value for Game Brightness is 1.0! Initially I thought that this is not a problem, I will simply rescale the values while maintaining the same ratios, i.e.

Game Brightness: 1.0
Brightness: 3.2
Gamma: 1.6

The result of course was having a game brighter than the sun! Stuppid me ....

Then I found in this thread

http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-tal...endations.html

some settings suggested by _Smith_ in order to make Quake HD look like Epsilon. These settings are:

Game Brightness: 1.5
Brightness: 1.25
Gamma: 1.25

So I thought, ok, why not try this? The result was much better, but still not what I want.

So I wanted to ask you to suggest some settings that work for you - they might work for me as well, we might have similar taste, or at least they might be a good starting point for me. Now I feel that I experiment with those values and I get no result!

As an alternative, there might be a way to set Game Brightness to 0.625. I assume this would require to give some command at the console. I have not used commands before, though, so I don't know which that command might be. If you give me some guidance, though, I am willing to give it a try! The same stands true if I have to change a couple of lines in some .bat file or something like that - I have no prior experience on that, but with a little provided info, I think I can make it.

Thank you in advance!

[JDSTONE]

each map i play i mess around with the light setting. each map is different as far as how much light is used in it. to me there is no best setting that works for all maps.

[Quake1]

I agree. But in my case, all levels I tried look either too bright or too dark with my settings - which means I do something wrong! That is why I am asking for some "starting-point" values that might work well in, let's say, 50% of the maps.

[JDSTONE]

i dont run epsilon but mine all are set to 1 to start...

[Quake1]

Well, in case some other user has the same issue, in my opinion the best settings are:

Game Brightness: 1.5
Brightness: 1.0
Gamma: 1.5

In general, keep brightness value at 1.0 and adjust the other two values, otherwise it seems to be very light - of course, some people might like that, after all it is just a matter of taste. For me, even with those settings, at places where there is the fog effect and some kind of light, as it is the case for example in the lake in Grissly Grotto or in the Zigurath Vertigo level, it is too light and I reduce in that case brightness to 1.25.

[Guest]

If I were you I'd try to keep the default settings and only change the gamma value... good luck.

P.S.
If you want try Qrack??

[Quake1]

Well, I made it! I had to "play" with the colors (changing only brightness and gamma was not enough) and the bloom settings - which is very important regarding the overal visual effect of the game, something for which I was not aware of before experimenting with. Epsilon build gives you so many options that at the end you can customize the game to fit 100% your personal taste, but of course due to the plethora of the options and the lack of knowledge for most users (like me) about the effect of parameters like bloom-related parameters it takes a lot of time and effort to find out the "best" settings.

Regarding Qrack, it looks nice, however I have the feeling that it's not my "type" of Quake mod. Anyway, I will give it a try. Thank you for the link!

[Guest]

Hi Quake1

I gave a try to Epsilon 2-3 times and I'm a PRO Quake player but pretty new when it's about DarkPlaces.

What you said is right... DP is great cause of the many many options you have but at the same time it could be so hard to make it... with patience it pays.


P.S.

I have to agree you are pretty lucky to have this username... what would you like to give it to me hey ?!?

[Quake1]

Hi Mom (well, this sounds weard indeed as a greeting in a Quake forum, you need another username! )

Actually, I am mainly a SP gamer and I like the eye-candy - those are the reasons I have chosen DP. IMO it makes Quake look much nicer while at the same time maintains the same feeling of good old Quake - of course, there are people that disagree with that, but after all, it is a matter of personal taste. Fortunatelly, as I can see, today there are numerous options (from engines that are as much as close to the vanilla, let's say, Quake, to engines with RT lighting, new high-res textures, new skins etc.) and several packs available, hence pretty much all kinds of gamers can be satisfied with a stand-alone solution or a combination of engines / mods and packs.

I play Quake 1 since 1996 - I was 15 years old back then, and I loved it. I continued to play untill about 2000, then the workload at the university became more demanding, then master, job etc, and thus since then I played rarely. Recently I got some free time and I thought "ok, crazy idea: what if I can play Quake 1 today, in a modern machine? Probably it is not possible, but let's see!". And bam! I found this forum and I realized that not only I am not alone (it's always nice when you figure out that), but there is out there a community which shares the same passion and has kept alive Quake and even enhanced significantly the gaming experience of Quake! Several people made great effort and the result is amazing!

Regarding the name, well, we can negotiate on that! What about some tutorial "for dummies" ( ) about mapping in DP for Quake 1? Just a thought ... (what, did you expect that I will give my cool name so easilly? No way! )

[talisa]

What about some tutorial "for dummies" ( ) about mapping in DP for Quake 1?

http://quakeone.com/forums/quake-hel...g-radiant.html

Q3bsp for Quake tutorial | spawnhost

and be sure to go here spawnhost | gb's blog
and browse all pages of the 'tutorials' tab at top

[Quake1]

Wow, talisa, this is awesome! Thank you very much! I knew that there would be some relevant info and links in this forum and in the Web but I am so newbie that I didn't know exactly what to look for!

Those pages / threads have already been bookmarked! Now excuse me, I have to download a couple of things and study!

And, above and beyond all, I can keep my username! Sorry Mom (well, I used that phrase a lot when I was younger ...).

[talisa]

you're welcome