Disabled Accessibility Notes:
"The sky dims, and in a flash, the thunder that was on the horizon only moments ago is upon you. Lightning pierces the sky and strikes your energy shield. It can't take many strikes like this."
Flashing lights warning.
Oh noes.
Lightning storm VFX in games is typically really bad for my light sensitivity, easily triggering migraines & rendering some games unenjoyable.
...Leaned back in chair & squinted, before clicking "play video"...
Wow!
Gotta hand it to you, Wube: That is the absolute best implementation of lightning VFX in any game I have played in 35+ years of gaming! Not even a twinge of discomfort watching that clip, outstanding. Also it looks really cool too.
More details about why is it so well done in this case [
with comparison to other devs]:
1> The light bloom effect is centred near the strike. [
NOT a lazy-coding gamma-channel white-out of the entire screen.]
2> The light bloom fades in (over 0.5 sec ~ish), giving time for the eye's pupil to adjust. [
NOT a sudden sharp increase.]
3> The light bloom also fades out, again giving time to adjust. [
NOT just an abrupt switch off.]
4> The light blooms from multiple quick strikes nearby merge together nicely. [
NOT stacking additively on top of each other to multiply the brightening effect.]
Very well implemented. Hats off & Bravo!
(I have bookmarked this FFF for linking to other dev teams, as it is a great example of how to do lightning VFX well, & without causing problems for some gamers.)
While on the topic of VFX:
1> I hope you consider adding a fade in/out to the darkening of the screen when main menu is opened ingame.
The sudden abrupt change in screen brightness when closing main menu, especially near light-coloured terrain, is rather bad. [50% dark]
Pausing game is half as dark as when main menu opens: This is less bad but still unpleasant, due to same lack of fade in/out. [25% dark]
Having to open the menu repeatedly in a short time (eg; to change ingame mod settings), has similar effect to a strobe light. You can replicate it for yourself: Center game view on pale terrain (white desert is worst), & rapidly press the main menu hotkey for 30sec. Then do likewise pressing pause hotkey instead.
~ Reducing the background darkening for the main menu [50%] down to the same level of the darkening when paused [25%], & ideally with a 0.5sec fade in/out transition, would be much appreciated. 10%-15% darkening is enough to subtly hint, whereas 50% is more like a sledgehammer to the brain.
~ However, given that a flipping huge menu opens up in middle of screen (or shows "game paused" in big letters), then is
ANY screen-darkening effect needed at all?
Probably best to just remove the "make it darker" section of code entirely, as it doesn't seem to serve any useful purpose. Especially if fixing it is not a good use of coding time.
2> Any method to stop flashing UI elements from flashing would be awesome. (ie; the "No Power" icon, various alerts, in the player backpack when hovering over things in crafting menu, &etc.)
Flashing GUI elements are a form of Visual Noise. This is distracting at best, but typically becomes very annoying for some people (Autism spectrum for example). Imagine being nagged & pestered constantly about something you are already well aware of. Like Navi does in the Zelda games.
I have seen many requests & complaints about these flashing elements (since v0.13): how to turn them off; or is there a mod to stop them flashing; etc.
~ A simple on/off toggle in the GFX options menu would be perfect. But an ingame command line switch, or modding flag would do.
Looking forward to the release, keep up the great work!
