DOOM lighting mode too dark

[Nash]

The Doom lighting mode is too dark.

The starting room in Doom 2 MAP25 (Bloodfalls) is pitch black. I couldn't see anything.

I was also playing some other wads where the light level was intentionally dark. They were way too dark in GZDoom with the Doom lighting mode and I had to switch to Standard.

This problem doesn't happen in software mode because the lighting gradually gets brighter as it approaches the player.

Doom lighting mode is nice but it's way too dark. There has to be a way to make it work.

[smg m7]

Actually, it's not too dark, per se, but the black depth fog is a bit over-contrasted to the normal lighting. If the fog code was tweaked a little, it could be changed to look better and allow playability. What I don't get is why 3D floors don't work in software mode?

[TheDarkArchon]

The lack of a Z-Buffer in the Software renderer is the problem concerning 3D floors. OpenGL has a Z-Buffer already which accounts for vertical posistioning(?)

[Graf Zahl]

The Doom lighting mode is too dark.

The starting room in Doom 2 MAP25 (Bloodfalls) is pitch black. I couldn't see anything.

I tweaked the light levels so that they are as close as possible to the software renderer. If you don't like it you can always switch to 'bright' mode which uses higher light levels.

I was also playing some other wads where the light level was intentionally dark. They were way too dark in GZDoom with the Doom lighting mode and I had to switch to Standard.

Use Bright, not Standard. Standard means a 1:1 mapping of Doom's information to GL which is less than optimal.

This problem doesn't happen in software mode because the lighting gradually gets brighter as it approaches the player.

That is an effect that is not really doable in GL without some special non-trivial coding.

Doom lighting mode is nice but it's way too dark. There has to be a way to make it work.

It's called Gamma correction, brightness and contrast. These are 3 settings in the menu with which you can tweak the output to your liking. You probably need to increase the gamma slightly to make it look better.

[smg m7]

Thanks about the "bright" render info. I thought it was just a tweaked version of standard. But again, why don't 3D floors work in software mode?

[Graf Zahl]

The software renderer is taken 1:1 from ZDoom without the slightest alteration. I have no intention to change anything about it. I have never investigated whether it would be possible to implement 3D-floors because I have never tried to understand the code. The Z-buffer issue is the biggest problem though.

[smg m7]

Legacy apparently has 3D floors in software mode. Couldn't that code be adopted into GZdoom?

I miss the old renderer when I'm trying to play a GZdoom-specific wad.

[Nash]

The lack of a Z-Buffer in the Software renderer is the problem concerning 3D floors. OpenGL has a Z-Buffer already which accounts for vertical posistioning(?)

You Know What You Talking !!

Graf - Thanks for the information.

[Graf Zahl]

Legacy apparently has 3D floors in software mode. Couldn't that code be adopted into GZdoom?

No. ZDoom's renderer is far too different and I don't have any desire to work with that code. It is merely there because I don't see any reason to remove the code. After all it works as far as it does.

I miss the old renderer when I'm trying to play a GZdoom-specific wad.

Well, too bad. But you can rest assured that most upcoming GZDoom WADs will make use of features like dynamic lights or models which can't be done in software rendering at all.