Ludeon Forums

This mod's motto: In vanilla, lights are for your pawns; in realistic nights, the lights are for you.

4.2 is out for the IFD series; changelog is on the steam page.
UPDATED TO A17! PLEASE NOTE THAT I HAD TO TEMPORARILY REMOVE THE DLL WHICH MEANS ECLIPSES ARE VANILLA. I'm working to re-add them after I finish all my A17 updates. Sorry about that.

One last note on my mods in general before the rest of this specific mod's description. My mods, with the exception of Miscellany, are designed less as utility mods and more as difficulty mods. It is absolutely my intention for my mods to make the game more challenging and harder to manage. Visibility will suck without light sources and exploration at night will become something avoided. Forests will form walls of trees that will trap you as you flee from the strengthened predators that lie within. Moisture pumps will become a common sight as you'll have to drain waterlogged areas before your walls can be raised. Over the three Alphas that these mods have existed I have done my best to cut back on frustration factors but I fundamentally see that some things like marshy areas, while an absolute pain, are still necessary. I personally play with my mods on by default so I hope you guys enjoy these mods as much as I have. If you have enjoyed my mods please consider upvoting them on steam so I can get my shiny gold stars that i'm weirdly happy to have. Thank you guys and cheers!

Tired of not being able to tell whether its day or night because they both look similar? Ever wanted lighting to matter? Well then this is for you.

This mod changes lighting and saturation in Rimworld to be dynamically darker. Also changes colors and saturation of weather patterns and the eclipse event along the same lines.

The lighter version is probably more appropriate for most users. The darker version is purposely targeted at people like myself who not only want the immersion/flavor of true nights but also want to make the game distinctly harder.

SEPTEMBER FIRST REVELATION:
So up until today (2015 or 2016) I've been using a CRT (Cathode ray tube) LCD monitor and just upgraded to a smart LED LCD monitor and sweet baby 5lb 6oz jehova this version is dark at night now; under certain monitor-based picture settings. I strongly suggest those of you out there with full-array LED or plasma screens that are having trouble seeing things to play around with their settings as on my monitor the visibility ranged from absolute night inside of a black hole to reasonably dark and visible.

Important Disclaimers: (+ = Critical)
+This mod does NOT alter your colonists' (or plants) feelings about or perception of darkness and light levels.
+ This mod also does NOT change accuracy calculations relating to darkness or the effective brightness value of a tile.
+ This mod DOES override your vanilla weather definitions (Could not be avoided, this was not elective). Weather effects are the same as vanilla with the exception of accuracy debuffs associated with Foggyrain and gentle snow. Foggy rain is now 0.4 (0.5 vanilla) and gentle snow is now 0.9 (0.8 Vanilla).
At night and especially during weather events, unlit areas will be very difficult to see! This is not a slightly darker mod; with this mod enabled darkness really means darkness.
+ As mentioned later, foggy rain weather makes night extremely dangerous because you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE UNLIT AREAS AT ALL!
As of 14A, fires do NOT produce light. That is just how the game is currently coded and has nothing to do with this mod. You just never realized it before because night wasn't really that dark.
+ The darkness of night is pretty dependent on your monitor. Using this version of my mod; unlit areas at night should be harshly dark to the point that you can see where enemies are but you have difficulty seeing what they're doing or are equipped with. Nor should you be easily able to discern small terrain detail.

Includes:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daylight remains unchanged but weather patterns have a stronger effect on aesthetic (NOT effective) light levels even during daylight hours.
Nights are considerably darker.
Night darkness changes dynamically with weather conditions:
Hard/Gentle snow are the lightest nights
Dry thunderstorms are only slightly darker than clear nights.
Foggy Rain is the darkest.
YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE AREAS UNLIT BY TORCHES/LIGHTS DURING THIS WEATHER PATTERN AT NIGHT!
Saturation (color strength) changes more dynamically in response to weather.
Movespeed and ranged accuracy are very close to vanilla values. Hard snow and foggy rain are harshest on accuracy and movement (foggy rain movement is same as rain).
Eclipses are now as dark as clear nights.
Although it uses no content from Viceroy's Darkness Revamp mod, I would like to give him credit because this mod was created during my work to update his to A14. I made creative decisions that would have changed his mod's mechanics so I instead released this as my own.

Issues list:
(As mentioned before) As of 14A, fires do NOT produce light. That is just how the game is currently coded and has nothing to do with this mod. You just never realized it before because night was'nt really that dark.
Toxic fallout uses vanilla light levels. Until I bring toxic fallout events under the umbrella of this mod, just consider the radiation to be so powerful that it lights up the night.
COMPATIBILITY NOTES:
You SHOULD be able to load/unload this mod at will without any ill effects.
This mod overrides 1 definition file and 1 assembly event:
weathers.xml definition file.
Eclipse events in the core game assembly. (Does not touch event handlers; only the specific verse associated with this one event)
This mod has a very small footprint and should be compatible with everything that doesn't touch eclipses or the weather definitions.

DOWNLOAD:
Workshop - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=740930354 (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=740930354)
Non-Workshop - See attached file.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR THE MOST CURRENT CURRENT COPIES OF ALL MY MODS USE THE "ALL HELPFUL BOTS MODS ZIP" FILE BELOW IN AN ATTACHMENT. Enjoy!

[attachment deleted by admin due to age]

[attachment deleted by admin: too old]

Congrats on the release.  I have not really used it enough to give you any kind of feedback yet but I'm sure that will change within the coming days.

Holy damn! I was starting on trying to update the old Darkness mod, myself, and now you've come here and finished it! :D
Good job! This saves me a lot of time. :D

Tested, liked.

During the day (http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2016/32/1470816146-rimworld-realistic-darkness-day.png)
At 18h (http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2016/32/1470816149-rimworld-realistic-darkness-18h.png)
During the night (http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2016/32/1470816152-rimworld-realistic-darkness-night.png)

Links from http://www.noelshack.com/.

Hey I managed to actually play for several hours. And all went fine. Even during eclipses.

Great job, thanks again for the update

Can this mod be loaded into a pre-existing game, or does it needs a fresh start?

You can load/unload this mod at any time safely. Only time I can think of that could possibly be problematic is during an eclipse but even then problems would be unexpected.

WOW!!!...Just...WOW!!! This changes the night time feel of the game more than I anticipated or even imagined. I havn't even played a full season yet and I already know that gameplay is going to be more challenging. It will take some time to get used to though, but I like it. Great job!

Btw, it was save game safe for me. I do have a little bit of a lag during an eclipse, but that's either my 5yr old laptop or my 50+ mods. More than likely it's a combination of both.

Anyways, again, Great Job!!

I know right? I feel relieved every time I build a path light on an outside road or get wall lights going down in my mine-shafts. Thank you for the post!

Quote from: Willowisp on August 11, 2016, 01:31:45 AM
I know right? I feel relieved every time I build a path light on an outside road or get wall lights going down in my mine-shafts. Thank you for the post!

You're welcome
If you don't feel like running power lines through your mines, you might concider my Wall Torch Mod. Sorry for the shameless plug, but they come in handy for that purpose. You can reinstall them anywhere. I made them for my mines.

Tested it and, indeed, it works well with ongoing games. And man! Does it make the nights/darkness a lot more fun to be afraid of :D

Thanks for that port/remake :D

This mod is working great so far, thanks! Loaded it into an existing save with no problem, and I'm getting a surprising amount of enjoyment out of how much creepier night time is now.

For those who have access to the workshop page I've added a very brief tutorial discussion on modding the night to your own preferences.

As somebody who worked on Darkness Revamp, I'm excited to see this new version. Thanks for reviving the revival of the revival!

It looks like toxic fallout still overrides the darkness and resets to vanilla, but I guess there's no way around that.

Man, I've put a bunch of work into some updates and changes to old mods related to lighting. Namely a spotlight and a flare mortar, so far.
I was wondering if anyone else was also working on it or if there was some old code I could get inspiration from, then I found that panggul_mas supposedly worked on flares for the A13 Darkness?
I dunno if you want to update your add-on to A14, but I don't want to step on your toes. :D
I'll still finish my attemp though, because it's good experience for me. :)

Eesh, this turns the game into Vin Diesel's Pitch Black at nighttime. Good if you're into that sort of thing I guess but way, way too much for me.

I adjusted all the darkness levels by +.1 value in his XML defs. That generates darkness that is dark, but not "pitch black," as you say.

I've release a lighter version on steam which is 3X lighter than the base version. will be uploading it here as well shortly.

Would it be possible to just make it an option within Mod Options that you can configure rather than having separate versions?

Quote from: Bucketsmith on August 16, 2016, 07:01:23 AM
Man, I've put a bunch of work into some updates and changes to old mods related to lighting. Namely a spotlight and a flare mortar, so far.
I was wondering if anyone else was also working on it or if there was some old code I could get inspiration from, then I found that panggul_mas supposedly worked on flares for the A13 Darkness?
I dunno if you want to update your add-on to A14, but I don't want to step on your toes. :D
I'll still finish my attemp though, because it's good experience for me. :)

Hell yeah! I'll pm you the work me and cram did on the flares. We got a working flare mortar and hand-thrown flare grenades, and pretty much got it to 95% ready for release. Using light levels to add depth to the game is so great, I love this whole theme/category/whathaveyou.

Bumping so I can get feedback on my poll.

i use the lighter Version and i have to say the solar eclpise in there is just fine .
it is the darkest part off all and it gets really annoying over time.
this is in the lighter Version, the ecplise could be a little bit brighter, but this is just my opinion.

i think the lighter Version as it is right now is perfect.

Thanks for the feedback! I was curious about how people would react to the eclipse being the darkest event, period, in the lighter version. That's what gave me the idea to make the same kind of dynamic in the darker version. Because of this i'm probably going to shorten the event as well. In my opinion, an ECLIPSE that lasts into the night is kinda retarded. I've had them be ongoing through a night and I get that its random but it breaks immersion a bit for me.

I agree the lighter version is way better, with the older one it got too dark at night to see enough to engage raiders at all, or order people to haul goods/queue up mining etc.

The 3x lighter version is just dark enough to make night feel like night time without being too dark to play.

Eclipses in real life vary in brightness depending on their totality, ranging from only slightly darker than a cloudy day to near total blackness, so it would be especially neat if it was possible to add a random darkness % to each eclipse? if not then making it as dark as sunset/sunrise would be ideal imho.

If I learned how to do variable darkness, hell, variable ANYTHING in c# then I would be a very happy person. I've got the mathematics background to understand it but not the c# background. If anyone would like to show me/help me coding something like that. that would be immensely appreciated. I would probably not make standard weathers variable but i would make eclipses have variable darkness as well as volcanic winter (progressively darker) and toxic fallout (progressively greener and darker).

The darker version is purposely targeted at people like myself who not only want the immersion/flavor of true nights but also want to make the game distinctly harder.

Updated to A15 and added a zip containing all of my mod versions.

The link on the front page seems to indicate that the darkness mod is still alpha 14? Is that just a typo since the last post seems to indicate that both mods are updated.

I see where the confusion could come from, that is just the a14 mod that people requested I keep up here. The updated mod is in the zip with all my mods. Thanks for pointing that out though.

Ah, that makes perfect sense. Thank you very much.

Can I please get a download for your A14 mods? Steam workshop killed them all when A15 came out. The only one you have here is the only one I don't want.

Sorry Flypaste just seeing this now. Hmmm. So i'm about to sleep now but tomorrow i'll make a post of a zip of those files you want and post the link here.

Flypaste do you have steam? If so please send me a friend request and i'll get that file to you.

Hi  Bot bery love your mods
My steam ID: laokangz2,  so can you send the newest [15A] Kudzu - Deadly Forests to me? very very thanks

Uploaded all my updated mods here with shrunk preview pictures to accommodate posting limits. Enjoy

i dont see the download link my bad.. to non steam..

Download links are directly below the original post (first message on this topic) in an attachment.

There is an attachment for 1.0 (A14), but Steam has a newer version

Above that is a file that says all mods. Its a tiny zip that contains all of my current mods.

Good job, but can you give a link to dropbox? i had to create a account to see your attachment :)

Ohh really? I didn't know that that you for telling me that. Hmmm... I'll look into that. I'll be honest though, I'm unlikely to do so until A16 because i'm juggling a lot at the moment and i'm trying to keep things manageable. I'll still consider doing it sooner.

A gave the light version I quick test drive and seems perfect for my taste at the moment. Noticeably dark, but not overly so.

These mods are totally awesome, thank you for making them! I especially like the Density of forests. Very useful to keep the flora there even during those horrible Winter + Toxic Fallouts combos as they would always destroy everything irreparably. (Sure the seeds spawning at the edges of the map doest make EVERYTHING disappear but it still doesnt fixes the problems where everything close to the middle of the map is a barren wasteland)

These mods are nearly required for the Call of Cthulhu mods. Realistic Darkness is amazing, friend.

I must commend you on this stellar work.
Please do update it for A16 if you could, my good sir / madam.

Quote from: jecrell on December 17, 2016, 01:36:51 AM
These mods are nearly required for the Call of Cthulhu mods. Realistic Darkness is amazing, friend.

I must commend you on this stellar work.
Please do update it for A16 if you could, my good sir / madam.

Oh Yes! This mod is indeed most useful for those who enjoy the darkness so we can have a bit of suspense and worry in games, instead of being able to see the man hunter pack coming at night!

I've looked all throughout this thread but can't find any download links for A16 version, can you maybe send them to me in a PM?

Quote from: Headshotkill on December 30, 2016, 01:20:56 PM
I've looked all throughout this thread but can't find any download links for A16 version, can you maybe send them to me in a PM?

No A16 update as of yet, sadly. :/

Quote from: Beathrus on December 31, 2016, 02:17:25 AM

Quote from: Headshotkill on December 30, 2016, 01:20:56 PM
I've looked all throughout this thread but can't find any download links for A16 version, can you maybe send them to me in a PM?

No A16 update as of yet, sadly. :/

There is one on Steam, but I want a forum link.

Quote from: Headshotkill on December 31, 2016, 02:47:33 AM

Quote from: Beathrus on December 31, 2016, 02:17:25 AM

Quote from: Headshotkill on December 30, 2016, 01:20:56 PM
I've looked all throughout this thread but can't find any download links for A16 version, can you maybe send them to me in a PM?

No A16 update as of yet, sadly. :/

There is one on Steam, but I want a forum link.

There is no forum link. :/

<Bump?>

Has this been updated yet? Forest Density and Realistic Darkness are almost a must-have for me. Will they work by just changing the Target version or has A16 changed too drastically for that?

There is updates for some on steam
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=749389640 (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=749389640)

Quote from: Arigitine on January 12, 2017, 02:46:51 AM
There is updates for some on steam
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=749389640 (http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=749389640)

I appreciate the gesture but that wont work well for those who dont use Steam with Rimworld :(

A full solar eclipse on Earth is less dark than night. It would feel weird to me if this mod did it differently.

For those who want the A16 version but don't use steam:
Go to Hardcore SK Project (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12996.0), download the mod and put only the Darkness-SK folder into your mods folder. It should work just like that.
Just a workaround while he does not update the mod in the forums

Quote from: joaonunes on January 13, 2017, 05:52:56 AM
For those who want the A16 version but don't use steam:
Go to Hardcore SK Project (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12996.0), download the mod and put only the Darkness-SK folder into your mods folder. It should work just like that.
Just a workaround while he does not update the mod in the forums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXJvOJNUlCs&ab_channel=LeandroLopes

Quote from: Madpizzaboy on January 13, 2017, 07:26:36 AM

Quote from: joaonunes on January 13, 2017, 05:52:56 AM
For those who want the A16 version but don't use steam:
Go to Hardcore SK Project (https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=12996.0), download the mod and put only the Darkness-SK folder into your mods folder. It should work just like that.
Just a workaround while he does not update the mod in the forums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXJvOJNUlCs&ab_channel=LeandroLopes

xDD I saw so much people struggling to get the latest version of this mod I had to help :P

Realistic Darkness was actually easy to work around into A16, all that had to be done was to change the Target Version, and its done.

What I am interested on is Increased Forest Density, which throws an error when changing the Target Version. It seems to be incompatible, saddly. I think it makes sense since A16 modifies world generation a bit with the addition of Raidable faction bases.

If someone could upload the standalone versions of Increased Forest Density mods for Non-Steam users, I'd highly appreciate it.

Quote from: Komyets on January 14, 2017, 05:00:59 PM
If someone could upload the standalone versions of Increased Forest Density mods for Non-Steam users, I'd highly appreciate it.

Helpful has said he would upload the mods here, but he has too much going on right now. Anyways here are all of the A16 versions of both mods, for now. I've removed the preview images to allow upload.

[attachment deleted by admin due to age]

Thank you very much! And Sorry, I had no idea Helpful was so busy.

Okay guys, before I upload A17 on here be aware. IF YOU WANT ME TO SEE A COMMENT, PUT IT ON STEAM WORKSHOP OR SEND ME A MESSAGE. Its not that I won't check here, its that i'm not likely to. Anyways, without further do, I'll be plaing the updated versions here in a few moments.

Welcome back and thank you for posting them here

Kavern are you the one or one of the ones I promised to do this for but never did? I'd like to say that I'm very sorry about that. My pseudo-OCD makes this kinda stuff pretty damn time consuming and frustrating thanks to the size limits on attachments. I have to hand-create new images for each mod so that it will fit. Its completely unnecessary but that's just me. I also don't like having too many place to look for feedback, things slip through the cracks that way. Anyways... Again, so sorry for how long it took me to do this.

Hey no problems, it wasn't me :P

Have things your way buddy ;-)

Quote from: Helpful Bot on June 06, 2017, 06:12:01 PM
Okay guys, before I upload A17 on here be aware. IF YOU WANT ME TO SEE A COMMENT, PUT IT ON STEAM WORKSHOP OR SEND ME A MESSAGE. Its not that I won't check here, its that i'm not likely to. Anyways, without further do, I'll be plaing the updated versions here in a few moments.

I widened my eyes when I saw that this mod existed.  It sounds pretty intense.  Are you familiar with the Real Fog of War mod?  That's the only mod I use that I can imagine might be incompatible with this (it changes how darkness affects pawns, but then your changes are only aesthetic asides from the snow and rain modifiers - thats what Im wondering about)

Edit: if both mods don't affect the same defs, then does that simply mean that they're compatible?  Because if so, my question is answered and I'm about to have some seriously scary times I wasnt expecting in rimworld.

Hey soupy. Short answer is I haven't a clue since I haven't seen the Real Fog Of War mod. If his mod plays with how lighting and weather APPEARS then yes they probably will conflict. However, if he plays with just how light AFFECTS pawns, then no they probably wont conflict. Best thing to do is just put them together, turn on dev mode and see if they play nice. If nights aren't darker or something in their mod doesn't seem to be working then there's a conflict. My mod slightly changes some weather effects but its all contained in the same def file.

As far as I can see it works awright :D  Im going to link you the mod, because this shit is an intense combo.

https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=28938.0

Thanks, man

Updated the zipped file to the most current form

the attachment file not the V5 version, could you upload the newest on this form as an attachment

Could you upload the most recent version of your mods?
The B18 version?

Herro, can you update the non-steam download? I don't like using steam to download mods :-/

3 minutes in google
http://lttlword.ru/rimworld-mod-realistic-darkness
Here is download link if blyatphabet you can't read.
http://lttlword.ru/download/rimworld/Mods/Realistic_darkness/B18/Realistic_Darkness.zip

Some pretty interesting mods might be out there.
http://lttlword.ru/category/rimworld/mody
(English version at top of the site but there is much less mods in it)

Btw, this mod is great.

would love to check out these mods, but the non steam download is outdated and steam only is a deal breaker.

lighter version here

[attachment deleted due to age]

can we get an updated version for 1.0 of this? i'd really like to try this mod

Quote from: Zalheras on December 20, 2018, 01:58:24 PM
can we get an updated version for 1.0 of this? i'd really like to try this mod

Ye! We need it!