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Quite a long time ago, someone posted here about "Darker D3", a mod that allowed players to darken Diablo 3 to more resemble Diablo 2. Shortly after that, someone posted a guide on how to make this mod work with Starcraft II.
Well, I don't really think Starcraft II needs to be any darker, quite the opposite actually. I spent a few hours the other day tinkering with settings within Darker D3 to try and created a brighter Starcraft II.
Before I get into the installation instructions, here are some comparisons.
First off, the map that forced me into this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/j8ZNofg.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GeAZamG.png) (You can see the minimap!)
The menu:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/spwzO0a.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jsUtOtc.png)
Battle scene:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gMDfMdx.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/I3uW3d8.png)
Dark templar:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/d654pM8.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/951xV9E.png)
Installation instructions:
- Download this: http://www.filedropper.com/brightersc2
- Extract it into your Starcraft II/Support folder
- Copy d3d9.dll into the latest SC2 versions folder. Ex. C:\Program Files (x86)\StarCraft II\Versions\Base23260
- Run starcraft 2!
- You can hit the pause button to turn it on/off.
100% of all credit goes towards Pyloneer, the creator of http://darkd3.com/. I simply modified his settings to create this.
If you want to expirement with your own settings, you can modifiy dark3D_Settings.h.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I get the feeling my monitors are just very dark. Here's how the settings file works:
You want to open darkD3_Settings.h. It's a header file, but don't worry about that. The primary things I adjusted were in the TONEMAP section.
Raising gamma will make the game brighter, saturation will bring out the colors more. Exposure makes everything brighter (I think). You want to adjust the settings by small increments. If you go in and change exposure to 17, you're not going to be able to see anything on the screen.
I also turned on bloom, which is disabled in DD3. This will make everything burn your eyes a little less. You want to set the number of samples to a multiple of 2, but you're probably better off just turning it off. The bloom preset will override anything below it, just set it to 0 if you want to play around with the other settings. They just control the look of the bloom. (For those who don't know what bloom is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom_(shader_effect))
I could never get technicolor to give me a nice look, so I left it off, but playing with it was fun.
Everything else is pretty straight forward. Just keep things in small increments.
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It burns my eyes to look at those screenshots~ maybe just me
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Maybe a bit too bright for my taste but could see this doing wonders for MLG's stream :D, jk (kinda)
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Nice job on brightening StarCraft II, but, at least from those screenshots, it looks to be too bright for me. In the battle scene picture, you can hardly see the timewarp from the mothership core in the brightened version. Kerrigan also looks too bright and unnatural.
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Is there actually a DT in the DT pictures or are you trolling us?
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MINE EYYYYEEEESSSSSSSSS--*spontaneously combusts*
Too much for my tastes...would love a little milder version for Klontas Mire haha
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On May 09 2013 06:19 DenTenker wrote: Nice job on brightening StarCraft II, but, at least from those screenshots, it looks to be too bright for me. In the battle scene picture, you can hardly see the timewarp from the mothership core in the brightened version. Kerrigan also looks too bright and unnatural.
I get the feeling my monitors are just very dark. I'll outline how the settings.h file works so people can adjust to taste.
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How much does this affect system preformance? If not a lot, I'd really like to try this out!
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On May 09 2013 06:26 Master of DalK wrote: How much does this affect system preformance? If not a lot, I'd really like to try this out!
Very little from my experience. There's a setting in the darkD3_Settings.h file called "highQualitySharpen" that you might want to turn off if you're worried about performance. It's under the PRE_SHARPEN header.
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Russian Federation4295 Posts
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"The procedure entry point SfmDxFetSwapChainStats could not be located in the dynamic link library c:\...\StarCraft II\Versions\Base24944\d3d9.dll"
EDIT: My bad, I was using some random d3d9.dll file in my pc, not the one provided here.
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On May 09 2013 06:20 Ghanburighan wrote: Is there actually a DT in the DT pictures or are you trolling us?
It's near the top right edge of the zealot's vision.
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On May 09 2013 06:20 CrazyF1r3f0x wrote: Smart insight on!
hahah I thought the exact same thing.
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On May 09 2013 06:20 Ghanburighan wrote: Is there actually a DT in the DT pictures or are you trolling us? hahahha same question
Edit: nvm i see it.. thanks Demon
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On May 09 2013 06:17 Enema wrote: It burns my eyes to look at those screenshots~ maybe just me
Nope ^^ Me too :p
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meh. I'm still waiting on the "Stronger Team Colors" mod that blizzard promised they could include after hots as a feature. Brighter displays... you can probably just tweak your gfx card color settings.
Still waiting...
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This post outlines something that has been bothering me since the game was released: I cannot seem to find the right brightness/contrast settings. If I don't want to get some freakin headache, I must set up my screen in such a way that for some maps, unscouted areas (both in the minimap and the terrain itself) get really, really dark and hard to *read*...You end up knowing the map backwards anyway, but it can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.
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wasn't the 'darker d3' banned by blizzard?
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On May 09 2013 06:17 Enema wrote: It burns my eyes to look at those screenshots~ maybe just me I second that.
Good job on making an effort though.
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hmm pretty nice, will try, thanks
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I can't see the DT anywhere...
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Russian Federation4295 Posts
On May 09 2013 07:11 247 wrote: wasn't the 'darker d3' banned by blizzard? It wasn't considered as a cheat by Jay Wilson on Twitter long time ago.
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If you watch the Starcraft 2 battle reports, you'll notice that the game used to be a lot brighter. I never understood why Blizzard wanted to make the game so annoyingly dark. Playing SC2 can be downright depressing at times.
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StarCraft 2 is indeed a very dark game.
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i just up turn up my gamma...
you dont need a program or a fancy screen for it either
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On May 09 2013 10:36 SoOJuuu wrote: i just up turn up my gamma...
you dont need a program or a fancy screen for it either
I can`t change gamma when in "windowed (fullscreen)" mode
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Regular Sc2 config burn my eyes already, so I won't be able to test this u.u
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Too birght for my tastes, but I feel like this doesn't need fixing outside of maybe changing the brightness of the computer.
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I just boost the gamma up, much simpler. If I can't ingame because of windowed fullscreen I just do it on my monitor manually.
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i cannnot find that dt haha, anyone mind editing and circling it for me haha
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The surprised Kerrigan look when you brightened the screen was funny xD.
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No DT here as well ...confused
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i don't have issues with seeing the minimap on klontas mire? it could be your monitor, or just simply your in-game gamma? or perhaps the higher-detail graphics settings are just darker (i play in medium-ish details and shaders).
i guess if people still have brightness issues and have tried everything else, they can at least use this.
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Would be awesome. Am I the only one who adjusts his screen brightness (gamma) in sc2? It's too dark for me, for some reason.
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Warning I would be very careful on using this as it's against the Terms of Use.
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I can see a lot of instances where this would be useful. Minimap, easier to distinguish visible area vs FoW, easier to see in FoW. But then there are also forcefields and time warp and such spells that is suddenly very hard to see, also I like a darker themed world
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On May 09 2013 13:06 Gaphunkyl wrote: i cannnot find that dt haha, anyone mind editing and circling it for me haha
It's like Where's Waldo with a DT.
+ Show Spoiler +
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It's too bright for me. I have LED IPS monitors, so the game is quite bright as is. I actually had a custom setting I would swap to for D3 to be darker. That being said, those images kinda look washed out in my opinion. I see where you're coming from and it's not a bad idea, but becoming dependent on this sort of thing can also be negative if you go to lans and such, sometimes they dislike this kind of stuff. All in all, decent idea though, and if it's tweakable then it could be very useful.
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On May 09 2013 06:17 Enema wrote: It burns my eyes to look at those screenshots~ maybe just me
You are not alone. Me too.
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Russian Federation4295 Posts
Here are settings of mine darkD3_Settings.h
In summary, with slighty brighter game I've also used some sharpeness and a bit less color, so it looks a bit closer to BroodWar color gamma. And averagely it feels not so contrast like in first post.
+ Show Spoiler +/*====================================================================================== "USER" ADJUSTABLE SETTINGS ======================================================================================*/
// TODO: Normalize values to be on a human range scale, whole numbers prefered, decimals usable for micro adjustments // These values should have min/max limit checks included in their functions, so that the end user doesn't get crazy results
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FILTER SELECTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ // Comment to deactivate an effect. // Example: To disable the tonemap effect, use // in front of #define USE_TONEMAP //#define USE_ANTI_ALIASING #define USE_PRE_SHARPEN //#define USE_BLOOM #define USE_TECHNICOLOR #define USE_TONEMAP //#define USE_SEPIA //#define USE_VIGNETTE //#define USE_POST_SHARPEN //#define USE_FINAL_LIMITER
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FXAA SHADER ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ // Set values to calculate the amount of Anti Aliasing applied float fxaaQualitySubpix = 0.60; // Default: 0.75 Raise to increase amount of blur float fxaaQualityEdgeThreshold = 0.133; // Lower the value for more smoothing float fxaaQualityEdgeThresholdMin = 0.0633; // Lower the value for more smoothing
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ PRE_SHARPEN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ //For higher precision in the calculation of contour, requires slightly more processing power bool highQualitySharpen = 0; //0 = Disable | 1 = Enable
// Set values to calculate the amount of AA produced blur to consider for the sharpening pass #define Average 0.43 #define CoefBlur 1
// Set values of the sharpening amount #define SharpenEdge 1.0 #define Sharpen_val0 1.0
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BLOOM ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ // Number of samples per pixel taken for the Bloom effect. Don't set it to high! 4 = 25spp, 8 = 81spp, 16 = 289spp #define NUM_SAMPLES2 4 // Must be set with a value dividable by 2 float BloomPreset = 3; // Disabled = 0 (Valid Preset Values = 1 to 9) Preset value 1 to 9 takes control over the next 3 settings. float BloomThreshold = 1; // The min. level at which the effect starts (Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning) float BloomWidth = 1.2; // Sets the width of the effect (Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning) float BloomPower = 1; // The power of the effect (Valid Values = 1 to 9, use decimals for finetuning)
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TECHNICOLOR ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ #define TechniAmount 0.00 // 1.00 = Max #define TechniPower 9.9 // lower values = whitening
// lower values = stronger channel #define redNegativeAmount 1.0 // 1.00 = Max #define greenNegativeAmount 0.403 // 1.00 = Max #define blueNegativeAmount 0.205 // 1.00 = Max
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ TONEMAP ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ #define Gamma 0.88 #define Exposure 0.00 #define Saturation -0.25 // use negative values for less saturation. #define BlueShift 0.00 // Higher = more blue in image. #define Bleach 0.16 // Bleach bypass, higher = stronger effect #define Defog 0.00 // Strength of Lens Colors. #define FogColor float4(0.2, 0.4, 0.9, 0.5) //Lens-style color filters for Blue, Red, Yellow, White.
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SEPIA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ #define Liver // Color Tone, available tones can be seen in ColorTones.PNG (Do not use spaces in the name!) #define SepiaPower 0.82 // 1.00 = Max
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ VIGNETTE ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ // Vignette effect, process by which there is loss in clarity towards the corners and sides of the image, like a picture frame #define VignetteCenter float2(0.500, 0.500) // Center of screen for effect. #define VignetteRadius 1.10 // lower values = stronger radial effect from center #define VignetteAmount -0.05 // Strength of black. -2.00 = Max Black, 1.00 = Max White.
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ POST_SHARPEN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ // Controls additional sharpening applied after previous processing. Strength should be max 0.25! float Sharpen = 0.05;
/*------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FINAL_LIMITER ------------------------------------------------------------------------------*/ // Controls the strenght of the limiter. 1.000 for default setting int LimiterStrenght = 1.000;
Comparsion screenshots with these settings and without
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/oa1qD0T.gif)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/R7gbWmu.gif)
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Heh, it looks like Kerrigan is saying "ta-da, I'm brighter now"
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Russian Federation4295 Posts
On May 12 2013 12:10 Sitinte wrote: Heh, it looks like Kerrigan is saying "ta-da, I'm brighter now" Well, why not. It also allows to toggle in game via Pause hotkey, so u can get brighter image or not depending on map brightness
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