Game menu lighting solution wanted.

The Game Concept:
I am working on a map where you wander around in the darkness solving puzzles and other stuff. It's all in third person view, the mini map is disabled, and the map is blanketed in pitch black darkness with custom lights you use to navigate.

The Only Problem:
Whenever you bring up the game menu (F10 key), the veil of darkness is lifted and the player can easily see what was intended to be hidden. I am using the JASS code, call SetDayNightModels("", "") to disable the game's built in lighting.

I have included a map demonstrating the problem, you'll need frozen throne to play it and WE unlimited to tinker with it. Adjust your video brightness to see better. If anyone has a solution to this problem, I would greatly appreciate it.

try this: make one big black cube model at every whatever interval on the map, and when your unit enters there, thatspecific one is hidden. This way you cant see through the others.

Only bad part: increased lag, also when menu is opened you will see big black boxes all over the main map.

Hint: use Wall End Short with RGB 0% 0% 0%.

Thanks for trying, iron. That does prevent players from seeing farther than they should, yet is not the map I envisioned. I eagerly anticipate more ideas.

I don't know if this can be done but can't you create a black image with a blank center and use the Image triggers to move it.

I'm not sure if fade filters would work, but thats the first idea that came to mind.

Maybe there is a lighting model that that game uses when it pauses. You might try looking for something around those lines, since I noticed when you pause during the night, the blue tinge is removed.

Improvement of my suggestion:

make a dougnut-shaped black object (round with circler in middle) and move it to position of your unit every 0.01 seconds

also, is this map single player of multiplayer?

fade filters would work I think just put black where you dont want them to see anything on the screen.

If anyone knows how to make a black filter appear only when the game menu pops up, problem solved. I do like the idea that ammorth suggested about the in game menu using a different lighting model, that could cure the problem. I also like the doughnut idea that iron has suggested, it doesn't cure the problem but treats the symptoms. I will be experimenting with your ideas to see if they yield any viable results.The map could be multiplayer, with up to 12 people bumbling around in the darkness. I look forward to more ideas from anybody, I believe they could lead to a solution that is useful to any map maker.

okay, I came across a few things.

1) I think I may have found a trigger that will help you... the only problem is it may cause some lag.


This basically revolves around the fact that a fade filter will continue to fade even after the game has paused (which is what happens when any menus are brought up). The trigger keeps displaying the fade filter at an extremely fast rate, so the filter can never go 100% black. But when the trigger stop firing (the game pauses) the current filter runs all the way through at turns the screen black.

You can change the length of the fade filter, but after some testing, I found that this setting is a good compromise between flicker (cause by the fade filter) and the duration the terrain is shown after the game has been paused.

2) I looked at some lighting effects and may gave found something. Environment\DNC\DNCLordaeron\DNCLordaeronTarget\DNCLordaeronTarget.mdx seems to be an extra model that no other tile set has. Seeing how Lordaeron is the "generic" tileset, this could be what controls the lighting while the game is paused. That being said, I did not notice any changes when trying to replace the default model with a blank text document or a blank .mdl file.

Something I thought I would bring up, incase you could get it to work.

Use fog.

It seems like when you press F10, it will show the normal day/night light model.
I dont know if this work.
Try import a dummy day/night model, and overwrite the orginal path.

Alright, I have finally solved my own problem. I must say that in retrospect, I feel like a moron. The issue with the game menu only occurs if you play it single player offline, which is the only place I tested the map. When you go online with the map, there is no issue because the game doesn't pause itself when bringing the menu up and you can't see through the darkness. I really wish someone had pointed this out for me, I have toiled over this problem since last december. :(