Left 4 Dead flashlight question

[Koeryn]

I was playing Left 4 Dead just now, and I realized something (after 88 hours of gameplay... damn do I ever feel slow.): Your teammates flashlights have NO effect on your screen. I mean, you can see that they're ON, but you can't see the effects of the beams at all. It's REALLY weird...

This probably seems like a dumb-ass question, but has anyone else noticed this? Does anyone know of a mod that makes their flashlights visible to you? Not seeing them is bothering me now that I've noticed, it just seems WRONG, ya know?

As far as discussion ('cause I know we like discussion here), I have two different tangents for ya:

1) Which games have your favorite flash-light styles? (And if you've seen the movie Kick-Ass, would you want HitGirl's pistol light as an equipable accessory in a multiplayer FPS?)

and 2) What stupidly obvious mechanics in games have taken you a long time to catch?

Go-Go-Thread!

 

[Meggiepants]

Well, Alan Wake is the obvious choice for me for best flashlight effects, but from what I understand, they worked on that effect for a long time to get it right.

And 2, it's not that I don't notice the effects, more that I don't even realize I can use them. I played through 25% of Metro 2033 before I knew how to recharge my flashlight. The game was a lot easier to play after that.

Edit: And Hit Girl's light in Kick Ass is pretty awesome.

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

I actually have noticed that in L4D. I'm sorta annoyed because in the really dark areas of the game it would help if the room was lit up by your allies' flashlights as well as yours. Because I don't the number over times were I've shoved an enemy in a zero light environment, and I can't see anything because my flashlight is getting swung around like crazy. It would just be more useful, as well as make flashlights more tactical, if you could light up room for your allies.

 

[TinCynic]

Alan Wake for flashlight. Not hard to understand why if you've played the game.

It took me the entire game in Fallout 3 before I realized you could target and attack multiple things in VATS. I thought it was one shot then you have to open VATS retarget and fire. No wonder it took me days to finish the game.

 

[Jolly Madness]

Edit: And Hit Girl's light in Kick Ass is pretty awesome.

A wild epileptic appeared! What will Hit-Girl do?
Fight->Strobe light

Hit-Girl used Strobe Light! It's super effective! Epileptic is seizuring, epileptic hurt himself in confusion! epileptic fainted!

 

[Akihiko]

Yeah, I noticed that pretty early on, you can also hear the click when someone turns their flashlight on or off if you're close to them. As you say, in dark areas it is a bit of a pain.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

Not really OT, but since we're talking about flashlights, why the hell does the Doom 3 marine not have duck tape?

 

[Blueruler182]

I like the Halo CE flashlight. Just because I had so many panic moments while reloading with a horde of Flood coming at me. Good times...

 

[Bludge]

I cant say the flashlight thing ever really bothered me.

As for stuff it took me a while to notice:

When they nerfed the demoman's grenade launcher from holding 6 shots to 4, and i only noticed the other day that the actual launcher still looks to hold 6 grenades. Thats started to bug me now!

 

[Valdsator]

I noticed that the source engine doesn't display other people's flashlights properly, due to playing Gmod 9 I believe. First time I played L4D I immediately noticed the same thing, because it's so odd they didn't update it for such a cooperative and dark game.

Also, it's funny how the more you turn up the graphics, the less useful the flashlight is, since it also now makes shadows, and when a friend is blocking your flashlight, dark places can get really dark. D:

 

[Leviathan_]

I was playing Left 4 Dead just now, and I realized something (after 88 hours of gameplay... damn do I ever feel slow.): Your teammates flashlights have NO effect on your screen. I mean, you can see that they're ON, but you can't see the effects of the beams at all. It's REALLY weird...

This probably seems like a dumb-ass question, but has anyone else noticed this? Does anyone know of a mod that makes their flashlights visible to you? Not seeing them is bothering me now that I've noticed, it just seems WRONG, ya know?

This was done on purpose.


Performance was the main reason Valve said why they would not add it into L4D - Until they think otherwise it isn't going to happen. Until then, we have to deal with the silly looking sprites in front of teammates flashlights. In L4D2 however, there's no need for flashlights. Even the "night" or "dark" maps are extremely bright. (Not including custom maps, but Valve could care less about them)

If you look up some old aplha videos of L4D1 you'll see that the teammate's flashlights ARE present.

 

[gl1koz3]

Yeah, the "no teammate flashlight" really annoys me since day 1.

EDIT: The "done on purpose" doesn't cut it. Not enough space on settings menu for a checkbox?

 

[Pielikey]

EDIT: The "done on purpose" doesn't cut it. Not enough space on settings menu for a checkbox?

It wouldn't run on the lunchbox 360.


For reals, it's likely for serverside performance. Lighting up a room by way of 4 flashlights would probably strain a server a bit, and you have to factor in how the lights react if all 4 are shined in one place and how to adjust brightness accordingly, and what happens if they pass through eachother, among other things.

(I assume. Maybe it's really easy and Valve are just lazy. I don't know.)

However, you can have 4 flashlights in Alien Swarm, so maybe Valve will put that feature into Left 4 Dead 2.

 

[gl1koz3]

EDIT: The "done on purpose" doesn't cut it. Not enough space on settings menu for a checkbox?

It wouldn't run on the lunchbox 360.


For reals, it's likely for serverside performance. Lighting up a room by way of 4 flashlights would probably strain a server a bit, and you have to factor in how the lights react if all 4 are shined in one place and how to adjust brightness accordingly, and what happens if they pass through eachother, among other things.

(I assume. Maybe it's really easy and Valve are just lazy. I don't know.)

However, you can have 4 flashlights in Alien Swarm, so maybe Valve will put that feature into Left 4 Dead 2.

Either way, who cares if it can't run. Just provide an option to turn it off, lol.

Having no such option is rather a big overlook for a zombie/dark game in my books. Must be something they had to sacrifice in order to pump the game in time.

Also, I once encountered a weird glitch... Some shadow turned into ALL the shadows combined into one texture. I can see the flashlights straining this way of optimization.

So, it's just their lazy asses.

 

[Koeryn]

EDIT: The "done on purpose" doesn't cut it. Not enough space on settings menu for a checkbox?

It wouldn't run on the lunchbox 360.


For reals, it's likely for serverside performance. Lighting up a room by way of 4 flashlights would probably strain a server a bit, and you have to factor in how the lights react if all 4 are shined in one place and how to adjust brightness accordingly, and what happens if they pass through eachother, among other things.

(I assume. Maybe it's really easy and Valve are just lazy. I don't know.)

However, you can have 4 flashlights in Alien Swarm, so maybe Valve will put that feature into Left 4 Dead 2.

Or maybe someone can mod it into 1?

Not really OT, but since we're talking about flashlights, why the hell does the Doom 3 marine not have duck tape?

"No duct tape? There's a mod for that!"

Yeah, that was pretty stupid in my (and a great ton of other people's) opinion. Such a pain. Hell, why didn't the marine know how to hold a flashlight AND a pistol a the same time? Is very not hard.

Then again, you could ***** about almost every 'special forces', much less 'military' video game character that doesn't know how to handle a weapon properly. Gotta give props to Hideo Kojima's team with MGS4, freaking spot-on.