Partially black background [FIXED]

Alonso

When I move the screen all the way towards a corner of the map, three quarters of the background appear black. It looks so ugly. Is this intentional?

Sharguild

I'm having a difficult time discovering what you are suggesting the issue is.
I see it, don't know what is causing it.
To start off though, I suggest you visit "Gibberlings 3" website and install their "widescreen mod" for both BG1EE and BG2EE.
This should help, and it has no effect on play-style.
Perhaps others can guide you more appropriately.

m2c

mf2112

This has been a sore spot for a number of people. It has been requested to disable it and I believe they are going to do it with a graphics toggle option.

BelleSorciere

This is totally intentional and as @mf2112 says they're going to give us an option to disable it.

Alonso

Glad to know. Hope we get that option soon.

Out of curiosity, why would they want something like this? It looks horrible. Is there any thread where this is explained?

BelleSorciere

It has something to do with UI elements covering the map edge, as I understand it.

mf2112

There have been some replies about it on different threads, can't seem to find one at the moment but @BelleSorciere is right about it being related to the new UI stuff. It is reported here under Feature 21535.

smeagolheart

I think it's supposed to give you the idea that the world goes on past the black borders. I don't care for it myself.

mf2112

I thought it had something to do with centering the screen on the characters no matter where they were on the map. I will be turning it off once it is possible as well.

BelleSorciere

I don't recall it centering the screen on characters, though. I mean I think that's an available option, but it's not the default.

Of course I can't check right now because dead video card but eh.

Alonso

mf2112 said:

I thought it had something to do with centering the screen on the characters no matter where they were on the map.

Well, the game does try to center the screen on the character now and then, like when he starts a dialogue. IIRC, before this feature, characters that were close to the map edge were displayed as centered as it was possible without moving the screen beyond the edges of the map. Now the screen is perfectly centered on the character no matter what... at the expense of showing that ugly black area.

According to the bug report (which is quite interesting), that was not the goal of this feature, though:

This is by design. The user interface used to cover several locations (such as the south border of maps). They attempted to make it dock with the UI but it never quite worked correctly. This way is far smoother.

BelgarathMTH

Alonso said:

Glad to know. Hope we get that option soon.

Out of curiosity, why would they want something like this? It looks horrible. Is there any thread where this is explained?

I can tell you why I like this new feature, a lot. It shows me clearly where the borders and the exit points of the map are without my having to walk up to the edge, especially on maps that still have fog. I used to have to struggle to find the line to walk where I could clear the maximum amount of fog around the edges of the map while "lawnmowering".

Now I find that exploration of fogged maps goes much more smoothly for me. It's sort of like having a clear "fence" around the "mowing" area.

rapsam2003

You probably are on the edge of the map...

mf2112

BelgarathMTH said:

Alonso said:

Glad to know. Hope we get that option soon.

Out of curiosity, why would they want something like this? It looks horrible. Is there any thread where this is explained?

I can tell you why I like this new feature, a lot. It shows me clearly where the borders and the exit points of the map are without my having to walk up to the edge, especially on maps that still have fog. I used to have to struggle to find the line to walk where I could clear the maximum amount of fog around the edges of the map while "lawnmowering".

Now I find that exploration of fogged maps goes much more smoothly for me. It's sort of like having a clear "fence" around the "mowing" area.

I know you don't like mods, do ui.menu tweaks count also? You might take a look at ancientcowboy's "Reveal Details" tweak here. A quick tap and the whole map is instantly filled. I hate it when there are some areas which I can't reach to fill out the whole map. I know I could use spells and I do sometimes to spy (usually invisilbilty or stealth is much easier though) while going through it initially but I usually just do the reveal details button right before I leave the map so I can see the entire thing.

Alonso

BelgarathMTH said:

I can tell you why I like this new feature, a lot. It shows me clearly where the borders and the exit points of the map are without my having to walk up to the edge, especially on maps that still have fog. I used to have to struggle to find the line to walk where I could clear the maximum amount of fog around the edges of the map while "lawnmowering".

Now I find that exploration of fogged maps goes much more smoothly for me. It's sort of like having a clear "fence" around the "mowing" area.

I must be blinded by my hate towards this feature, but I swear I don't get you. Care to clarify that (maybe with some graphics)?

BelgarathMTH

@Alonso, it's hard to describe. When clearing a fogged map, I couldn't be sure on the old version if I was far south enough to be clearing the bottom edge of the map without actually walking to that edge. Then, I'd have to keep repositioning the map to make sure I wasn't wandering too far north, and constantly check my position against the bottom edge to make sure I wasn't wandering north.

The new version gives me a nice straight edge that I can position up higher on my viewing area, and I can find the exact parallel line to walk to clear all the fog from the edge to as far away from the edge as I can walk without fog starting to appear next to the line.

It's like having guides on a document in a desktop publishing program.

I like to be very neat in how I explore maps, and I hate getting "missed a spot" areas due to wandering around instead of "mowing" in straight lines.

I can't explain it any better. I guess beyond that, we just have to agree to disagree. But count me as a player who likes the new map edges very much.

JuliusBorisov

This is the option in the graphics options of the beta for the 2.2 patch. With it enabled, this is how the game looks like:



With it disabled, this is how the game looks like:


So now everyone can choose what they want.

Alonso

BelgarathMTH said:

I can't explain it any better.

OK, I get it now. Wow, and I thought I was fastidious with my explorations...

BelgarathMTH

@bengoshi , Thank you very much for showing the option control for the map edges. Even after all these weeks, I still wasn't aware of that line in the menu. I think there's an awful lot of complaining going on about things that have an on-off switch that just happens to be set to "on" by default. Do most people not play around with the options menus in their games? That's one of the first things I do when I get a new game.

JuliusBorisov

Well, to tell the truth, that option is in the beta build (available at Steam to everybody, though), as the 2.2 patch hasn't been released yet. That option is one of things this new build brings, if compared to the 2.1 version.

Alonso

I'm definitely not going to install a beta build of this game. As much as I love the game, truth is the "stable" release has bugs all over the place. I don't even want to imagine how buggy the beta might be.

Alonso

Definitely solved in v2.2 with the option for all tastes. Thank you, guys!