Very Dark - Can't see, need help.

[arflynn23]

Everyone,

I have been playing RTR in one iteration or another for all of seven years now but had not tried VII until now. (BAD ME!) I recently installed (using Steam) with all the patches, etc. Started playing and have had a very difficult time seeing anything as everything is very dark. At first I thought this might be due to artistic design but quickly realized (after looking at others screenshots on the forum) that there must be something I've done wrong.

Its difficult to describe but generally speaking, on both the campaign map and in battles, text is very light, and the screen is simply quite dark to the point that I can not see the finer details of the game. Yes, I can play but it just looks like someone turned the brightness of my monitor way down (and yes, I did fiddle with my monitor colors to try to fix it). Roma Surrectum colors are fine..

Any assistance would be very very appreciated as I'm very excited to play VII!

Thank you!!

[HouseOfHam]

Hmm... If I had to guess why this might be happening, it could be:
1) Bad install - have you tried re-installing?
2) Microsoft DirectX drivers out of date - try updating
3) Possibly, a side effect of the bloom effect patch - http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1805 even if you installed it for another game/mod - not sure how you'd fix it then

[arflynn23]

Many thanks for the response. I have tried multiple installs so that's likely not it. I'll check DirectX as well as the bloom effect.

Again, many thanks for the response!

[Mausolos of Caria]

On the campaign map it an also be due to the shadows on the map, try to turn them off

[arflynn23]

Quick update: I reduced the quality on various settings in the "Video Settings" and it largely seems to have done the trick. Mausolos, I think the shadows may have been it. What is interesting, when I'm loading something, like a new battle, the transition screen starts out looking "normal" but after about 2-3 seconds gets darker around the outside. So now I can actually see the transition instead of it just always being darker. Guess my computer is just starting to get old. Sad when a computer can't play a game that was released in 2004 (even with all of the amazing work done by this team here)....

Thanks again!