[0.17.11] (Accessibility, UI) "Background dimming" can trigger migraine when opening & closing "Esc" menu

[Killcreek2]

Problem:
Background dimming causes the brightness of the screen to abruptly change, which can be very unpleasant &/or painful for people with light-sensitivity. This includes people with Autism, Migraine, Epilepsy, & various other conditions. (See bottom of post for some links to more information.)

When opening the Esc menu from ingame the whole screen darkens greatly - this is somewhat unpleasant.
When the menu is closed the screen brightness returns to normal - this sudden increase is extremely unpleasant & often painful (especially near sand, desert, or water) - similar to a camera flash nearby.

I recently updated to the 0.17.10 experimental version. When adjusting settings I had to swap between game view & the options menus quite a few times in a row, but after 5-6 openings & closings of the menu the strong dimming & brightening had unfortunately triggered a migraine attack. I had to close the game & was unable to play until the following day.


Here is a side-by-side picture of the same scene showing the difference:

Menu Dimming

Background dimming.png (2.01 MiB) Viewed 3448 times

By comparison, the dimming / brightening when the game is paused / unpaused (via shift-space) is less unpleasant, but still very obvious:

Pause Dimming

Background dimming pause.png (1.83 MiB) Viewed 3448 times

Suggested fix:
Please reduce the level of dimming for the Esc menu by at least 50%, though 75% less would be even better - there is no need for strong dimming in this situation as a large menu appears in the middle of the screen to alert the player. (& consider reducing the pause dimming a little bit also, if possible.)
Alternatively, a better solution would be to use a shadow around the menu itself rather than the whole-screen dimming - but I assume this would take more dev time & thus is less likely.


As always: Thank you for your hard work on this amazing game!



Some further reading:
"Light and Headache Disorders: Understanding Light Triggers and Photophobia"
"What Is Light Sensitivity Like for One Autistic?"
"10 Facts about Light Sensitivity and Headaches"

P.S. Background dimming is becoming increasingly popular for websites, games, & various apps. If anyone reading this also suffers with light sensitivity, please help spread the word by contacting the designers or developers involved in those projects to let them know of your experience with their product. Thank you.

[Caennanu]

No offense intended, but this has been like this as long as i can remember . . .
Do you have trouble with the day / night cycles too when having lights placed, which triggers a similar effect?

[Rseding91]

Moving to ideas and suggestions.

[Darinth]

No offense intended, but this has been like this as long as i can remember . . .
Do you have trouble with the day / night cycles too when having lights placed, which triggers a similar effect?

Killcreek didn't say this was a problem unique to 0.17, just that they encountered the problem while tweaking the 0.17 settings after downloading it. Also, a lot of people don't worry about putting down lights. I've never bothered with them.

A combination of reducing the background dimming and/or applying a fade in/out for the dimming should hopefully reduce or eliminate the issue.

[Killcreek2]

No offense intended, but this has been like this as long as i can remember . . .
Do you have trouble with the day / night cycles too when having lights placed, which triggers a similar effect?

No offence taken. This has been a minor concern for as long as I can remember too (I started playing just before 0.13 was released). As the devs are currently reworking the UI for release, I felt this was a good opportunity to raise the issue.

The day-night cycle is a gradual change, which is no trouble by itself (opening the esc menu at night time is often much safer). I usually build night-vision equipment ASAP, and place a lot of lamps throughout the factory too. Each lamp turns on/off at slightly different times, which thankfully results in a gradual brightness change across the screen (unless zoomed in very close to a single lamp, or standing in a field of accumulators - other things to avoid). These measures help, once past the early game.
I try to be ultra-careful at all times when using anything which could result in sudden screen-brightness changes, but was excited to play 0.17 & simply forgot to "Never open the esc menu during daytime, or more than once per minute". When I remembered ~10 seconds later, it was too late - damage already done.

A gradual large change or a sudden small change, is no problem. But a large and sudden change often can be, especially if repeated quickly.

A combination of reducing the background dimming and/or applying a fade in/out for the dimming should hopefully reduce or eliminate the issue.

Yes, that would be an ideal solution.
I recently reported a similar concern to another indie developer who used a screen-flashing background effect for a (very cool) lightning storm attack used in their game - they reduced the overall brightness of the effect & even added a short 2-second fade-in, which completely solved the problem & still looked awesome.

Moving to ideas and suggestions.

Fair enough. (I was hoping for "minor issues", but at least "suggestions" is much better than "won't fix".)

Though I would like to point out that light-sensitivity just due to migraine affects more people worldwide than colour-blindness:
approx 14% for migraine vs approx 9% for colour-blindness.

[golfmiketango]

Just a thought: if the idea is to reduce distracting background noise in modal dialogs, one idea in lieu of dimming would be to blur it. That way the visible non-dialog area would retain approximately the same color and luminosity characteristics. Perhaps a little bit of blurring and a little bit of darkening combined could work too, if there is a concern that blurring alone would create a distracting bright halo around a dark dialog box.

[Caennanu]

Good to hear no offense is taken.
I understand your point of view, luckily i'm not one of those that suffers from this (yet?).
Was just wondering if the lights are also a problem or could actually mitigate the issue.

Good to know developers are taking this seriously!