The autohaven conundrum

[Deleted User]

As you may have seen a number of us have been complaining that the Autohaven maps are now too dark to play after the graphics update. Strangely, some players here are disagreeing and saying they are too bright. Currently the feedback section has a number of people unhappy about how dark these maps are and are actively asking to have them brightened.

I was doing my usual "I'll watch people play killer so I don't have to" thing, and I saw this video from Otzdarva.

https://youtu.be/T_muQ8cPfnM

and I thought to myself "That's not how my autohaven looks". This seems a little brighter.

The same day I see a video from Tru3ta1ent.

https://youtu.be/Cs3uk5hWrAM

Now this seems more like my autohaven.

I know there's compression and a lower quality on youtube which has been ripped from twitch anyway but you get the idea in this screenshot

It's very easy for survivors in dark cosmetics to be hard to track.

I'm curious why in the video Otzdarva's seems.....brighter. If he hasn't adjusted it then this perhaps explains why there is a diverse range of opinions on the brightness here.

From my research, Tru3 does not use any filters and plays on ultra settings. Otzdarva plays on medium, does not use filters, but may increase the brightness on dark maps (no indication if he has done it here or not).

So I guess what I'm asking is, is autohaven's brightness just a difference of opinion and perception? or do these maps actually look different for different people?

Could anyone who says autohaven is dark post a screenshot or what it looks like for them? and anyone who says its bright post a screenshot of what it looks like for them?

I remember dead dawg saloon had a bug where if you went into the map with graphics on low it would be extremely dark so perhaps there is a bug in the game.

[Deleted User]

My screenshots, no filters, medium settings, 1920x1080 resolution.

(Some detail has been lost, the forum seems to compress the files)

FrostySeal

I'm pretty sure that every setting above low makes the game look much, much more darker, so that could be why Autohaven is brighter for some people. Pretty sure Tru3 plays on ultra and Otz plays on low/medium. I play on low and autohaven looks pretty bright.

TheClownIsKing

I genuinely have no visibility issues on the new auto-haven. In fact visibility improved for me after the reworks.

I’m playing on PlayStation, so I have my TV brightness, contrast, saturation adjusted accordingly so I can see fine, but not so bright that it takes away all the mood and ambience. I have my TV left at the same settings for all games, so bright vibrant games like platformers still look great. They’re not looking far too bright and too colourful for example.

Aven_Fallen

@FrostySeal said:

I'm pretty sure that every setting above low makes the game look much, much more darker, so that could be why Autohaven is brighter for some people. Pretty sure Tru3 plays on ultra and Otz plays on low/medium. I play on low and autohaven looks pretty bright.

This is correct, playing on low makes the game brighter (which should not be the case IMO, but eh). I play on Medium currently (RIP my GPU, and ######### you high GPU-prices, lol), and the Map is as Dark as it was on Ultra.

However, I dont think it is too dark. If you look at DBD a few years ago, it was way darker. And looked better IMO. Like, old Lightning and a Moonlight-Offering for brightest Moonlight was still darker than what we currently have.

BUT I have to say, sometimes I have seen really dark Maps on Streams.

[Deleted User]

This is autohaven on low settings for me. Again no filters turned on.

It actually looks darker? but IIRC low settings is what caused the saloon map to be really dark. Maybe I'll try Ultra later.

NoOneKnowsNova

I'm with @TheClownIsKing on this one. On Xbox, it seems great, not too bright but not too dark, and survivors with darker cosmetics don't really blend in well to anything.

[Deleted User]

@[Deleted User] said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/2076858#Comment_2076858

I know someone that also has a PS5 and when we played on autohaven they said it was brighter for them. For everyone else on PS4, it was darker.

He could've been trolling though. Either way, it's dark AF for me.

Are you on PS4?

I'm on PC.

[Deleted User]

@Pukenplag said:

Title. Ever since I played on it I thought this. Just played a Nurse match against a bully squad of blendettes. The window is in my face so the screen was a bit darker (keep in mind that for me it is very cloudy outside). Everytime I wanted to blink, I could only see a black-ish silhouette, that's all. I just tried a bit, but after I could only see black and those blendettes were spamming the flashlights while I was fatigued, I just DCed. Guess I will just play something else for the next half an hour. Some game in which I can actually see stuff.

@Kasamsky said:

... yeah anyone?

i can't get that out of my mind, everytime i am on this map i think the same:

"damn i can't see #########"

maybe it's just me, but it's really dark isn't it?

i actually tried to adjust contrast and lightning in my gpu settings, but tbh i don't wanna mess to much with it since thats a bit tryhard and i only have a problem on this specific map.

@[Deleted User] said:

I've tried I really have but it's too dark. Characters in dark cosmetics (especially prestige) are pretty much camouflaged for me against the dark backgrounds of the surfaces in the map. It makes them really hard to track. I'm using reshade to brighten the game up too. I don't have this problem on any other maps just autohaven but it's so bad it's making me feel like I'm going to need to AFK these games or stop playing altogether (because theres a sizeable chance of getting an autohaven realm).

You did so well with the colorblind filter that I'm not sure why these maps have come out like this. I didn't have this issue previously on autohaven.

@EvanRaven said:

when i tried to play killer i could barely see anything. people were crouching in my face and i could not see them.

it also made the game worse for me because i'm CB. i couldn't see generator auras or scratch marks barely so it was an easy win for survs. the autohaven maps were trouble for me before but not to this extent.

@Dizzy1096 said:

I see a number of people have said they are too dark compared to before, I'd just like to add my experience too.

I'm not sure if my colourblindness plays a part of it it's just the darkness but I find it hard to visually keep track of survivors. Particularly survivors in P3 cosmetics. The dark cosmetics blend in with the autohaven jungle gym walls and the general tint of the maps. So if I'm watching a survivor running and there's a wall behind them, it makes them visually hard to keep track of. I'm finding these maps quite difficult with dark cosmetics.

The colourblindness updates were great on the ptb and I'm just wondering if issues like this, along with other peoples feedback, you could possibly brighten up the maps a little bit? or remove what looks like a black-crush effect on the maps?

@CheesyGuy said:

Guys, I have an eye problem which let me see not good at dark places and when I play killer or survivor at AutoHaven maps. Other than brightness is there anyway that I can fix it for myself.

@KiwiCoattails said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1958095#Comment_1958095

It’s ridiculously dark. It looks like somebody put a filter over the screen. I play on a 4K TV and no other game looks like this. They’re badly designed. None of the other nighttime maps are like this. Only Autohaven. I’m also not the only person to mention this. Plenty of people have said the new render is too dark.

I’m also a veteran player so I don’t need to be ‘schooled’ on how the game used to be. I’ve never had issues with brightness apart from the new Autohaven and downstairs on the old Gideon Meat Plant.

I couldn't be bothered searching back any further but you get the point. I'm determined to find out what's going on 😕 It sounds like something is causing this realm to appear different to different players. Only this realm, it seems that for the most part people who find autohaven too dark have no issues with other realms, aside from some PS4 players sometimes referring to backwater swamp too

Pukenplag

As you asked, here are 2 ss. One with low, one with ultra.

The killer DCed. Maybe he also didn't want to play blindfolded.

White_Owl

I play on ultra and personally I don't have a problem with the map being dark, on the contrary I wish other maps were as dark as Autohaven.