Luminous spray paint for indoors orientation

[Alexander Farber]

Please consider making spray paint luminous for few hours after dark.

Use case example: before cooking downstairs in PV Farmland kitchen, you spray few arrows showing the way upstairs to the bed.

Why add this?

- Probably easy change
- Many streamers never pick up spray paint, saying it is useless item
- Will help to avoid the frustrating situation when you stare at a white dot in darkness. I understand, that those stumbling in darkness situations are part of the gameplay, but I think it is not quite fair, because IRL you know where is up and down... With luminous spray paint there is at least an option to plan for it.

 

[Lexilogo]

I'd love this. Spray paint is already brighter than most surfaces in the game, so I already kind of use it for this purpose. Fully incorporating it as a mechanic would be an excellent QoL feature and incentivise using the item more frequently.

[UTC-10]

It would be nice to have painted symbols be visible in total darkness conditions for limited periods of time but I don't think that will happen as just plain being able to see in low-light conditions has been problematic for years.  I have some luminous things in my bedroom and while, in real life, I can shine a light on them to refresh them, the devs might have a bit more of a problem with that kind of effect in the game.  

 

[Stuffed Plush Chainsaw]

I mean that idea really is kinda cool, but:

On 2/22/2023 at 10:37 AM, Alexander Farber said:

- Probably easy change

Nope. Far from it. Not gonna go into details, but spray paint itself probably was a pretty nifty thing to pull off code wise. Now make that spray paint have luminosity depending on when it last got light? Man.

[Lexilogo]

1 hour ago, Stuffed Plush Chainsaw said:

Not gonna go into details, but spray paint itself probably was a pretty nifty thing to pull off code wise. Now make that spray paint have luminosity depending on when it last got light? Man.

I agree that spray paint having luminosity depending on whether it last got light, or lighting up its surroundings, or behaving realistically like a luminescent material IRL does would be nasty work.

Making spray paint easily visible in darkness in a way that looks totally fine within the game's artstyle, however, should be dirt easy and just take a little bit of mucking around with the textures. We've been going nearly nine years with completely clouded, nonreflective ice, we'll be fine seeing an overly simple glow in the dark effect.

[Sito]

I would just like the interiors to not be so freaking dark. The DP lighthouse is a perfect example. Even with a fire in the stove, 2 windows on the first floor and another window half way up the stairs, you can't even turn from the stove and find your way to the bottom of the stairs. Ok you can do the bedroll trick but that breaks the experience for me. I think a glowing arrow would also break the experience. I almost never use paint on anything. I'm not knocking the idea but I know I wouldn't use it.

[MarrowStone]

Raytracing in this game would be downright broken hehe. You'd be able to see in a lot of places you cant currently.

I think giving spraypaint a dim glow would be nice and not really break the game. Like how minecraft's spider eye textures arent affected by light level. 

[odizzido]

You don't need ray tracing to make the lighting work better in this game. They just need to put in a little effort.

[Leeanda]

I never thought of using spray paint indoors before.. but a bit of a glow would come in handy. I've spent quite a while trying to find the door in the pv farm  in the dark,I usually get stuck somewhere so end up lighting a torch .

[Razum]

9 hours ago, odizzido said:

You don't need ray tracing to make the lighting work better in this game. They just need to put in a little effort.

Well, let's not start an entirely different discussion here, but yes, you are right. There is actually a mod called 'ambient lights', which makes indoor lighting much more realistic (or just ambient). It's not raytraced (shadows aren't better than normal), but it plays around with colors and stuff.
I don't use that mod mostly, because it's a little buggy. You often don't need a light source in caves, where you would need one in vanilla. But for the rest, the feeling is just much better.

[Alexander Farber]

On 2/25/2023 at 1:07 AM, Stuffed Plush Chainsaw said:

I mean that idea really is kinda cool, but:

Nope. Far from it. Not gonna go into details, but spray paint itself probably was a pretty nifty thing to pull off code wise. Now make that spray paint have luminosity depending on when it last got light? Man.

Working as a developer myself I don't believe that this is a difficult source code change, just add a timer to the spray paintings objects and that's it

[xanna]

To me, the spray paint already feels like it does some of this. OK, maybe not in pitch dark, but with dim light where nothing else is visible, paint symbols are bright enough to see more than anything else. I use the paint quite a lot.

 

On 2/28/2023 at 10:12 PM, Sito said:

Ok you can do the bedroll trick but that breaks the experience for me.

Completely valid, of course, I totally get it. For me, I have a headcanon that the bedroll trick is the survivor feeling their way around, which I feel they absolutely would do in real life. If it were real, I could pretty easily find my way from the bed to the filing cabinet in Camp Office with my eyes closed by reaching out and feeling along the countertops.