Gigaquad's increased brightness patch
This article is about a fan-made patch for Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II by Gigaquad called Increased brightness for Ultima Underworld 1 & 2
Description[edit]
This patch alters the lighting system in Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II. Specifically it makes all light sources in the game brighter.
Self Description[edit]
Taken from the UWbright.txt file:
Increased brightness for Ultima Underworld 1 & 2 ----------------- by Gigaquad ------------------ I did not like how dark the Underworld games were and wanted to increase the brightness a bit. A well know fact is that deleting data\shades.dat will remove all shades, but this really kills the atmosphere. Shades.dat consists of eight 12 byte groups (probably for different radii from player), where the first byte in a group defines the shade. I settled for dividing the shade values by two, which hopefully works best for most monitors and brightness settings. A lit torch is now bright enough to illuminate a small room, making objects easier to see. Installation: Replace data\shades.dat with the file provided in this archive. It works in both UW1 and UW2.
Alternative[edit]
A well-known hack for lighting in the Ultima Underworld games is to delete the shades.dat file from the data folder. See details in cheating with permanent light
Difference[edit]
Techincal[edit]
The patch replaces the file data\shades.dat. This file contains 8 entries for the 8 light souces in the games and each entry has 8 values. The meanings of these values are described in UW internal formats. The patch only changes the first vale of each entry, which is essentially the shader strength. The following table shows the values of the file, with the first column divided into original (O) and patched (P) version values. The names of lights and enchantments have been added for clarity.
| entry | light | enchantment | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| O | P | ||||||||||
| 0 | none | darkness | 56 | 28 | 0 | 5 | 0 | -3 | 3 | 16 | 16 |
| 1 | candle | burning match | 46 | 23 | 0 | 4 | 0 | -3 | 3 | 16 | 16 |
| 2 | torch | candlelight | 39 | 19 | 0 | 2 | 0 | -2 | 4 | 16 | 15 |
| 3 | taper | light | 30 | 15 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 16 | 15 |
| 4 | lantern | magic lantern | 28 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 16 | 15 |
| 5 | night vision | 21 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 16 | 15 | |
| 6 | light sphere | daylight | 18 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 16 | 15 |
| 7 | sunlight | 18 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 16 | 15 | |
Visual Comparison[edit]
Ultima Underworld with the standard shades file
Ultima Underworld with the shades file patched
Ultima Underworld with the shades file deleted
Installation[edit]
Obtain the patch and copy the included shades.dat file over your game's shades.dat file in the data folder. Don't forget to keep a backup copy of that file handy incase you decide to switch back.
Alternatively, and recommendably, use Ultima Underworld Portable to install and manage this patch and several other quality-of-life improvements for the Underworld series.
External Links[edit]
| User-Made Enhancements (not Translations) | |
|---|---|
| Ultima I | Spelling Fix (PC) |
| Ultima II | Spelling Fix (PC) ☥ Upgrade Patch (PC) |
| Ultima III | Ultima III Gold (C64) ☥ Upgrade Patch (PC) |
| Ultima IV | Ultima IV Gold (C64) ☥ Remastered (C64) ☥ Upgrade Patch (PC) |
| Ultima V | Remastered (C64) ☥ Upgrade Patch (PC) ☥ Red Tabard Patch (PC) ☥ Enhanced Sprites Patch (PC) |
| Ultima VI | Nitpickers Delight Patch (PC) |
| Underworld I+II | MIDI-Patches ☥ Portable ☥ Mouselook Patch ☥ Brightness Patch |
| Ultima VII | Glassmyer Hacks ☥ Nitpickers Delight Patch |
| Ultima IX | Dialogue Patch ☥ Economy Patch ☥ Forgotten World ☥ German Re-Translation ☥ 1.19f ☥ 1.19h |