This game is painful

[Ccide]

I greatly enjoyed Cities in Motion 1 and looked forward to the sequel. I just purchased it and began to play today. To my disappointment the game is nearly unplayable. Even with the screen brightness at maximum the buildings are barely distinguishable from the roads. Trying to make out metro/trolley lines is actually painful. The opening menu is perfectly readable, as are the menu buttons in game; however, the actual map is too dark. I have tried a number of combinations of video settings and nothing worked, e.g. enhanced brightness at night. I let the game run for a while to see if the image would become more discernable as the day progressed but it did not change. In fact the brightest thing on the screen is the magma under the map!
I would appreciate any suggestions. Thank you for your time.

 

[XanosEU]

For starters I would have to suggestions for getting better and faster help for problems
Firt suggestion: This may belong in the Tech Support subforum.
Second suggestion: Read the instruction about posting bug reports or complaints.

Follow the guideline for report technical issues and maybe somebody can help you with your problem since it seems to be related to your PC. If you take a look at Youtube, there are plenty of gameplay videos and LPs, and the game is totally playable and the brightness is acceptable.
Since I even don't know whether you are using a PC or a MAC, neither what graphics card you have or if your system meets the minimum criteria for playing the game I can't help you making the game more discernable for you. Also I can't really imagine how your screen looks like. Maybe some screenshots would help
My generall tip would be to check the minimum requirements and update your graphics card driver. However, PLEASE deliver more information about your set-up and settings.

Looking forward for more information to help you, Regards.

 

[Miwi]

AlexanderN, are you an official support guy employed by CO ?
Anyway, none of your so-called "suggestions" does help the thread starter.

What does help maybe is the following:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?680456-Beautiful-CIM2-Mod

check this out, it definitely makes the game more visible.

 

[aj1304]

AlexanderN, are you an official support guy employed by CO ?
Anyway, none of your so-called "suggestions" does help the thread starter.

What does help maybe is the following:

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?680456-Beautiful-CIM2-Mod

check this out, it definitely makes the game more visible.

Well it clearly sounds like the issue is more than merely bloom effects and making the game look nicer. perhaps using different shaders might help but if the problem is not one of shaders than the instructions above are indeed the best way to quickly resolve the issue and help OP.

 

[co_martsu]

I greatly enjoyed Cities in Motion 1 and looked forward to the sequel. I just purchased it and began to play today. To my disappointment the game is nearly unplayable. Even with the screen brightness at maximum the buildings are barely distinguishable from the roads. Trying to make out metro/trolley lines is actually painful. The opening menu is perfectly readable, as are the menu buttons in game; however, the actual map is too dark. I have tried a number of combinations of video settings and nothing worked, e.g. enhanced brightness at night. I let the game run for a while to see if the image would become more discernable as the day progressed but it did not change. In fact the brightest thing on the screen is the magma under the map!
I would appreciate any suggestions. Thank you for your time.

Hi, and thank you for the feedback! I'm very sorry CIM2 wasn't to your liking.

 

[timfrombriz]

Try disabling 'Bloom' in the graphics settings.

I found it easier to see the world view without this option.

If its solely a brightness issue, sounds like you need to be in a darker room or increase the contrast on your monitor/tv.

 

[Ccide]

Thank you all for your replies.
The game seems to be working fine now. I uninstalled the game, deleted all saved files, and reinstalled. Then I played with the monitor and disabled bloom.
My only suggestion is, I wish the game had more in-game graphics options which would permit brightening the streets and such. But perhaps that will be unnecessary now that the game is working.
Again thank you all for the time you took to reply.

 

[Senap]

I wish the game had more in-game graphics options which would permit brightening the streets and such.

You might want to a look at SweetFX. I've been running with it since launch and the game becomes so much brighter and colorful. It's worth a try I think.

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?680456-Beautiful-CIM2-Mod