Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-30-2017, 01:24 PM   #21
Otaku
 
Otaku's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kalzazz View Post
I'm surprised infra vision isn't mentioned
Quote:
Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
Infravision, Ultravision and Hyperspectral Vision seem to be a somewhat different group.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Otaku View Post
I was going to cover all the Vision-related traits at once but not only have I already done a few, but I believe that rushing to do all the rest at once will muddle the discussion, even if it means we'll have to cover some familiar territory later on a later date.
In other words "Yes, I'll be covering these at a different time."
__________________
My GURPS Fourth Edition library consists of Basic Set: Characters, Basic Set: Campaigns, Martial Arts, Powers, Powers: Enhanced Senses, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements, Power-Ups 2: Perks, Power-Ups 3: Talents, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, Power-Ups 6: Quirks, Power-Ups 8: Limitations, Powers, Social Engineering, Supers, Template Toolkit 1: Characters, Template Toolkit 2: Races, one issue of Pyramid (3/83) a.k.a. Alternate GURPS IV, GURPS Classic Rogues, and GURPS Classic Warriors. Most of which was provided through the generosity of others. Thanks! :)
Otaku is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-2017, 02:48 PM   #22
KarlKost
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

Quote:
Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
Infravision, Ultravision and Hyperspectral Vision seem to be a somewhat different group.
Because they are scientifical alternatives for our regular common vision, ie, they are possible in the real world, and work with the same physical properties as our "normal" vision; the only difference is that they are on different wave spectrums.

Dark Vision is a super-natural sense, which means that it is a purely fantasy idea, non real, like insubstanciality. It is a COMPLETELY unreal "sense" that can SEE without light, just as if there were light. Period. No further explanations required, because it is NOT a scientific explainable phenomena; just deal with it as if it were normal, regular vision, but in total dark instead. It is the supernatural vision of vampires and demons; there is NO scientific explanations of why they can do it; they just do... Because they are just imaginary beings, without real life substance to impose the boring "natural laws" on them.

If you REALLY need some kind of pseudoscientific technobabble to back it up, you could say that Dark Vision works on "mana wavelenght", or that it enables vision of "ethereal light", or is some kind of vision sense that detects some kind of cosmic rays of some other mambo jambo like that... Whatever, as long as it enables the creature to SEE (with its eyes or whatever organ it have to detect light) at total dark as if it were light, you can say it is some kind of unknow energy.

It is no more strange than the vast majority of Detect how does it work something like Detect Evil? Answer... Magic!

Thats the problem with Magic... It makes all answers be... Well... Magical... Which isn't REALLY an answer
KarlKost is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-2017, 03:18 PM   #23
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

I took Night Vision on my character in our occult WWII game, and have gradually bought it up to maximum. It's immensely useful in that setting, where lots of stuff happens at night, but there are no widespread night-vision devices.

It's especially valuable on an infiltrator or other stealth specialist, where carrying lights is a dead giveaway. The actions of Chase Taylor, one of the PCs in Icelander's Jade Serenity write-ups, give a good idea of the ways to use it.
johndallman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-2017, 04:42 PM   #24
Bruno
 
Bruno's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

Quote:
Originally Posted by Anthony View Post
Does that mean colorblind, or does it also mean you cannot distinguish black from white?
I have always assumed "cannot distinguish black from white". There's something in CGI called a "clay render" for fast blocking out of scenes and demonstrating arrangements of stuff - where everything is made out of a simple matte light-grey material that's quick to render but shows shadows and shapes acceptably well. No colors, no polish, no reflections, no transparency.
I've always pictured Dark Vision as being like that: surfaces, but no information ABOUT those surfaces except geometry, and as if there's an unnatural ambient light source from nowhere in particular, so no shadows.
When I think about it for a few seconds, the other way I picture it is as a depth map, which is another visualization method from CGI, where white is "near" and black is "far" and everything else is shades of grey between indicating distance from the camera.

Here, let me create some concrete pictures!
Regular: https://www.dropbox.com/s/50tos35fzy...ision.png?dl=0
Clay: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gn1ezjaja4...-Clay.png?dl=0
Depth: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i5nrq9km57...Depth.png?dl=0
__________________
All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table
A Wiki for my F2F Group
A neglected GURPS blog
Bruno is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-2017, 09:08 PM   #25
ericthered
Hero of Democracy
 
ericthered's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

nice, where did you get the images? I you have them just sitting around on your computer, I'm burning with envy.

The last option is black and white TV view. Which is the first thing that comes to my mind, truth be told. It doesn't make as much sense as the others, but its what I've always considered.
__________________
Be helpful, not pedantic

Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog

Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one!
ericthered is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-30-2017, 11:27 PM   #26
evileeyore
Banned
 
evileeyore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
I have always assumed "cannot distinguish black from white". There's something in CGI called a "clay render" for fast blocking out of scenes and demonstrating arrangements of stuff - where everything is made out of a simple matte light-grey material that's quick to render but shows shadows and shapes acceptably well. No colors, no polish, no reflections, no transparency.
I've always pictured Dark Vision as being like that: surfaces, but no information ABOUT those surfaces except geometry, and as if there's an unnatural ambient light source from nowhere in particular, so no shadows.
When I think about it for a few seconds, the other way I picture it is as a depth map, which is another visualization method from CGI, where white is "near" and black is "far" and everything else is shades of grey between indicating distance from the camera.

Here, let me create some concrete pictures!
Regular: https://www.dropbox.com/s/50tos35fzy...ision.png?dl=0
Clay: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gn1ezjaja4...-Clay.png?dl=0
Depth: https://www.dropbox.com/s/i5nrq9km57...Depth.png?dl=0
I agree I've always seen it as the Clay Pic.

But Depth Map offers an intriguing possibility as a Limitation.
evileeyore is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-31-2017, 06:58 AM   #27
Bruno
 
Bruno's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
nice, where did you get the images? I you have them just sitting around on your computer, I'm burning with envy.
I rendered them out while I was writing the post, but I did have the assets sitting around on my computer. It's a set from DAZ3d.com called The Ruins of Angkor Wat, you'll probably recognize the front door there.

I got into CGI for creating portraits of my RPG characters >.>
__________________
All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table
A Wiki for my F2F Group
A neglected GURPS blog
Bruno is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-31-2017, 09:41 AM   #28
KarlKost
 
Join Date: Mar 2017
Location: Brazil
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

Dark Vision is not Sonar... Thats why I've always seen it like colorblindness... Specially because you can take the color sight enhancement that lets you see as if it were bright. There wouldn't be any shadows (or, perhaps there is, maybe vampires and demons will see the TRUE shadows of souls in total Darkness... Whatever), but a white wall would show in a lighter gray than a black wall.

Has anyone here ever played Skyrim here? There is a Dark Vision spell in the game that works EXACTLY like that, turning all into a grey tone
KarlKost is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-01-2017, 11:09 PM   #29
dripton
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Northern Virginia, USA
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

Night Vision (and Dark Vision if allowed) are great advantages for dungeon crawling PCs. Most PCs don't find the points, though. They prefer to rely on "free" Continual Light. Which is indeed "free" if you have a friendly caster, except for the mere 4-yard penalty-free radius (in DF anyway) and the fact that it lets creatures with Dark Vision see you way before you can see them.

Even with plentiful Continual Light, I think it's still worth buying 3 points of Night Vision, to get the penalty-free radius around a Continual Light source from 4 yards to 12 yards.
dripton is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-02-2017, 04:30 AM   #30
Boomerang
 
Boomerang's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Melbourne, Australia (also known as zone Brisbane)
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#38): Dark Vision, Night Vision

Hyperspectral vision seems to be better than darkvision (grants a +3 bonus) for the same point cost. What does darkvision allow that hyperspectral vision does not?
Boomerang is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
advantage, advantage of the week, dark vision, night vision, vision, [basic]

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:11 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.