Alienware AlienFX Lighting

[Marchewka]

"Alienware Owners Players with Alienware Light FX compatible hardware will now see their computer lights turn red while in combat."

I know this only affects a small subsection of the LotRO community, but since the time was taken to implement this in the first place, over so many other requested additions/fixes/etc. it seems like it should be (relatively) easy to address. This REALLY needs to be made a customizable interface option; something between ON and OFF. The red lighting is great (just tried it out) but having to deal with complete GO DARK for everything else in order for it to happen is not a good trade off. Have the combat event trigger red lighting for sure, but allow the default lighting settings to persist during non-combat is a must. Users would be satisfied with either the option enabled passively (Turbine takes care of it in the background) or allow us access to change the settings ourselves.

[or_bill68]

Do a search. there is another thread that lists a way to disable the feature in the edited first post.

it has something to do with the alienware control panel or something.

[Kril]

Do a search. there is another thread that lists a way to disable the feature in the edited first post.

it has something to do with the alienware control panel or something.

Note, hes not asking for the ability to COMPLETELY disable the lighting effects, he just wants his default colours back... (i.e. a toggle that when on: will have the tower dark except when triggered; and when off: will use the default colour scheme + triggers)...

I'd prefer a drop down even with at least 3 options. Disable FX triggers, Dark + FX Triggers, Default + FX Triggers

Yes, I know it can be disabled through the system tray, but I sort of like the red on combat, just wish I had my regular colours the rest of the time.

[Apparently]

I have been planning to get one of these, because lighted keyboard, and DISABILITY.

Nice to know that once I do, I won't be able to play LOTRO anymore without some sort of workaround.

Honestly, Turbine, do you even THINK about this stuff?

[Sapience]

This seems like a perfect opportunity to introduce... Pet Projects.

Devs are given a bit of free time here and there to investigate or work on pet projects. these an be small things they saw suggested on the forums or reworks of existing systems they think need some attention, or just little tweaks and features here and there.

The Alienware FX project was one of those. There is more coming, and the dev responsible has read this thread and mentioned that I should point out that there's a lot he can do, but that this is a per project and so it's not a top shelf priority.

As an example of a pet project that became a major system overhaul... Vaults. The entire revamp came out of a desire to just make them better. It ended up being a full-on revamp and expansion of the entire vault system.

Lua Scrpiting and UI skinning are other examples.

[Hurin]

I have been planning to get one of these, because lighted keyboard, and DISABILITY.

Nice to know that once I do, I won't be able to play LOTRO anymore without some sort of workaround.

Honestly, Turbine, do you even THINK about this stuff?

With a poor attitude like that, don't be surprised if they never go out of their way to give us something cool like this again.

Jeez, you don't even have the keyboard yet. And your attitude already sucks.

These forums, more and more, are just. . . embarrassing.

--H

P.S. Please note, pointing out the issue and where the functionality can be improved = fine. Your post, however, does neither.

[Sonsy]

You can disable this through AlienFX. Right click on the Alien icon in the Windows task bar and uncheck "Enable 3rd Party AlienFX" (or something like that). Your lights will then remain at their normal settings when you play. (I'd disabled 3rd party effects back a while ago when I was trying to figure out some irregularities with the power settings, so I had to re-enable it to get this to work.)


I think it is a neat and fun thing. My husband and I joke that you guys did it just for us!

[Menathradon]

1. You paid way too much for your laptop. (I know from experience.... )

2. Are you talking about the lights on the keyboard? And is this only available for Alienware users?

[kakarnage]

I love the idea as well, but had to turn it off. I don't understand why they would have the keyboard go completly dark by default like that, seems to be a very odd design decicion. I like to play in a dark room, and LOVE having my keyboard light up. Kind of can't live without it now

Witcher 2 did this pretty well. It was default colors most the time, then red for fighting, blue for stealth (I think) and yellow for something that I forget. I really liked that system quite a bit, but that also seemed to get my default color schemes messed up so I ended up uninstalling/re-installed the alienware FX program a few times while playing the game.

So maybe this is harder to do than one would think it would be..

[Hurin]

So maybe this is harder to do than one would think it would be..

Or maybe the guy who decided to do this as a fun little side-project ran out of time and figured something was better than nothing.

And those who don't like how it works can simply turn it off for this game simply enough.

(any tone you detect there is not directed at you. your post was perfectly cordial.)

[Marchewka]

This seems like a perfect opportunity to introduce... Pet Projects.
...
The Alienware FX project was one of those. There is more coming, and the dev responsible has read this thread and mentioned that I should point out that there's a lot he can do, but that this is a per [sic] project and so it's not a top shelf priority.

Nice! 2 for 1; we get an announcement re: inner workings/ongoing operations and a direct response from Rick within 4 posts. Sweet.

As an example of a pet project that became a major system overhaul... Vaults. The entire revamp came out of a desire to just make them better. It ended up being a full-on revamp and expansion of the entire vault system.

An announcement regarding ongoing inner workings followed by an example that actually rocked in terms of quality, utility, and was actually high on the list of (both my personal as well as widespread user base) demand. This has definitely given me some increased hope that things are in fact moving in the right direction in light of my previous concerns (in post 273 and following).

[Marchewka]

I do know how to build my own computer and have done so many times over the last 17 years, but I decided ~9 years ago to buy a computer from a company which I could get a warranty with and discovered Alienware and purchased a desktop tower from them, it cost me ~$3500 but it far outlasted the warranty and when I broke down the cost of the the computer per year, I ended up spending only about $500/year on it. When I looked at that number, I felt justified in investing in a product for quality and convenience over the long run so when the tower finally died, I went and took a look at who could provide a laptop that could match (or come close) the quality experience I'd had with my previous desktop without having to sacrifice much in screen size (kind of hard to downsize from a 23" monitor to a 15" laptop). Doing the research, only a nice 18.4" m18x Alienware was going to do my expectations justice. so

1. You paid way too much for your laptop. (I know from experience.... )

yes I did pay a lot for my laptop, but I am hoping that it will be just as worthwhile an investment as the desktop I purchased from them, and if it even comes close, I feel it will be money well spent and would recommend them to anyone in the market.

2. Are you talking about the lights on the keyboard? And is this only available for Alienware users?

Yes talking about the lights on the keyboard. Actually with the laptop (and desktop too, but the "zones" are defined differently on the desktop), there are 9 lighting "zones" spread across the entire laptop that can be affected by the AlienFX lighting. While this lighting option is available to Alienware users, it isn't exclusive. While reading some of the other threads/posts related to this topic prior to creating a new one, I came across reference to people utilizing the TactX keyboard with a non-Alienware system and still being able to utilize the AlienFX lighting enhancements. I do know that the keyboard is available for purchase directly, as a peripheral, from Alienware (Dell), though not having this arrangement myself, I say as a disclaimer that I have no experience utilizing it in this fashion and couldn't say for certain if it work; but it seems plausible.

[Curulanthir]

I like the idea behind this feature, and future enhancement would be very appreciated. Having a default color out of fight would be a nice start.

If I dare make an additional suggestion, the feature could use different things already implemented in the game, like in the change of ambient light depending on the hope / dread level of the character. It could start with maybe a yellow setting, and depending on the ambience it could go to the blue / red colors respectively for the out of fight lighting. I also was impressed how Mass Effect 3 handled the lighting, and two suggestions based on that system would be a color change to violet when the character has a morale bubble effect, and maybe add a little blinking if the health drops below a certain level (similar to the ambient light already).

[lp7p]

Ok, I came here seeking a solution and all I've found are off-handed digs regarding owning an Alienware and a half &&&& excuse as to why Turbine felt so inclined to screw with my computer lighting. AlienFX is fully programmable. If I had wanted my system to change colors I could have made those changes myself. That said, I think it is utter arrogance that a Turbine dev decided to include in a game update something like that and not give the Alienware owners an option to allow it or disallow it. Whatever "Rick" wrote into that patch has screwed my game. Right after that patch my system started BSOD crashing. One week later I have been forced to do a total reinstall just to attempt to play LOTRO. After hours of game downloads and updates I was playing....Rift, WoW, GW2, TSW just fine, no crashes, no freezes, no BSOD. As soon as I finished downloading and updating LOTRO guess what....I can't play it. Game freezes at the character loading screen and I can't even CTRL+ALT+DEL only a hard boot will return my computer to my control.

Until your last update which included this FX thing I was playing just fine. The pitiful part is I can't get it undone without uninstalling my FX drivers and reinstalling, since it appears that LOTRO wrote something to my registry that disables my AlienFX. Maddness sheer maddness why would you do that! Lastly, whatever you did has triggered MSE because when I start LOTRO it returns "MSE has detected.....not familiar.....send report".

I am sure some smartie will have something curt to say...oh well....it wasn't right and Sapience don't even try to sugar coat that......

Very Unhappy

[Hurin]

Whatever "Rick" wrote into that patch has screwed my game.

"Rick" is not a dev. And did not "write" anything into the "patch."

Until your last update which included this FX thing I was playing just fine. The pitiful part is I can't get it undone without uninstalling my FX drivers and reinstalling, since it appears that LOTRO wrote something to my registry that disables my AlienFX. Maddness sheer maddness why would you do that! Lastly, whatever you did has triggered MSE because when I start LOTRO it returns "MSE has detected.....not familiar.....send report".

Wiping your hard drive and starting from a known good state was a good first step. However, I would have not installed the AlienFX drivers/application and tried LotRO first on a more "plain vanilla" system. Only then would I personally feel justified in making the assertions you make.

It seems unlikely that LotRO has "wrote something to my registry that disables my AlienFX". . . and then the fact that your Microsoft Security Essentials is freaking out upon LotRO launch is even more worrisome.

If you really want to get to the bottom of this, I'd wipe, install Windows, install drivers (but not AlienFX ones), install Windows updates, install LotRO from a fresh official download, and then test. If, from this state, the problem does not manifest itself, but then does when you add in the AlienFX drivers, then you've got an ironclad case for a bug report and I'm sure Turbine would be interested in the results.

As it stands now, though, there's too many variables left in what you wrote. Most users are satisfied with "It worked before and now it doesn't so I know it's your fault!". . . but those who troubleshoot things for a living need to actually rule things out. And they often need the patience and help of an affected user to do so. Especially when a user's experience varies so greatly from that of others even when the hardware and software stack are extremely similar.

I am sure some smartie will have something curt to say

Well, if all you want to do is rant and be upset, then I suppose you'll see my post above as "curt." If, however, you're willing to do some work to help Turbine get to the bottom of a likely very peculiar and isolated issue, perhaps my post above will be taken in the spirit in which it is offered.

Best Regards,

Hurin

[lp7p]

Thank you for the pointers Hurin and Sap I apologize for calling you a dev. I got my lights to come back on and I am posting here for someone else. Rightclick your AlienFX icon in Action Center notification box, uncheck Enable 3rd party access, Go Dark, then Go Light. I did rant, it felt good, because Ive been out of the game for a week trying to work and reload all this stuff on my computer. Believe me once I get it all there I'm doing a System Restore Backup because too many people (Microsoft included) change stuff and all of it doesn't work for everyone.

[Errastas]

Okay, since update 10.1, whenever LOTRO boots, my lights turn white. If I reset them to blue, then enter combat, they turn red, good. But when I leave combat, the lights turn white again, not blue. How do I fix this?

Before U10.1, the lights would default to off, and turn red in combat. That was better. I want to keep the red in combat, but don't want them defaulting to white.

[fluflu]

I don't think you can change the lighting. Just be happy that the lights are white now, instead of black. I know I am!

[Rampagingdeath]

I don't think you can change the lighting. Just be happy that the lights are white now, instead of black. I know I am!

Same here, I run an m15x and hadn't seen the effect as it's been a while since I dragged it to work to mess with at lunchtime, but it was my birthday earlier this week so I treated myself to the tact-x keyboard and mouse and I like the effect and colour change. Bit miffed that it goes black when I exit Lotro but it's easily cured with the Alienware command centre, a quick reload of my profile and all is well.

[Errastas]

I don't think you can change the lighting. Just be happy that the lights are white now, instead of black. I know I am!

I prefer black out of combat rather than white. Hate the white look, we need it resort to default alienfx settings when out of combat.

[Ekim]

I really enjoy the white out of combat over the black (was very hard to see since I've gotten used to the default alienfx. This was a very pleasant surprise for the 10.1 update. I'm loving the red in combat too.

[maiki1978]

Actually the white is still ok and the change to red is cool....but again it would be even better that Turbine allows us to put up the saved themes that we create on our own...simple as that...so that they don t have to make use of a palette of colours in the options menu in LOTRO etc....would be a nice thing to have for us colour fanatics....