Wise Omelette

Gotcha okay I get it now. That seems odd, the mod applies the exact same contrast values to all times/weathers, as well as balancing out color and keeping saturation constant... so it really shouldn't do what you described. I tested it thoroughly before posting it, when I run the files I uploaded, every weather pattern has heavily-reduced contrast, like demonstrated in the photos. I don't know if you manually edited the values yourself, or just installed the file raw as I uploaded it, but to the best of my knowledge and experience it runs correctly and mellows out the contrast (without overdoing it and making things look flat, that would be weird) when installed as intended.
If you want to edit the values even more yourself, open the weather.ini file and just change CONTRAST = 1.12500 in all 20 weather patterns to some lesser value, just play around with it and enter what feels right for you!
If changing that contrast value isn't enough for you, you can also try changing BALANCE = 0.06310 0.06310 0.06310. I gotta admit, it's been awhile since I made the mod or played around with weather.ini, I'm a bit rusty on what this value did, I think it has to do with the balance of RGB color values, so it may or not help. The other two values my mod changes won't help your problem, CARGLOBALFACTOR just controls the overall reflectiveness/shininess of cars-only, and DESATURATION definitely shouldn't be touched, it just keeps everything from looking dull and gray.
Oh and here's a really REALLY cool tip for very quickly checking how all the different weather patterns look in your game:
In the same folder that weather.ini is in, find WeatherDesc.ini. Open it, and right at the top you'll see:
//Default time scale : 50
Change 50 to 5000, save the file, and run the game. As soon as you leave your house, you'll see all the in-game weather patterns and times-of-day very quickly cycling (not too fast that you can't see them though, but it only takes a few solid moments to get through all of them). Be wary the game might crash after a bit when set to that setting, but it's a great tool for quickly testing how all weather patterns look!
Be sure to change that value back to "50" when you're done testing.
[EDIT: Okay again it's been awhile since I messed with this stuff, it might actually be:
[WEATHERDESC]
Name        =    "FREERIDE"
TimeScale   =   10
the number 10 might be what you need to edit to 5000. I'm sorry, it's been months since I messed with this stuff, if the first thing I said doesn't change anything, try changing TimeScale   =   10 to TimeScale   =   5000
On top of all that, either of those values might have different defaults in your game, I can't remember if I permanently changed one for myself to change the flow of time.
sorry! Either way, change all values back to original once done testing]
I really hope that helps, sorry it wasn't to your taste the first time around!

I don't really get what you're saying... the only thing my mod does is create a consistent lowered-contrast across all default weather patterns. It doesn't alter anything about the order weather and time occurs in the game, everything else was left stock.

Oh wow, okay! Hey I can actually solve the too-dark shadows thing for you, I personally created a mod for that!
 
Here's the link if you want to try it, I'm pretty proud of making it 😄 https://turboduck.net/files/file/777-tdu1-simple-contrast-reductionbalancing-not-hdr-compatible/

Oh, okay. It might not be that then... I suppose you could still try limiting the framerate with your graphics driver software in case the game is running at a higher FPS than the monitor (I think that's technically possible, some people do it for some competitive games for a very slight advantage) so maybe just to be safe try limiting it to like 58 FPS and try that? If that doesn't work, sorry man 😞

Are you playing above 60 FPS? There's been a weird history with this game of having a variety of physics bugs related to playing over 60 FPS, including collisions with invisible traffic vehicles, etc. I know you tried removing traffic, but I'm wondering if playing over 60 FPS is generating some sort of "detected impact" with the road or just a general glitch that's causing it. If you're playing over 60 FPS, trying capping it with your graphics card's driver. If you aren't, I don't know what else to say, sorry!
I used to play with an uncapped framerate and experienced all sorts of weird issues, including the one you're describing, it used to drive me nuts. Now that I capped it to 60 FPS, I haven't noticed these issues anymore.
Let me know if that ends up helping out!

Oh wow, okay! Hey I can actually solve the too-dark shadows thing for you, I personally created a mod for that!
 
Here's the link if you want to try it, I'm pretty proud of making it 😄 https://turboduck.net/files/file/777-tdu1-simple-contrast-reductionbalancing-not-hdr-compatible/

Absolutely!

I'm very happy with what you've said. I wanted to tell you how much I liked this post 
 

Hey did you ever get it to work?

Hey yeah no problem! I just took a deeper look on the computer I have TDU installed in, adding black to the ducati's purchasable colors should be a snap. Follow the steps I described above and let me know how it goes!
Also I took a closer look at the colors sub-menu, what you want to do specifically is this: Look at the box labelled "Exterior Color Sets", and you'll see a button called "Rename". There's a green plus symbol to the left of it, click that. It brings up a list of the colors the game contains for vehicles, use the little "search" window in the bottom left corner, search "black", choose whatever appears that sounds goods (it should initially bring up "Basalt Black, maybe try that?), then click "ok" in the bottom right corner. The popup box closes, and you should now have the new color added to the drop-down list. Voila! Last thing, now click the big "save" button in the top right of the screen. Launch the game and go to the non-deluxe paint shop, the new color should work. I'll caution though, given it wasn't designed to be repainted, you might run into weird problems (if the game renders any details on the bike like carbon fiber as part of it's paint job, it might look weird replacing it with a solid car). Just try it and see.
Make sure you backup your game's directory before doing anything in case it messes something up.
Let me know how it goes!

I don't have an exact answer for you, but I might be able to offer some decently-related information, as well as a "better-than-nothing" fix.
First, you need a utility called "TDUMT" (I think it's on this website somewhere?). Anyway find it and download it. When you run that program, the button in the middle should say "vehicle manager". Choose that, and scroll through the list of cars and bikes to the Ducati you wanted to edit.
Once you find it, double click, there are sub-tabs lower down in the window that show various things you can edit. Most of it is trivial stuff, but there is a "colors" section for what paints you can select for that vehicle at a paint shop. You can even use the section to view and edit available interior colors for cars.
Unfortunately, this section DOES NOT allow you to easily change if a vehicle can visit the deluxe shop. However, if you had a specific general color or colors in mind, you can use the buttons on the color menu to add new entries from a lot of different named colors in the game's code. (It's not hard to do, but annoyingly none of the buttons have labels, I think once you're on the colors menu and you can see the drop-down box with current paint options, there's a "+" button or "add" or something nearby. Use that to add any colors you want from a large list of names).
That's the "better-than-nothing" fix, but no, it's doesn't exactly allow what you were hoping for.
Documentation for TDUMT is weirdly hard to come by (a lot of guides are either incomplete or poorly translated and way too vague). However, through some messing around I've noticed there is a "Database" option or something on the main screen where you initially clicked "vehicle manager". If the game has any sort of "yes/no" coding about visiting the deluxe paint shop, I'm sure it's in there.
One more bonus note: I once tested adding a light blue color as a purchasable option to the stock game's Ferrari 288 GTO. Interestingly, that vehicle normally cannot visit even the STANDARD paint shop because it only has one color available. Adding a second selectable color through TDUMT allowed that vehicle to visit the standard shop without a problem, because it now had more than one paint available.
 
Sorry for the long message, hope some of this somehow helps. Good luck!

Hey yeah no problem! I just took a deeper look on the computer I have TDU installed in, adding black to the ducati's purchasable colors should be a snap. Follow the steps I described above and let me know how it goes!
Also I took a closer look at the colors sub-menu, what you want to do specifically is this: Look at the box labelled "Exterior Color Sets", and you'll see a button called "Rename". There's a green plus symbol to the left of it, click that. It brings up a list of the colors the game contains for vehicles, use the little "search" window in the bottom left corner, search "black", choose whatever appears that sounds goods (it should initially bring up "Basalt Black, maybe try that?), then click "ok" in the bottom right corner. The popup box closes, and you should now have the new color added to the drop-down list. Voila! Last thing, now click the big "save" button in the top right of the screen. Launch the game and go to the non-deluxe paint shop, the new color should work. I'll caution though, given it wasn't designed to be repainted, you might run into weird problems (if the game renders any details on the bike like carbon fiber as part of it's paint job, it might look weird replacing it with a solid car). Just try it and see.
Make sure you backup your game's directory before doing anything in case it messes something up.
Let me know how it goes!

I don't have an exact answer for you, but I might be able to offer some decently-related information, as well as a "better-than-nothing" fix.
First, you need a utility called "TDUMT" (I think it's on this website somewhere?). Anyway find it and download it. When you run that program, the button in the middle should say "vehicle manager". Choose that, and scroll through the list of cars and bikes to the Ducati you wanted to edit.
Once you find it, double click, there are sub-tabs lower down in the window that show various things you can edit. Most of it is trivial stuff, but there is a "colors" section for what paints you can select for that vehicle at a paint shop. You can even use the section to view and edit available interior colors for cars.
Unfortunately, this section DOES NOT allow you to easily change if a vehicle can visit the deluxe shop. However, if you had a specific general color or colors in mind, you can use the buttons on the color menu to add new entries from a lot of different named colors in the game's code. (It's not hard to do, but annoyingly none of the buttons have labels, I think once you're on the colors menu and you can see the drop-down box with current paint options, there's a "+" button or "add" or something nearby. Use that to add any colors you want from a large list of names).
That's the "better-than-nothing" fix, but no, it's doesn't exactly allow what you were hoping for.
Documentation for TDUMT is weirdly hard to come by (a lot of guides are either incomplete or poorly translated and way too vague). However, through some messing around I've noticed there is a "Database" option or something on the main screen where you initially clicked "vehicle manager". If the game has any sort of "yes/no" coding about visiting the deluxe paint shop, I'm sure it's in there.
One more bonus note: I once tested adding a light blue color as a purchasable option to the stock game's Ferrari 288 GTO. Interestingly, that vehicle normally cannot visit even the STANDARD paint shop because it only has one color available. Adding a second selectable color through TDUMT allowed that vehicle to visit the standard shop without a problem, because it now had more than one paint available.
 
Sorry for the long message, hope some of this somehow helps. Good luck!

I don't have an exact answer for you, but I might be able to offer some decently-related information, as well as a "better-than-nothing" fix.
First, you need a utility called "TDUMT" (I think it's on this website somewhere?). Anyway find it and download it. When you run that program, the button in the middle should say "vehicle manager". Choose that, and scroll through the list of cars and bikes to the Ducati you wanted to edit.
Once you find it, double click, there are sub-tabs lower down in the window that show various things you can edit. Most of it is trivial stuff, but there is a "colors" section for what paints you can select for that vehicle at a paint shop. You can even use the section to view and edit available interior colors for cars.
Unfortunately, this section DOES NOT allow you to easily change if a vehicle can visit the deluxe shop. However, if you had a specific general color or colors in mind, you can use the buttons on the color menu to add new entries from a lot of different named colors in the game's code. (It's not hard to do, but annoyingly none of the buttons have labels, I think once you're on the colors menu and you can see the drop-down box with current paint options, there's a "+" button or "add" or something nearby. Use that to add any colors you want from a large list of names).
That's the "better-than-nothing" fix, but no, it's doesn't exactly allow what you were hoping for.
Documentation for TDUMT is weirdly hard to come by (a lot of guides are either incomplete or poorly translated and way too vague). However, through some messing around I've noticed there is a "Database" option or something on the main screen where you initially clicked "vehicle manager". If the game has any sort of "yes/no" coding about visiting the deluxe paint shop, I'm sure it's in there.
One more bonus note: I once tested adding a light blue color as a purchasable option to the stock game's Ferrari 288 GTO. Interestingly, that vehicle normally cannot visit even the STANDARD paint shop because it only has one color available. Adding a second selectable color through TDUMT allowed that vehicle to visit the standard shop without a problem, because it now had more than one paint available.
 
Sorry for the long message, hope some of this somehow helps. Good luck!

View File TDU1: Simple Contrast Reduction/Balancing *NOT HDR COMPATIBLE*
This is an incredibly simple modification for anyone tired of how intense the contrast is in TDU1. The photos show before/after shots (I haven't titled them but it should be really obvious which screenshots have less contrast). This isn't really a weather mod, because I haven't changed anything about the timings or colors of the weather itself. Instead, I simply applied the following values to all in-game weather patterns (as well as all outdoor environment like paint shops, car rentals, etc.):
 
CONTRAST = 1.12500
DESATURATION = 1.00000
BALANCE = 0.06310 0.06310 0.06310
CARGLOBALFACTOR = 200.00000
 
All this does is get rid of the nasty intense contrast, keeps colors looking balanced and natural across different weather patterns, and slightly brightens lighting on vehicles so you can see them properly from any camera angle. I intentionally didn't change any values that affect sunlight, clouds, or the like to preserve the game's general sense of weather (I'm not really a fan of any of the fancy "weather mods" I've tried, they never address the contrast issue and often have weird problems and drawbacks).
 
About HDR: I'm sure the changes I've made would work in the game's HDR mode, but I haven't bothered doing that because I don't ever use it, the whole point of this mod is to reduce contrast, whereas HDR mode increases contrast.
--------
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS (FOR BEGINNERS):
1: Find the game files directory (by default it's "Program Files (x86)/Test Drive Unlimited")
2: Once you're in the game files directory, enter the "Euro" folder, then the "Bnk" folder
3: If you haven't installed any mods in TDU1 already, backup the "Bnk1.map" file somewhere safe (in case something goes wrong) and replace it with my version (all this change does is allow the game to read modified files. If you have already gotten other mods working, skip this step).
4: Now enter the "FX" folder
5: Backup "Weather.ini" somewhere safe (in case you want to revert changes or you don't like what my mod does)
6: Replace "Weather.ini" with the one I have provided
 
That's it! Cars should now be more visible and less highly contrasted. 
However, if you use other mods that rely on edits to weather.ini, replacing yours with mine will break those mods. See below for a work-around.
--------
NOTES FOR EXPERIENCED MODDERS:
1: Do whatever you want with this, it barely took any work and I don't care about credit
2: If you want to use my contrast reduction without replacing the whole weather.ini file (if you already have other mods that changed it), just copy the 4 lines of values I listed near the top and use them to replace the values with the same names in the "DEFAULT" section at the top of weather.ini. as well as all 20 sections of "FREERIDEWEATHER_[afternoon/morning/etc]" located a little under the "DEFAULT" section
--------
Feel free to reach out with any questions!
Submitter Wise Omelette Submitted 01/29/2024 Category Environment