[1.0.3.7] highly opaque and saturated exploration map overlay

[dostillevi]

I've already submitted via the bug form.

Also note the blurry text of the badge, which has been mentioned in other bug reports.

[vaaish1]

I have a theory that the blurry text is an artifact of how the game renders transparency. It seems to go away when you hover on the badge and it always looks like the normal state is a bit more transparent.

[rxnnxs]

The text is a litle bit scaled down for the basic and also for the normal badge. if you hover over it, it is slightly bigger - the font is then to 100% the dpi it was made for and therefore sharp.
I wrote in another thread that this little tweak could as well been ignored and the fully good readable 100% dpi text should been taken.
As well as the change of the size of the badges in the distance. this is also a point where they are scaled. so no scaling down would make them crystal clear.
The opaque problem is known and somehow intended for 1.0.3.7. It is supposed to help all those gpus that are having a hard time.
this badge problem reminds me of Space Empires V.. and the badges there..

[vaaish1]

I don't know how their engine renders fonts, but I've built interactive digital experiences for the last 20 years and typefaces are vector and DPI agnostic. They aren't "made for" any particular DPI although the typeface designer CAN design them around specific use cases by doing things like opening up letterforms to read more clearly at smaller sizes. Further, even if they were bitmap, scaling DOWN typically results in a sharper outline because the scaling doesn't need to guess at pixels. That said, high res displays can mess with font rendering and operating systems tend to have a version of hinting to ensure that the letter outlines are sharp.

I suspect that the issue either relates to font hinting on half pixels or the engine is rasterizing transparent UI elements prior to applying transparency resulting in the badge being slightly off and a bit blurry.

[Erik Rutins]

The overlay is not a bug. For the time being, that's how they will look until we can improve the transparency on the better performing overlays. Unfortunately, because of an issue we found with the shaders which may require an engine upgrade to fix, it could be a week or two before the appearance sees further improvement.

Regarding the text, thank you for the report.

[Dex101]

Hi,

Thank you for this game.

In the latest update, 1.0.3.7, in the "OTHER CHANGES" you have:
- exploration and diplomacy map overlays now auto-enable when in relevant UI area

As Erik Rubins replies, it could take a week or two before the issue of the opaque overlay is fixed.

If this fix takes longer than expected, could you remove the functionality to auto-enable the exploration and map overlay when the relevant UI area is selected.

Also, after the exploration area of the UI is selected, clicking on the map enables the overlay after disabling it in the overlay menu.