Sacred 2: Fallen Angel and LightFX Causing Alienware M17x Issues

Nicholas "bapenguin" Puleo July 19th, 2009 at 2:36 PM

A little known feature of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel on the PC is the ability to integrate with Dell's LightFX keyboard lighting system. The LightFX system backlit Dell's now defunct XPS laptop line with numerous colors, while the LightFX SDK allowed developers to control these based on what was happening in the game.

Now that Alienware is fully integrated into Dell, the latest Alienware M17x laptop from Dell also supports their LightFX system. The problem with Sacred 2, is the game doesn't appear to be working properly with the keyboard lighting system, and there doesn't seem to be a way to disable it in the game.

In an interview with Driver Haven, Ascaron had this to say:

SC2Team: Eric from Dell has shown us the LightFX feature during GDC this year and I thought its a cool feature to build into the game. We use LightFX to support the gamer as a feedback system. Example...hitpoints are red flashing, if healthpotion is needed the Dell starts flashing, special achievements and the Dell starts applauding in rainbow colors. There are a few more functions to be built and connect the game with the LightFX from Dell and Alienware. The good thing : It just took us 30 minutes to build a first sample. We also can use the LightFX for other gimmicks like the Xbox 360 controller vibration on a PC.

The problem is right now all it does is cause random flashes when getting attacked, or the occasional spell effect when casting. There's no health feedback or anything of the sort which was mentioned in the interview.

Hopefully Ascaron, who is now bankrupt and rolled into a new studio, can find the time to patch this feature to make it:

1) Work Correctly
2) Optional

Here's a video of it in action.

Tags: pc technology sacred bugs sacred 2 alienware

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7 Total Reader Comments

mightbe at 11:36 AM on 7.19.2009

That's some crap there. I wonder if you have a newer version of the keyboard driver than what they dev'd on that's causing an issue.

I've seen several ambient lighting solutions in action (the AmBX with Hawx specifically) and they do add a neat effect for a very reasonable price. I'll likely pick one up when I have a more permanent computer room.

txshurricane at 02:00 PM on 7.19.2009

That looks really annoying.

smurphster at 02:41 PM on 7.19.2009

yeah i was thinking the same thing. i can understand different colors and maybe pulsing but that flashing looks very distracting.

bapenguin at 03:01 PM on 7.19.2009

Yup, I do like the idea of simple things like - keyboard is green when health is ok, then red when not. But this? It's just annoying, and there's no way to disable it as far as I can tell.

Zonf86 at 02:22 AM on 7.20.2009

Won't you be looking at the screen rather than the keyboard most of the time anyway?

bapenguin at 02:41 AM on 7.20.2009

It's easily in your peripheral vision.

smurphster at 05:20 AM on 7.20.2009

ok this might seem like a weird question but can you easily tell what color it is w/o looking at it? i'm red/green colorblind (plus some others) so i have a hard time with colors w/o looking right at them and its even worse in the dark.