I want to use the purple effect on my map but things are way too dark and difficult to see, any combinations I could use with the purple effect and improve visibility?
You can use lights, objects with lights on them (like railings), and items with lots of color so that they will glow somewhat (e.g. the strut under Decorative). That's about it. It's tricky - I've tried this a couple times and gave up in frustration. The easiest way is to make a small map and use lights, but there's not enough lights to go around for even a medium sized map, and lights don't even render for players in split screen mode.
There aren't any effects that actually make the map brighter, so I don't think you can do much unless you use both lights and make your map fairly small. Try using a combination of other effects, and experiment untill you find something that works.
If you use purple and a combination of other filters it can make it look okay, but still a bit darker than desired. Try purple with nova, colorblind, and next gen. Or purple with nova, orange, and either next gen or colorblind. Like I said these still often look too dark but in some brighter areas of forge world and with the right lights and pieces with lights it can look pretty clear. I really wish they had included filters that slightly darken and slightly brighten the map since so many of the existing filters are either extermely dark or ridiculously bright (nova).
There are 'light' areas and 'dark' areas all over Forgeworld in the form of shadow/direct sunlight which will automatically brighten or darken objects placed within these areas; the brightest effect takes place on the borders between the two (when a Natural object turns almost pure white for example). Try confining your build to a 'light' area, avoid 'dark' spots.
yeah, the canyon is one of the darkest areas of forge world... if you really want to use the purple filter, you'll either need to try a different location, see what you could do with lights and/or lighted objects (like the strut) or see if another fx filter makes objects more discernible. You have to remember, visibility is your number one priority when messing with FX. You don't necessarily have to make everything visible at a distance, but you definitely don't want people getting lost in the dark.
You also have to keep in mind vibrancy...Just because the image is sharp, doesn't mean it won't hurt peoples eyes...just putting that out there. I've tried fiddiling with the color effects before on my maps...I tried getting a dark thing going on but not too dark. I think purple, oragne, and next gen worked for me, but I'm not so sure. I should have written it down. There was some combination that made it seem like a night club though because of the lights on the ground. Though, I don't do canyon maps, so far my maps have been in the sky with a completely synthetic enviornment.