[TF2] "Earbuds" was reverted to have selfillum / glow in the dark like it did at original release, however this might not have been a good idea.

[NonhumanFromSteam]

EDIT: Now that I know that this was reverted over an Email request, I'll change the wording up a little bit.

As of the August 13, 2024 Patch the "Earbuds" item glows in the dark just like it did before the December 2, 2010 Patch, which had removed the glow 13 years ago.

While originally the idea MIGHT have been to make the Earbuds somewhat resemble the Apple dancing silhouette advertisements as the first commenter mentioned, the selfillum glow effect was removed later in the December 2, 2010 Patch as the TF Team later on likely have realized that the fullbright glow looked VERY out of place and unnatural opposed to everything else in the game... as obviously, the characters in TF2 are not black silhouettes standing over a bright colored solid background like in the ads, that's the only case where the glow would have made sense, otherwise it looks unintended/broken.

The material file for the item simply needs to have "$selfillum 1" removed from it to not glow.

What it currently looks like ingame, very unnatural looking:

[ArtKitCat]

Im pretty sure this is a reference to apple's adverts at the time, so i dont think this should be changed.

[JoriKos]

Despite there being a patch note of "Fixed regressed self-illum setting for the Earbuds." in the August 13, 2024 patch, the Earbuds still currently glows in the dark just like it did before the December 2, 2010 Patch, which had originally fixed the issue 13 years ago.

The "regressed self-illum setting" means the self-illumination wasn't present. The patch you are talking about never had this listed as a change, it's undocumented, likely unintended. The earbuds are supposed to glow like this, it was a specific community request (see the e-mail that was sent below):

[TFHatGuy]

Despite there being a patch note of "Fixed regressed self-illum setting for the Earbuds." in the August 13, 2024 patch, the Earbuds still currently glows in the dark just like it did before the December 2, 2010 Patch, which had originally fixed the issue 13 years ago.

The "regressed self-illum setting" means the self-illumination wasn't present. The patch you are talking about never had this listed as a change, it's undocumented, likely unintended. The earbuds are supposed to glow like this, it was a specific community request (see the e-mail that was sent below):

This is my email, I can confirm that it was my request to return the self-illum to the earbuds, after noticing that it had been (again, likely erroneously) removed several years ago -- and that the patch note was indeed meant to signal its return, not that it had been removed at that time.

[NonhumanFromSteam]

...Yeah I suppose I get the idea to "make it look like those ads", but it really just doesn't come off that way, it simply looks outright broken in a way how the engineer bot had its entire head have self illum instead of just the eyes for example, It's highly likely the self illum was removed from the earbuds for a reason some time after it was released, because it just look very unnatural opposed to everything else in the game, but ultimately this is up to Valve.

[jh34ghu43gu]

I would change your title since its been clarified that the patch note worked as intended. Title currently reads as if it's a bug they are glowing now.

[NonhumanFromSteam]

I would change your title since its been clarified that the patch note worked as intended. Title currently reads as if it's a bug they are glowing now.

I just now updated both the title and my reasoning on why this item shouldn't look this way.

[gdfsgdfg]

Honestly I think it looks cool with the illum makes it looks futuristic.