Baby it's dark outside! OKAY - not always!

[GG7]

I like the new darkness. It makes the planets kind of scary. That being said, ship lights could use an upgrade. Maybe puts some LED lights on them. Right now I feel like my ship has oil lantern hanging off the front.

Just imagine if your car's headlights grew steadily dimmer the darker your surroundings became. And as things got a bit brighter, your headlights would increase in brightness. The brighter the surface the more output your headlights would push out. Ultimately providing the highest possible light level when you least need it. Basically the exact opposite of what should be happening. [rolleyes]

That is what is currently going on here with the ship and SRV headlight level/output. I am amazed at how blind so many people playing this game are to something so bloody obvious!

All you need to do is visit a couple of planet's dark sides at varying levels of brightness and observe the amount of light emitted by your ship and SRV headlights. The darker the planet, the weaker your headlight output is.

Its not that hard to see the huge difference people! Get a clue! [wacko]

No wonder it takes years to get this game sorted out.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

I like the dark, in fact I love it. However, I do agree that there should be some sort of grahpical assist. My personal favorutie would be some sort of contour line representation overlay. Should be pretty easy to implement as they would essentially just removing all the shaders. For some reason I feel it should be green......

 

[Shinji Ikari]

There is no need to be rude. Previously we either had some form of light-intensifier in the canopy structure or we had enough ambient light from the galaxy etc to at least make out features. Now it is impossible to see features beyond the paltry headlight provision. You might think it more realistic but there is no need for it.

There is no reason that we can't have some form of image-intensifier device in the 34th century - so please stick your tongue back in.

Well, don't drive in dark places. I personally have driven in the blackest parts of the galaxy and it feels OK, just make sure to have the level 2 headlights on and pay attention.

I like the dark, in fact I love it. However, I do agree that there should be some sort of grahpical assist. My personal favorutie would be some sort of contour line representation.

https://previews.123rf.com/images/a...50/51682383-3d-wireframe-of-contour-swirl.jpg

Should be pretty easy to implement as they would essentially just removing all the shaders.

In theory we already have that.

I'll see you that, and raise you this:

https://s5.postimg.org/e2g3z9r39/Screenshot_0401.png

Something to be said for a dying star rising over a dead civilization.

Strictly speaking, it was never alive (unless it is an M type star in which case they will outlive all others).

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

When someone uses terms like 'mah immersion peeps', 'pewpew crowd', 'carebears' or some such to describe people that might disagree with them, their opinion instantly becomes meaningless to me.

since you used them do you thus disregard your own opinion? this could be one of those philosophical things like if a tree falls in a forest, or chicken vs egg! ;D

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

"Planets are too bright!"
- "well, maybe its just the SRV & ship canopies making it appear brighter than it actually is"
"Whatever, that's just hand waivun ! It should be dark when there's no star or light from the core!"

<3.0 launches>

"Planets are too dark! This is stupid! The SRV should have night vision or something!"
- "I just..."

 

[GG7]

Looks great, I fail to see the issue. Much better than pre 3.0.

I would agree. You FAIL to SEE.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

OKAY so people can't understand why I find this annoying so I went back to do some more screenshots (sorry I don't have a vid capture setup at the moment). I'll stick them behind spoiler tags so as not to make the thread look too bad.)

First up - coming in to land - can't see a thing, not even darker than dark patches, no chance of picking a spot:

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/t9Chi09.jpg

Now fair enough, no reason to land on a dark side unless you have an installation / port to go to.



So, on the surface, Anaconda lights on, SRV full beam and this is the view from above:

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/GBh4hmG.jpg

Which just shows how useless the ship / SRV lights are.


Now in the SRV - full beam - can't see more than, what 100 - 110 m? Certainly can't determine if there are rills, craters or owt interesting beyond that loom:

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/LvNes9N.jpg

Finally, here no lights, same position and you will note that there is not even the slightest amount detail discernible - so there is no ambient light illumination at all. I have left this one sort-of full-size (albeit cropped) so you can see in detail that basically there is no detail.

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/ZCSaola.jpg

As an amateur astronomer I have spent an awful lot of nights outside on moonless nights and I can tell you that there is illumination there when your eyes adjust - so I don't think it would be too much of a stretch for us to be able to flick a switch and enable night-vision in the ships and SRV. Prior to this latest 3.02 update, the SRV view started off as dark as this but then a higher-level illuminated view cut-in after a few seconds, I just would like to have that back.

How far do you want the lights to iluminate? 800 m seems good enough clearance for me.

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

tbh when im landing im look at the little radar thing that shows a blue spot and the terrain under me more than i do out of the cockpit. FINDING a flat place by radar even. i dont look out of the cockpit much once i am descending.

 

[Susanna]

Unfortunately, the headlights on both ships and the SRV are currently coupled to the lighting model for the planet. So the darker the planet, the lower output your lights have.

Pretty damned lame not to have caught that in internal testing FDEV! Obviously, the darker the planet surface the MORE LIGHT we are going to need from our ships and SRVs, not less!

Better yet... How about a simple consistent Light Level for ship and SRV headlights that doesn't change from one planet to the next? That would be nice. And you know... realistic.

[rolleyes]

Ummm. Another partial feature then that needs more work...

A night vision mode would be useful.

Maybe, but only up to a point...

I'll see you that, and raise you this:

https://s5.postimg.org/e2g3z9r39/Screenshot_0401.png

Something to be said for a dying star rising over a dead civilization.

Nice pic

I thought the lighting was fine before and preferred it, but I can work around the new version.

Me too... But we don't get a vote.

it's too light...
it's too dark...

I think FD is going to have to make options and settings for every single aspect of this game.

Options regarding lighting would be a superb way to go!

OKAY so people can't understand why I find this annoying so I went back to do some more screenshots (sorry I don't have a vid capture setup at the moment). I'll stick them behind spoiler tags so as not to make the thread look too bad.)

First up - coming in to land - can't see a thing, not even darker than dark patches, no chance of picking a spot:

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/t9Chi09.jpg

Now fair enough, no reason to land on a dark side unless you have an installation / port to go to.



So, on the surface, Anaconda lights on, SRV full beam and this is the view from above:

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/GBh4hmG.jpg

Which just shows how useless the ship / SRV lights are.


Now in the SRV - full beam - can't see more than, what 100 - 110 m? Certainly can't determine if there are rills, craters or owt interesting beyond that loom:

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/LvNes9N.jpg

Finally, here no lights, same position and you will note that there is not even the slightest amount detail discernible - so there is no ambient light illumination at all. I have left this one sort-of full-size (albeit cropped) so you can see in detail that basically there is no detail.

Spoiler

https://i.imgur.com/ZCSaola.jpg

As an amateur astronomer I have spent an awful lot of nights outside on moonless nights and I can tell you that there is illumination there when your eyes adjust - so I don't think it would be too much of a stretch for us to be able to flick a switch and enable night-vision in the ships and SRV. Prior to this latest 3.02 update, the SRV view started off as dark as this but then a higher-level illuminated view cut-in after a few seconds, I just would like to have that back.

Agreed! We need lighting options...

Night vision would be good, won't help in bad weather though.

Regarding lights - The Python has a range of 1km, All the other ships have a range of 800m, the SRV has a range of 300m.

Also regarding landing, lower the landing gear, the terrain display allows you to land in zero visibility. Same deal with the SRV, the terrain display is always active, increase sensor range, you can drive the SRV with zero visibility.

Hopefully they will expand on the EGPWS, however cmdrs need to get used to flying/driving on instruments, if/when atmospheric landings arrive, you'll have a lot more to worry about than things being too dark, that is unless you don't want snow/dust storms, severe weather, fog and many other extreme weather scenarios that exist in our real galaxy.


http://i63.tinypic.com/351zssn.jpg

Real world EGPWS

http://i67.tinypic.com/xpmw5x.jpg

Presently, it sucks.

Thanks for reminding me to adjust my Gamma to make em darker....

Good idea.

 

[Eshackleton]

As a person who has to use both night vision and thermal for work, I fill qualified to say please don't add this. Ask anyone including military it sucks. Seeing only shades of green or white for more than an hour or so will give you a migraine and even using it for about 30 minutes will put you in a bad mood. Although it sounds cool, lights are way better.

On a side note, I think our ships should have landing lights we can toggle just like airplanes. Let us leave them on when we leave our ships so we can see our ship glowing in the distance.

I would even be willing to buy different colored landing lights from the store to light the ground up in style!

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Strictly speaking, it was never alive (unless it is an M type star in which case they will outlive all others).

Not biologically alive, but stars DO have life cycles.
https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/educators/lessons/xray_spectra/background-lifecycles.html

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Not biologically alive, but stars DO have life cycles.
https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/educators/lessons/xray_spectra/background-lifecycles.html

Oh I know, its just that L type stars and below never have nuclear fusion inside them which is considered the "life" of stars as it provides them with all their energy.

Correction, some L type dwarfs do support fusion.

 

[Jorggs]

To all those suggesting night vision, I don’t really understand the point of that. Surely lighting the surface with visible light vs infrared makes no difference unless you don’t want things to see you? Visibility still requires light of some sort to be thrown into the darkness. Or is my physics education wrong (honest question)

 

[Captain N]

To all those suggesting night vision, I don’t really understand the point of that. Surely lighting the surface with visible light vs infrared makes no difference unless you don’t want things to see you? Visibility still requires light of some sort to be thrown into the darkness. Or is my physics education wrong (honest question)

Yes - like the starlight that's always there.

None of the planets we can land on have atmosphere, and no fog or clouds or anything that could cause absolute darkness.

So, night vision would entail either using image intensification or simply turning off your HUD and cockpit illumination and letting your eyes adjust.

 

[ebbrell]

If people are having problems they could always land on the light side of the planet.

 

[ebbrell]

And people have gamma setting if they want more light.

i think it needs to stay real, and people should experience the same thing.

so no light or dark switch in settings. in real life it would be dark let's keep it real. no arcade game wanted here

 

[MikeMart]

I vote for dark too !!!! But it would be nice to have some "sources of light" to see from POIs, skimmers, crashed nav beacons or mining installations, even volcanism....something to see in the dark, far away in the distance, lighting up our imagination.

 

[mojonaut]

Baby it's dark outside!

Good, long may it continue

 

[Captain N]

And people have gamma setting if they want more light.

i think it needs to stay real, and people should experience the same thing.

so no light or dark switch in settings. in real life it would be dark let's keep it real. no arcade game wanted here

So we would have night vision technologies like real people in real life.

 

[Jukelo]

I love the fact we finally have dark planets.
But afaik Frontier isn't reworking the lighting system until later this year, so I'm not sure that change was intended.

And yes, some form of night vision would be nice. Personally I'd love a wireframe view mode ala Subnautica's sonar display.

It would obviously fit quite well with the battlezone 98-style low-level radar we already have.