Starlight tints background skybox - Lighting issues

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
A toggle would seem the most obvious solution to a great many of the game's more divisive aspects, especially those like this one where something over which players disagree was added -- whether deliberately or accidentally -- and then threatened with removal again.

Sadly FD have historically been quite averse to adding more toggles. I'm not sure why. If it's about keeping things simple I would invite them to take a look at the sheer number of choices on the controller setup and options pages. And those are the improved versions, grouped and categorised for clarity. Configuring and driving this game was never going to be simple, and I can't imagine a few extra rarely-used toggles would be make-or-break for anyone.

Perhaps we just need to keep pushing. Orbit line toggling was once off the table but it was eventually added. A tint toggle would seem to please almost everyone (almost, there'll always be those purists who shudder at the idea of anyone enjoying the "wrong" version of the game) while also keeping some of the aggro out of the forums. Seems like a win-win to me, but then I'm just a player.

For the record, I dislike the tint intensely but if it's to be removed I see no harm in leaving it in as an option for those who don't.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Jack Schitt said:
Sadly FD have historically been quite averse to adding more toggles. I'm not sure why.
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Every binary graphics toggle added doubles the number of combinations which need to be tested to make sure it doesn't do something weird, and most of that testing can't be automated because "does this look terrible in condition X" is subjective.

They could leave it as a hidden setting in the config XML, to make clear that changing it isn't supported, but then that almost guarantees it acquires bugs.
 

Sunyavadin

Sunyavadin
Ian Doncaster said:
Every binary graphics toggle added doubles the number of combinations which need to be tested to make sure it doesn't do something weird, and most of that testing can't be automated because "does this look terrible in condition X" is subjective.

They could leave it as a hidden setting in the config XML, to make clear that changing it isn't supported, but then that almost guarantees it acquires bugs.
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I mean, in its current state it's quite obviously also bugged, given the whole thing of light penetrating the solid bulkheads of your ship from behind to cast a coloured glow inside your cockpit even when the star is directly behind you and fully obscured, so where's the difference?
 

Sunyavadin

Sunyavadin
ebbrell said:
Isn't this being fixed in update.
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Not in the Jan one, but it's slated for the next round of stuff they're looking at.

Vandaahl said:
Sunyavadin said:
Ian Doncaster said:
They could leave it as a hidden setting in the config XML, to make clear that changing it isn't supported, but then that almost guarantees it acquires bugs.
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I mean, in its current state it's quite obviously also bugged, given the whole thing of light penetrating the solid bulkheads of your ship from behind to cast a coloured glow inside your cockpit even when the star is directly behind you and fully obscured, so where's the difference?
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If there isn't a difference than why change it at all? Just leave it as it is and fix something important.
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Uhm, you seem to have completely missed the entire conversation there,
Person 1: "Setting a toggle would mean that some people using the toggle would experience bugs"
Person 2: "Currently 100% of people experience bugs"
Person 3: "So why fix it?"

Erm, because fixing it and including a toggle for the other behaviour means that at least then, only the people who don't mind using a not fully supported setting get to experience the bugs.
 

John Sheridan

J
Ozric said:
Don't want to put a damper on your hopes or anything, but I would be astounded if Frontier rolled back the adaptive lighting they put into the game. As that issue is mainly about the tinting affecting the inside of stations, I would assume that's the bit that's going to be fixed, not the secondary issue because that's not a bug it's an intended consequence.
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If I may ask, how do you know that the skybox tinting is an intended consequence?
 

Valorin

Valorin
Ozric said:
Don't want to put a damper on your hopes or anything, but I would be astounded if Frontier rolled back the adaptive lighting they put into the game. As that issue is mainly about the tinting affecting the inside of stations, I would assume that's the bit that's going to be fixed, not the secondary issue because that's not a bug it's an intended consequence.
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Yeah, it's nontheless a confirmed bug.

John Sheridan said:
If I may ask, how do you know that the skybox tinting is an intended consequence?
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It is a consequence of a post-processing effect affecting the whole screen, giving it the colour of the main star. Not entirely sure how it's applied, but that's what it does I assume.
And yeah, I think it was very predictable what would happen to the background.
Thing is, that many games use this feature to create atmosphere and adapt a room, for example, to the lighting conditions the easy way. It's what you experience when you're walking into a room and it get's dark, and when you look through the door behind you, and it's also dark outside, and the light outside also is tinted in the room's light colour.
I am pretty sure it eats a lot of performance to actually use realistic light distribution, but I even hate this effect in other games...
In Elite, well, it's all in the thread I guess. :D
 

CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
To be fair, im pretty sure they nerfed it a bit in a recent patch. Its not as cellophane as it was when first launched.

Since then i haven't noticed it except for in extreme cases which is fine.

Its just dumb how remember that convention when they first announced it and showed the sample difference screenshots.. it looked so much worse but there was a prerelease disclaimer on it, so say nothing and wait. Maybe because the project manager liked it so much the developers just palms upped it like with the fss. Don't know why they continued to release it.
 

Jack Schitt

Jack Schitt
Ian Doncaster said:
Every binary graphics toggle added doubles the number of combinations which need to be tested to make sure it doesn't do something weird
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If this was almost any other game or development team I'd likely be rolling my eyes at that. But given that this is a game in which they managed to hobble the hyperdrive by applying a body kit, it's probably a valid point.
 

Kaocraft

Kaocraft
Ratkatcher said:
No comparison...
View attachment 152477

They did change tinting to be far less 'cartoony' a while ago...
I consider the change to be positive, but I am very tolerent to how the game presents itself - I wasn't over impressed with their first effort though :)
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At first glance I legit thought that was an Elite Dangerous screenshot.

152599
 

Morbad

Morbad
I very nearly had the old lighting system working in a manner I'd found acceptable. The excessive brightness disabling the prototype light balances causes is easily solvable by turning down glare compensation and the bloom scale. I was even fairly content with the brightness of the dark sides of planets after a few adjustments...canyons and other areas shielded from the sky were plenty dark, and the other areas weren't wholly implausible.

However, one issue caused me to revert things; certain subtle glows were absent...the green gas giants with glowing radioplankton were totally unlit on their night sides, for example.
 

Valorin

Valorin
Morbad said:
I very nearly had the old lighting system working in a manner I'd found acceptable. The excessive brightness disabling the prototype light balances causes is easily solvable by turning down glare compensation and the bloom scale. I was even fairly content with the brightness of the dark sides of planets after a few adjustments...canyons and other areas shielded from the sky were plenty dark, and the other areas weren't wholly implausible.

However, one issue caused me to revert things; certain subtle glows were absent...the green gas giants with glowing radioplankton were totally unlit on their night sides, for example.
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Yeah. the solution can't be to simply turn off other options like bloom and so on. We need one taylored for exactly this one problem.
It's possible to completely go back to the old lighting system via a file tweak, but that also makes dark sides of planets light up again among other things. I am all for a better lighting solution, but the fullscreen colour overlay just doesn't cut it.
 
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