Is Oddessy darkness fixed? I dont think so

[rcdcce]

Yes space is darker now and that is realistic. But honestly it looks terrible. The planets look good, other stuff looks good. But space is the thing we're are flying about all the time and it sucks.

Turn the gamma up you say? This is actually a good test of the current problems. It used to be you could reasonably turn it up and see more of the galactic backdrop. But the color levels are now so low you just get a crushed splotchy mess.

Quite simply the black of space is still pretty black.. It has improved but it is not even close to where Horizons was. In-fact a lot of the color grading and variance that appeared in later Horizons updates is basically gone. Yes at times it was unrealistic, but when balanced properly it added a lot of depth, interest and visual orientation to wandering around in the 'black'.

Im not going to bother posting any screenshots unless someone demands I explain myself. We all have different monitors, with different settings and different personal preferences. But one thing is true about the current EDO lighting in space, it is completely unforgiving to any display device that struggles with darkness and blacks. Aka 90% of all of them. It's a poor design choice. At least make the black of space 'brightness' configurable, so another long standing forum war can be put to bed.

 

[Dragsham]

I agree Op. But l kinda like it.
OK so I got my lights on and nv alot in combat (Agwa is pitch black) but job gets done.
But yeah its black out there for sure.

 

[rcdcce]

I could like it if they re balanced the nebula and galactic core so they had some presence and looked like they weren't made from a 4 bit color palette.

 

[Bottom Hat]

Im not going to bother posting any screenshots unless someone demands I explain myself.

I demand you explain yourself sir!

 

[Crank Larson]

It's not the darkness that's the issue. It's the lighting. Don't get your hopes up, though, as FD claim to have already fixed it...

 

[Fawkner]

It's not the darkness that's the issue. It's the lighting. Don't get your hopes up, though, as FD claim to have already fixed it...

They need to stick another 50p in the electric meter box then as I think it's run out again.

 

[Fawkner]

I prefer Horizons as at least you can see the planets when your are approaching them.....I'm fed up at looking at a large black radius.

 

[ebbrell]

Its space, its meant to be dark.
I like it.....

 

[Crank Larson]

They need to stick another 50p in the electric meter box then as I think it's run out again.

It's not a lack of lighting that I have a problem with. It's that it is either dark or blinding in VR. For my Courier, I have to have the interior lights set to lowest otherwise there is some weird glow that renders the scanner completely useless. Though of course the absolute most important issue is that Odyssey broke Iridium Gleam...

 

[Erei]

Yes space is darker now and that is realistic.

No.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

No.

Yes

 

[FX2K]

Realistic or not realistic, doesn't matter, if its not working as intended by the devs. How much of Elite is "Realistic".... think about that for a moment.

If it is intended, then I have to wonder why all that extra detail exists and is generated, but is now not visible due to gamma, which is out of balance with other visuals.
If its not, then it clearly needs some more attention.

 

[FX2K]

Odyssey Vs Horizons - Min / Middle / Max Gamma Settings

Horizons has Camera Suite Hud, in case it wasn't obvious which is which

I'm not saying horizons was better, in fact, I think Odyssey is generally, but I still think the gamma needs some tweaking and I do prefer the look of image #2 which is horizons with min gamma (go figure?) than all of the others..

Clearly, with the new lighting / materials / what ever... they are having a hard job balancing things correctly, as can be seen with cockpit lighting issues, paint job / external ship issues etc.

Min:

Med:

Max:

 

[GroG79]

Depends.. You can always find an angle where it is very dark. This was also in EDH

 

[FX2K]

Depends.. You can always find an angle where it is very dark. This was also in EDH

Nothing really to do with angles or locations. Sure, the scene changes and the level of detail / dust clouds etc, but as above, all taken from the same spot, same time (within seconds) I think the difference is pretty clear and shows (especially image 1, hiding the milky way portrayal on the backdrop) that the gamma range is not quite right.

 

[FX2K]

and now for exhibit B, again, same location and time from Min, to Max gamma. Horizons = Hud shown

Min (hmmm):

Mid:

Max:

Horizons goes to high, Odyssey, too low. Almost as if the entire scale has moved 50 percent left ( i.e instead of 0-100 in horizons, its now -50 to 50 in Odyssey)
Odyssey on Max is still darker than Horizons on Mid Gamma... and perhaps all the other lighting, is constantly being tweaked to fix things, whereas its possibly partly caused by gamma being not quite right.

 

[FX2K]

Last one, I promise.. but Exhibit C (based on above).

There's enough light to light up the asteroid belt, but the gas giant is in pure darkness?

Well, no, actually, its not if you go into free cam mode, only when you are in cockpit.

No gamma changes, both on Mid Gamma setting.

 

[jojon]

So what I would really, really like to see, is the game displayed "raw" on an HDR display - I think that could be quite breathtaking.

So much that is bright is being crushed right into a flat blanket white, as it is at the moment, and the rapid response of current tone mapping settings makes the view dim up and down like crazy, as you look around (EDIT: Really hate how when something catches your attention out of the corner of your eye, it dims down and becomes drab, upon your turning to look at it).

 

[rcdcce]

and now for exhibit B, again, same location and time from Min, to Max gamma. Horizons = Hud shown

Min (hmmm):

Mid:

Max:

Horizons goes to high, Odyssey, too low. Almost as if the entire scale has moved 50 percent left ( i.e instead of 0-100 in horizons, its now -50 to 50 in Odyssey)
Odyssey on Max is still darker than Horizons on Mid Gamma... and perhaps all the other lighting, is constantly being tweaked to fix things, whereas its possibly partly caused by gamma being not quite right.

What a great job of doing all the screenshots so I did have to you have done This illustrates it very well.

On another note, I recently did an experiment using Special K to enable true HDR. I was inspired by the video

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwkM70vi9k8
(note this requires a HDR monitor and HDR enabled (and use Chrome) to look good)

The above is clearly Horizons. In EDO it looked fantastic planet side in atmosphere, even on my middling HDR screen. But space/stars/nebula let it down horribly. I cant get results anything like the video above. I know this is not within the remit of EDO to get right, but it just illustrates how badly it has regressed since Horizons.

 

[The Roofus]

Yes space is darker now and that is realistic. But honestly it looks terrible.