4.0 worst performance

[alexzk]

I feel is realistic (I see way fewer stars during a full moon than a new moon)

Yep. Looks really cool and realistic, but there is "BUT"
We don't use naked eye inside ship. Cockpit, at least, lowers luminosity of the star million times. So to understand what is "real" when being inside ship we need it's technical specs what it do. And that is the problem, I think they don't have it or forgot to re-read. So some mess happens.
For example, I suspect they have single shader for vision, because night vision in Ody inside cabin makes my hands green. However it must be 2 separated - 1 for ship and 1 for helm and they may even overlap. I think that is the root problem of the mess.

 

[galahad2069]

which I feel is realistic (I see way fewer stars during a full moon than a new moon)

That's not realistic in space though.

The reason why you can see fewer stars during full moon is not only the blinding effect of direct moonlight. You can see fewer stars even while you are looking the opposite way when no direct moonlight can possibly blind you, because of the ambient background skyglow, which is an atmospheric phenomenon.

But there is no air in space which means you can see roughly the same amount of stars no matter how close you are to the central star, as long as no direct sunlight can reach your eyes to blind you.

 

[zikolach]

amplify light

I'd like to know more about how it could be done

Some interesting comments on Reddit regarding the topic.

 

[Old Duck]

But there is no air in space which means you can see roughly the same amount of stars no matter how close you are to the central star, as long as no direct sunlight can reach your eyes to blind you.

If you're talking about when my ship is flying away from the star, where my cockpit is in the shadow of my ship, then yes, I totally agree with you. But I have no way to dynamically change this on the fly (Frontier would have to program that in on their end), so I pick what I feel is the best compromise. Of course this is my choice, so everyone is free to disagree and even dislike it. I just personally prefer it over Odyssey's version of "dark space", so I stick with Horizons.

Speaking of choice, I think that's where Frontier missed the boat. I understand not opening the game up for developer-supported modding, but they could have sliders in the settings menu or entries in the config files that let people decide if they like darker space or brighter, more colorful space. The reasons I can turn off star visibility around the sun is it's a setting in Horizon's graphics config file. My mod doesn't do that specific magic, it's provided by Frontier themselves. Apparently Odyssey does not allow such flexibility, or people wanting Horizons space in Odyssey would have figured out which setting to change by now.

 

[Red Rocket]

There is many different issues with Odyssey lighting, just one example.

Out exploring and finding a nice looking planet to land on and heading out to it.
As you get closer it is well lighted and looks then as you get close enough the probe suddenly it goes dark as if someone just turned off light switch.
Now I an looking at a totally dark planet that I now have no interest in exploring in the dark…..wait I have Horizons 3.8….yea

Not moving I just switch to Horizons 3.8 and see a beautiful well lighted planet with light and dark sides.

After experiencing Odyssey lack of consistency in lighting, I realize that Odyssey lighting is just plane BROKEN.

 

[Old Duck]

There is many different issues with Odyssey lighting, just one example.
[..]
As you get closer it is well lighted and looks then as you get close enough the probe suddenly it goes dark as if someone just turned off light switch.
[..]

After experiencing Odyssey lack of consistency in lighting, I realize that Odyssey lighting is just plane BROKEN.

I saw something like this in one of OA's recent videos, where he had to go to the bright side of his ship to see a faint object in the distance, because apparently the game turns up the brightness for the entire screen when bright light reflects off your ship.

That's like going outside in the sun so I can see my OLED phone screen better.... It makes zero sense. When I saw this video, it jarred me, like the uncanny valley but with general lighting. It was yet another moment in a serious where I said to myself, "Nope, I have no interest in that!"

 

[Northpin]

That's like going outside in the sun so I can see my OLED phone screen better.... It makes zero sense.

Depends.

My eyesight is not what it used to be. So when the ambient light is dim and my phone automatically dims its screen too, so not be too bright and hurt my eyes, i have troubles reading the screen...
So i have to up the brightness to be able to read it... Or increase the ambient light so the phone is also increasing the brightness to match the ambient.

 

[fennster]

Then we got NV which, at least, confirms that our cockpit glass is actively enhancing/modifying our view of the galaxy

What happens with a breached canopy? Does the NV remain entirely or is it limited tonthe intact glass.

Similarly I can't recall stars looking any diferent with a breach either.

 

[Red Rocket]

I saw something like this in one of OA's recent videos, where he had to go to the bright side of his ship to see a faint object in the distance, because apparently the game turns up the brightness for the entire screen when bright light reflects off your ship.

That's like going outside in the sun so I can see my OLED phone screen better.... It makes zero sense. When I saw this video, it jarred me, like the uncanny valley but with general lighting. It was yet another moment in a serious where I said to myself, "Nope, I have no interest in that!"

It’s clear that Odyssey’s gaming Engine has many problems like performance and lighting that may take a few years to sort out.

Horizons sadly doesn’t get enough credit of how BRILLIANT of a game it still is.

 

[Old Duck]

Horizons sadly doesn’t get enough credit of how BRILLIANT of a game it still is.

That's been a weird thing since Odyssey dropped. The stereotypical "white knights" now hate Horizons, bragging how they never can go back to it after Odyssey, despite these very same people had pledged religious fealty to Horizons before Odyssey was released. I'd love to have a time machine and copy their posts about Horizons today into the forum two years ago, so that future them and past them could duke it out, Looper-style.

On the other hand, I now find myself defending Horizons 3.8, which is a bit of a role-switch for myself as well. Not that I'm a full-blown Horizons "white knight". I still say that Horizons is a half-baked, bug-ridden game that should have been properly fixed and finished before Odyssey was introduced. But what Horizons does right, it does pretty darn good. It's a game I want to keep (despite not playing it that much anymore), while Horizons 4.0 / Odyssey (the former being free) is not even a game I want to try at the moment..

Of course this is not only a personal, subjective opinion, it's very likely a small minority opinion at that. I'm not asking or expecting Frontier to do anything about it. I'm really not their target audience anymore, and I'm cool with that, and I suspect they are too. Odyssey is the future, for better or worse, and I've made peace with that. I've also made peace with the fact that Frontier can shut down Horizons 3.8 tomorrow if they choose. I will always have my fond memories, and as games go, Horizons has already outlived the vast majority of games (from a personal interest perspective) in my library.

And who knows, there's still a chance that I may become an Odyssey convert someday. Horizons 3.8 is very different than Horizons 1.0 was, so maybe Odyssey 7.0 will be a game I want to play.

 

[galahad2069]

If you're talking about when my ship is flying away from the star, where my cockpit is in the shadow of my ship, then yes, I totally agree with you. But I have no way to dynamically change this on the fly (Frontier would have to program that in on their end), so I pick what I feel is the best compromise. Of course this is my choice, so everyone is free to disagree and even dislike it. I just personally prefer it over Odyssey's version of "dark space", so I stick with Horizons.

Speaking of choice, I think that's where Frontier missed the boat. I understand not opening the game up for developer-supported modding, but they could have sliders in the settings menu or entries in the config files that let people decide if they like darker space or brighter, more colorful space. The reasons I can turn off star visibility around the sun is it's a setting in Horizon's graphics config file. My mod doesn't do that specific magic, it's provided by Frontier themselves. Apparently Odyssey does not allow such flexibility, or people wanting Horizons space in Odyssey would have figured out which setting to change by now.

Ofc that's your own choice and you have every right to hold that opinion, and I think it's a good thing that it's possible to create a mod that makes the game behave as you like.

The way I see it however there's no need for the game to simulate such things as light/dark adaptation of the human eye.
I have my own eyes with their built-in rhodopsin mechanism and pupils that can dilate and constrict according to lighting conditions. If fdev wants me to see fewer stars whenever there's a bright star in my field of vision, they only need to display a bright star in the middle of the screen and let my eyes work out the rest. They don't need to remove the faint background stars artificially.

 

[Old Duck]

They don't need to remove the faint background stars artificially.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the main complaint about Odyssey's lighting. It isn't mine! Granted, I showed that as part of an example of how I prefer lighting, but if the only thing I didn't like about Odyssey was seeing stars while I stared at the sun (which actually still happens when further away from the sun), I'd be playing Odyssey right now. But I can't stomach flickering shadows, standing in the sun to see my OLED phone screen better, light passing through walls, and the myriad of other lighting problems in Odyssey.

BTW, people who prefer Horizon's lighting probably hate my mod, since it does "darken the sky" in a similar (but also different in key ways) manner to Odyssey.

 

[Stealthie]

What happens with a breached canopy? Does the NV remain entirely or is it limited tonthe intact glass.

Not sur, TBH.
Our HUD only displays on the remaining bits of glass so I'd assume that's also the case for NV.
Honestly, I'm not sure if I've had a broken canopy since NV was introduced.

Similarly I can't recall stars looking any diferent with a breach either.

And that, I'm afraid, is where we have to start applying a bit of suspension-of-disbelief again.
First time I did get a broken canopy it was at a CNB and I was wondering if the nearby star would be blindingly bright.
Alas, it wasn't.

 

[Stealthie]

I'm pretty sure this isn't the main complaint about Odyssey's lighting. It isn't mine! Granted, I showed that as part of an example of how I prefer lighting, but if the only thing I didn't like about Odyssey was seeing stars while I stared at the sun (which actually still happens when further away from the sun), I'd be playing Odyssey right now. But I can't stomach flickering shadows, standing in the sun to see my OLED phone screen better, light passing through walls, and the myriad of other lighting problems in Odyssey.

This.

Maybe I'm just not paying attention but if I'm playing Horizons I'm fine wih the lighting and it's the same with Odyssey too, even if they're different.

What DOES irritate me is the flickering and sudden lighting changes in Odyssey.
The flickering is something my brain can filter out but, in VR especially, the abrupt changes in lighting always make me flinch because it makes me think I'm about to run into, say, an asteroid or another ship that I haven't noticed.

 

[Flimley]

All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... .All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... . All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy...

 

[Stealthie]

All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... .All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... . All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy... All 4.0 and no 4.0 makes Flimley a dull boy...

Maybe you could adjust the brightness to help with that?