Broken Stellar Lighting

[Mika L]

As an explorer this is the reason why I still play Horizons. Star class gives each system It's unique hue and I love it. It adds at least some minor variety to systems which is completely gone in Oddysey and I believe Horizons has perfect balance in graphics. It looks for the most part very realistic, but this system hue makes the game slightly prettier and like I said adds more variability only at slight cost of realism.
If they ever fix it they should make it a graphic setting imo.

Anyway here's me on my way from Colonia. I parked on a small planet next to a giant star.
View attachment 290537
As I already knew terrain in Oddysey will look much worse, hue from the star will be completely gone so I expected boring mostly flat grey planet and lifeless screenshot which is what I got. To some extend personal preference but my friends agreed with me that Horizons looks so much better there. I do believe Oddysey is closer to being realistic but I'll gladly trade a bit of realism for prettier graphics.
View attachment 290538
This is in system Maia. I love the blue look of Pleiades nebula combined with that slight blue hue of It's main B class star. View attachment 290539
Oddysey looks lifeless. Prob. more realistic but just boring to look at. I do want to keep this game's visuals realistic, but I believe this slight hue and colorful nebulae should stay for the sake of variety and graphics. Maybe just tone it down by 20% but don't get rid of it completely! There's already not a lot of things to do while exploring in Elite and missing hue makes the galaxy feel even more empty.
View attachment 290540Bonus issue: Volumetric fog from some planets is gone. This planet with brain trees forest and this fog was actually so beautiful.View attachment 290542Worse terrain, worse lighting, missing fog. What an upgrade.View attachment 290545

I hope that Frontier will fix that starlight hue issue in a realistic manner. To me this game feels better when I know it looks quite realistic, so I am against such graphics where art wins and realism loses. It's a bit disappointing they did not fix that star light hue on airless planets, but at least they have fixed it in the "tenuous atmospheres". Maybe they will have it fixed for all planets in the near future.

I'm glad they removed the dense fog from airless planets. How could there be fog when there is no atmosphere? All gas that is emitted form the ground should quickly disperse in the vacuum of space. I wish they could also remove the fog over landing pads, too, at ground stations and starports.

 

[nanite2000]

To me this game feels better when I know it looks quite realistic, so I am against such graphics where art wins and realism loses.

Different star classes produce different coloured light:

Color-coding stars

Learn the alphabet for stellar temperatures.

astronomy.com

So it looks wrong to have the same flat white light over everything that gives no indication of the primary star of the system you're in, especially when they seem to already have it working correctly for brown dwarf stars.

It's a bit disappointing they did not fix that star light hue on airless planets, but at least they have fixed it in the "tenuous atmospheres".

Not quite true. Only the atmospheric colour produces a hue - the star colour is ignored (except in the aforementioned brown dwarf star systems).

Maybe they will have it fixed for all planets in the near future.

If they haven't fixed it by now, I doubt they ever will.

I'm glad they removed the dense fog from airless planets. How could there be fog when there is no atmosphere?

It wasn't fog - it was mist produced by volatiles subliming from the surface.

Nevertheless, I find it hard to get upset over it going missing from airless bodies, but it's evident they've accidentally removed it for all landable planets - including atmospheric planets where it not only makes sense to have it, but was shown to actually be working working prior to launch.

 

[Mika L]

Different star classes produce different coloured light:

Color-coding stars

Learn the alphabet for stellar temperatures.

astronomy.com

So it looks wrong to have the same flat white light over everything that gives no indication of the primary star of the system you're in, especially when they seem to already have it working correctly for brown dwarf stars.

Yes, I was already thinking that way, though I did not directly say so in my message. I have now edited my previous message to be more clear on my point of view.

Not quite true. Only the atmospheric colour produces a hue - the star colour is ignored (except in the aforementioned brown dwarf star systems).

OK. I had not noticed that in the game. Maybe I will now start noticing that when I am aware of it. But it's difficult to imagine what kind of colours there should then be when there are various combinations of different tenuous atmospheres and different stars.

If they haven't fixed it by now, I doubt they ever will.

Never say never. Frontier can fix it any time as long as they keep supporting the game. I rather like to live thinking that the world in the future may well be better than it is today.

It wasn't fog - it was mist produced by volatiles subliming from the surface.

Nevertheless, I find it hard to get upset over it going missing from airless bodies, but it's evident they've accidentally removed it for all landable planets - including atmospheric planets where it not only makes sense to have it, but was shown to actually be working working prior to launch.

OK. I didn't play the alpha so I didn't know that the mist was already once existing in Odyssey. If it comes back to atmospheric planets at some point, I hope it is not so dense at least mostly, but maybe in places where it accumulates a lot.

 

[Jack Winter]

They might have removed a few shaders in the quest to up the FPS. Who knows, once they've fixed the underlying problem they might enable them again.

 

[nanite2000]

They might have removed a few shaders in the quest to up the FPS. Who knows, once they've fixed the underlying problem they might enable them again.

Nah. The framerates haven’t really changed from Alpha.

They just broke it and don’t know how, and now they don’t have the time, the will, or the ability to fix it.

 

[Starly_]

I hope that Frontier will fix that starlight hue issue in a realistic manner. To me this game feels better when I know it looks quite realistic, so I am against such graphics where art wins and realism loses. It's a bit disappointing they did not fix that star light hue on airless planets, but at least they have fixed it in the "tenuous atmospheres". Maybe they will have it fixed for all planets in the near future.

I'm glad they removed the dense fog from airless planets. How could there be fog when there is no atmosphere? All gas that is emitted form the ground should quickly disperse in the vacuum of space. I wish they could also remove the fog over landing pads, too, at ground stations and starports.

Everyone has their preference and that's why I believe that if they fix it these things should be a graphic option or at least changable in the configs.
Like I said before I like the way it is in Horizons.
Realistic, but with a bit of artistic touch that's not over the top.

 

[dekot]

That first picture looks way better. I wish they would revert the lighting changes to horizons. Doesn't even make sense that a star will color everything in the solar system to a similar hue.

 

[Tormentor89]

That first picture looks way better. I wish they would revert the lighting changes to horizons. Doesn't even make sense that a star will color everything in the solar system to a similar hue.

As an explorer, I find it irrelevant if the Star's hue isn't too realistic. The fact is that Horizon's star tinting brought some decent amount of diversity and eye candy to the billions of star systems in the game. Sometimes realism has to give out to fun. Simple as that.

 

[Starly_]

As an explorer, I find it irrelevant if the Star's hue isn't too realistic. The fact is that Horizon's star tinting brought some decent amount of diversity and eye candy to the billions of star systems in the game. Sometimes realism has to give out to fun. Simple as that.

I fully agree with you.
Imagine if nebulae were realistic. I wouldn't be bothered exploring them if they looked realistic. To our eyes they would appear white with almost barely any color at best and If we were inside one we wouldn't see anything at all actually. Maybe just sliiight white haze at best.

 

[dekot]

As an explorer, I find it irrelevant if the Star's hue isn't too realistic. The fact is that Horizon's star tinting brought some decent amount of diversity and eye candy to the billions of star systems in the game. Sometimes realism has to give out to fun. Simple as that.

People don't know the new lighting is actually broken. There is no way FD intended for station interiors to have the same color filter as the systems dominant star.

Not to mention the brown muddy galaxy starbox.

 

[dekot]

As an explorer, I find it irrelevant if the Star's hue isn't too realistic. The fact is that Horizon's star tinting brought some decent amount of diversity and eye candy to the billions of star systems in the game. Sometimes realism has to give out to fun. Simple as that.

And if you like colorful space, play NMS. Much better game if you're into colorful space.

Even Eve has colorful space, in a more realistic way compared to NMS.

Why does the one game halfway interested in realism have to have such fanciful lighting?

 

[nanite2000]

Why does the one game halfway interested in realism have to have such fanciful lighting?

Because it's realistic for all items each system to reflect the hue of the primary light source (excluding items that are light sources themselves, like the galaxy skybox).

That doesn't mean they have to crank it to the max like they did with some systems in Horizons, but there is a middle ground between maximum saturation and none whatsoever.

 

[Starly_]

And if you like colorful space, play NMS. Much better game if you're into colorful space.

Even Eve has colorful space, in a more realistic way compared to NMS.

Why does the one game halfway interested in realism have to have such fanciful lighting?

Bruh NMS has colorful everything
I said I like realistic approach with slight artistic touch to it. Exactly like Horizons.

NMS has purely artistic approach to it. Also the gameplay is very different from Elite so saying I should go play that instead of Elite makes absolutely no sense.

Yes I tried NMS and didn't like it as much.

 

[Tormentor89]

And if you like colorful space, play NMS. Much better game if you're into colorful space.

Even Eve has colorful space, in a more realistic way compared to NMS.

Why does the one game halfway interested in realism have to have such fanciful lighting?

I fail to see what No Man's Sky and Elite have in common in terms of their graphics. Also, the "If you don't like Elite, play another game argument" is ridiculous. Horizon's color tinting isn't really that unrealistic to begin with. I prefer Elite's graphics and gameplay mechanics to those of No Man's Sky, that being said not every little damn detail has to mimic nature. At the end of the day, Elite is a video game. My biggest gripe isn't even the color tinting, it's the fact Fdev sold a $40 product that has missing or broken effects compared to their previous expansion.

 

[nanite2000]

I fail to see what No Man's Sky and Elite have in common in terms of their graphics. Also, the "If you don't like Elite, play another game argument" is ridiculous. Horizon's color tinting isn't really that unrealistic to begin with. I prefer Elite's graphics and gameplay mechanics to those of No Man's Sky, that being said not every little damn detail has to mimic nature. At the end of the day, Elite is a video game. My biggest gripe isn't even the color tinting, it's the fact Fdev sold a $40 product that has missing or broken effects compared to their previous expansion.

That's they key issue here.

Frontier have removed a feature from the base game, and they haven't fixed it or replaced it.

 

[Starly_]

I'm aware that this is semi-related issue. But we were talking about hue from stars, colors etc. so I thought I'll post this here as well.

I was exploring O class stars and found this little gem. I parked on top of O class star with a view of B class nearby and I just sat there for a while because it looked so good.

Oh and then there's Oddysey and new ... upgraded lighting?

Preferences aside
I'd say Horizons looks objectively better overall.

 

[dekot]

I'm aware that this is semi-related issue. But we were talking about hue from stars, colors etc. so I thought I'll post this here as well.

I was exploring O class stars and found this little gem. I parked on top of O class star with a view of B class nearby and I just sat there for a while because it looked so good.
View attachment 291942
Oh and then there's Oddysey and new ... upgraded lighting?
View attachment 291943
Preferences aside
I'd say Horizons looks objectively better overall.

Oh wow, odyssey fixed the lighting? How is it in stations?

 

[Starly_]

Oh wow, odyssey fixed the lighting? How is it in stations?

It looks great in stations actually. One of few places where lighting in Oddysey looks better.

 

[Darth Ender]

And if you like colorful space, play NMS. Much better game if you're into colorful space.

Even Eve has colorful space, in a more realistic way compared to NMS.

Why does the one game halfway interested in realism have to have such fanciful lighting?

I'd ask, why does one game seem to only care about defending realism when that realism would make the game more boring, monotonous or time consuming but be totally fine with it ditching realism in areas that involve things like combat or hazards or activities like landing on planets and other areas that engage player skill and/or strategy?

elite doesn't need realism where that realism homogenizes and extracts value...and there is value in the variety one gets from different environments and color and light play a big part in a space environment. Instead, we can certainly afford to stretch reality there, and tone it back and get more real in other areas that actually add value by being a bit more realistic (like getting rid of shield tanks and magic engineer weapons and maybe allowing the damage and repair portion of the game to play more into realtime needs during battles and having to strategize and think about where you're going to avoid crashing into a planet you dont have the thrust for or entering a system with stars emitting too much radiation for your ship (radiation should be a hazard in the game instead of just heat...another realism thing that would be additive instead of subtractive to gameplay)

 

[dekot]

It looks great in stations actually. One of few places where lighting in Oddysey looks better.

I'm pretty sure station lighting was an oversight when they first changed the lighting for the worse. Doubt we can have both, so I'm glad odyssey reverted the changes finally.