Elite's Space Not Black As It's Covered In Gas!

You'll notice that space in the game isn't anywhere near as black as it should be.

Now, I don't know how many are aware of this, but if you look carefully (well, you don't even have to look carefully), basically ALL space in the game is covered with a layer of faintly-grey gas. This utterly takes away any blackness.

Now, I was wondering what possible reason Frontier had for doing this. And all I could come up with was (a) they thought it might help with the sense of movement whilst you're in the ship, and (b) while space does indeed contain gas clouds etc, Frontier decided to go to the ultra-extreme and blancket it with the stuff.

If Frontier take away that gas, in-game space would surely be MUCH darker.
 
Whilst in your cockpit, look around freely at the space around you. Look closely and you'll see it's covered almost entirely by a faint cloud, with occasional breaks.
 
How would I have known that?



I have a decent monitor too. Can you post a screenshot so that those of us with similarly decent monitors know what you're referring to?

Pretty sure its too faint to show up on a screenshot.

All you need is decent eyes and a decent monitor to see it.
 
Whilst in your cockpit, look around freely at the space around you. Look closely and you'll see it's covered almost entirely by a faint cloud, with occasional breaks.

Assuming we are both referring to the same thing, I believe those 'clouds' are there to represent the overall ambient glow/luminosity of all the stars contained within that region of space because it is not feasible to render billions of individual star points.

In real life, when you move very far away from groups of separate light sources, they will merge into a single light source beyond a certain point of resolution.

Basically, this is the way the game paints a 'realistic' model of the galaxy on your sky box without requiring you to own a supercomputer or the stadium sized monitor required to see each individual light source.

Pretty sure its too faint to show up on a screenshot.

Since a screenshot is an *exact* copy of what we see in-game, I would confidently state that those of us with decent monitors would be able to see it - especially if you circled the area in question using a paint program.

All you need is decent eyes and a decent monitor to see it.

OK - screenshot it and circle the area you're referring to.
 
Assuming we are both referring to the same thing, I believe those 'clouds' are there to represent the overall ambient glow/luminosity of all the stars contained within that region of space because it is not feasible to render billions of individual star points.

In real life, when you move very far away from groups of separate light sources, they will merge into a single light source beyond a certain point of resolution.

Basically, this is the way the game paints a 'realistic' model of the galaxy on your sky box without requiring you to own a supercomputer or the stadium sized monitor required to see each individual light source.

Nice one, bro. So you do see them, then?

I just think it'd be better without it there.
 
Since a screenshot is an *exact* copy of what we see in-game, I would confidently state that those of us with decent monitors would be able to see it - especially if you circled the area in question using a paint program.



OK - screenshot it and circle the area you're referring to.

Lel. I'm not messing about posting screenshots.

It's an in-game 'effect'. I didn't post about it for a debate of its existence. It's there. I just think it ought to be removed by Frontier if it's even possible.

And PS: No, the effect is not realistic whatsoever, in any way. And god knows what you mean by trying to say its less stress on peoples computers. Black space would not be a strain on peoples machines.

You do realise space is black, right, except for tiny dots of light? There's not Nebulas all over the place and all around you.
 
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Nice one, bro. So you do see them, then?

I just think it'd be better without it there.

Unfortunately, the galaxy you see in your sky box is reliant on those 'clouds', and would not be visible without them.

The galaxy is modelled in game as a 3D volumetric cloud. When you zoom in close enough to a certain region in the galaxy map, the game uses the brightness in that particular area of the galaxy model to form the seed from which all the stars within that region are created from.

That's why there are so many densely clustered stars closer to the core - because the galaxy is brighter there, the game has to render more star points to reflect the equivalent brightness in that region.

When you go closer to the core you'll see there is no 'black' space. It's all slightly off-yellow because the overall brightness of stars there creates a persistent ambient glow.

If you don't like the faint clouds, turn the gamma down - it will cause the faint clouds to disappear, and only leave the brighter regions visible.
 
Unfortunately, the galaxy you see in your sky box is reliant on those 'clouds', and would not be visible without them.

The galaxy is modelled in game as a 3D volumetric cloud. When you zoom in close enough to a certain region in the galaxy map, the game uses the brightness in that particular area of the galaxy model to form the seed from which all the stars within that region are created from.

That's why there are so many densely clustered stars closer to the core - because the galaxy is brighter there, the game has to render more star points to reflect the equivalent brightness in that region.

When you go closer to the core you'll see there is no 'black' space. It's all slightly off-yellow because the overall brightness of stars there creates a persistent ambient glow.

If you don't like the faint clouds, turn the gamma down - it will cause the faint clouds to disappear, and only leave the brighter regions visible.

Apologies for being a bit short with you, mate. I haven't had a coffee, yet.
 
Lel. I'm not messing about posting screenshots.

It's an in-game 'effect'. I didn't post about it for a debate of its existence. It's there. I just think it ought to be removed by Frontier if it's even possible.

And PS: No, the effect is not realistic whatsoever, in any way. And god knows what you mean by trying to say its less stress on peoples computers. Black space would not be a strain on peoples machines.

You do realise space is black, right, except for tiny dots of light? There's not Nebulas all over the place and all around you.

Astrophysics degree here: It is actually realistic depending on how bright the Galaxy appears. In the normal human range of vision the background would be inky black it's true, and also nebulae would be nearly invisible regardless of the distance. The brightness in Elite is clearly either an augmented reality display with both amplified photon cascade tech and powerful radiation shielding and filtering, or genetically enhanced retinal refresh rates. Given that we can simultaneously see things that are too dim for human vision and also so bright as to instantly reduce our retinas to a pile of ionized ash, I would think it's the former over the latter.
 
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If someone does mountain climbing, and gets to spend a night out in high altitude looking at the milky way these special clear nights of the year, you actually get to see it.

It's an ambient glow that is just how the sky looks like, very prominent at a thinner atmosphere, and I would expect a lot more so in space. That's actually where the "milky" in the name comes from.

And expanding a bit on this, if you want a new found appreciation and enjoyment of the game's graphics, spend some time looking at actual pictures of the Galaxy, space, various planets and stars, moons etc. The similarity of the in-game representation is spectacular.
 
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