Improve visibility on distant main stars

Johaunna · Jan 22, 2015

My proposal is really simple... just add (or keep) a little lens flare on the main stars in a solar system.
The lighting is very pretty in this game.
Planets and stations are clearly illuminated even at distances... but the visual feedback of the main stars simply disappears after few hundreds of Ls.

cpy · Jan 22, 2015

Can't we have one realistic thing in this game? People want to ruin everything.

Johaunna · Jan 22, 2015

cpy said:
Can't we have one realistic thing in this game? People want to ruin everything.

I'm sorry if it's not realistic to have proposed it.

I find it hard to believe that at that distance, if an object receives light I cannot distinguish which is the source.

cpy · Jan 22, 2015

Johaunna said:
I'm sorry if it's not realistic to have proposed it.

I find it hard to believe that at that distance, if an object receives light I cannot distinguish which is the source.

Maybe, but maybe your ship have lights turned on?

About planets that are that far and have bright surface... yeah about that, that's they should be much darker.

Mercury: 190Ls
Venus: 360Ls
Earth: 500Ls
Mars: 760Ls
Jupiter: 2 597Ls
Saturn: 4 767Ls
Uranus: 9 333Ls
Neptune: 15 000Ls
Pluto: AVG 19 700Ls Closest:14 666Ls Furthest: 24 600Ls

So how far were you from star? 1000Ls, ok. How big and bright was that star compared to our sun? No data?

Another example:

Also stuff should be darker!

Sunlight is almost 2,000 times dimmer on Pluto than it is on Earth, and the sun would be only a small point in the sky. The sun would be 1/30 as big and 1/900 as bright as it is on Earth, though it would still be much brighter than a full moon.
Now i'm brainducked.

Great more physics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude

Damn those game devs have to be like studying hardcore maniacs to make game that resemble reality.

Johaunna · Jan 22, 2015

cpy said:
Maybe, but maybe your ship have lights turned on?
About planets that are that far and have bright surface... yeah about that, that's they should be much darker.

View attachment 10027

Mercury: 190Ls
Venus: 360Ls
Earth: 500Ls
Mars: 760Ls
Jupiter: 2 597Ls
Saturn: 4 767Ls
Uranus: 9 333Ls
Neptune: 15 000Ls
Pluto: AVG 19 700Ls Closest:14 666Ls Furthest: 24 600Ls

So how far were you from star? 1000Ls, ok. How big and bright was that star compared to our sun? No data?

Another example:

View attachment 10031

Also stuff should be darker!

View attachment 10032

Sunlight is almost 2,000 times dimmer on Pluto than it is on Earth, and the sun would be only a small point in the sky. The sun would be 1/30 as big and 1/900 as bright as it is on Earth, though it would still be much brighter than a full moon.
Now i'm brainducked.

Great more physics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude

Damn those game devs have to be like studying hardcore maniacs to make game that resemble reality.

My point is: Solar system stars (where I'm) vs other stars.
It's not a matter of size. It's a matter of visibility.
I'm not able to understand where is the main star, because after few LS the main star become equal to the other stars in the background.
Even on pluto you are able to see the difference between the Sun and Proxima Centauri.
If the surface of a planet is clearly illuminated the light source must be visible and identifiable.

cpy · Jan 22, 2015

Johaunna said:
If the surface of a planet is clearly illuminated the light source must be visible and identifiable.

Really? Is that so?

–26.74^{[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude#cite_note-sun-fact-7"][7][/URL]} Sun as seen from Earth
–18.20 Sun as seen from Pluto at aphelion
–14.2 An illumination level of one lux
–12.92 Maximum brightness of full moon (mean is –12.74)^{[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude#cite_note-moon-fact-6"][6][/URL]}
–9.50 Maximum brightness of an Iridium (satellite) flare
–2.94 Maximum brightness of Jupiter^{[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude#cite_note-jupiter-19"][19][/URL]}
–1.47 Brightest star (except for the Sun) at visible wavelengths: Sirius^{[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude#cite_note-SIMBAD-Sirius-21"][21][/URL]

[SIZE=2]I'm pretty sure you are cyborg that can distinguish iridium satellite flare from jupiter's flare right?
Because bright dot clearly different from another brighter dot.
[/SIZE]}

Johaunna · Jan 22, 2015

cpy said:
Really? Is that so?

–26.74^{[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude#cite_note-sun-fact-7"][7][/URL]} Sun as seen from Earth
–18.20 Sun as seen from Pluto at aphelion
–14.2 An illumination level of one lux
–12.92 Maximum brightness of full moon (mean is –12.74)^{[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude#cite_note-moon-fact-6"][6][/URL]}
–9.50 Maximum brightness of an Iridium (satellite) flare
–2.94 Maximum brightness of Jupiter^{[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude#cite_note-jupiter-19"][19][/URL]}
–1.47 Brightest star (except for the Sun) at visible wavelengths: Sirius^{[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apparent_magnitude#cite_note-SIMBAD-Sirius-21"][21][/URL]

[SIZE=2]I'm pretty sure you are cyborg that can distinguish iridium satellite flare from jupiter's flare right?
Because bright dot clearly different from another brighter dot.
[/SIZE]}

You are just trolling with some fancy wikipedia copy and paste stuff.
Try to see stars, while you are looking at the sun.
Try to find some photos (nasa probes or hubble or others) with the sun inside.. and tell me if there are other things visible.

This is a game is not an 100% realistic, the point is funcionality.
The illumination of planets is not 100% realistic.
You can still see clearly at even 2000000 Ls away. It's not realistic.
But It's fine.
Now, for me, it's fine to add something that let me know which dot, in the night sky, is the main star.
If you think that is not the case, simply tell it.
Stop arguing with this low level scientfic knowledge.

cpy · Jan 22, 2015

You can spot parallax change, that's how you spot close stars.

Bigskill · Jan 23, 2015

I agree with Johaunna, The stars need to be boosted a bit.
So far you can barely see the diffference between a planet and a star....

Turmis · Jan 23, 2015

cpy said:
You can spot parallax change, that's how you spot close stars.

I perfectly agree with that system main stars are way too dim compared to other stars in the distance. Actually I think the stars in system in which you are, should be way more brighter, now they look like fancy-drawed fantasy movie suns. Just look at our very own sun in the sky and compare how it looks in ED. Stars definitely need balancing... and cpy just stop that sciencebabble about stars magnitudes etc, nice you can talk about numbers but how about thinking the actual thing? If a planet side is illuminated from one side only, by system star, it definitely is hundreds, even thousands of times brighter than any other spot in the sky. Theres no doubt about it, even if you copypaste all science articles from Einstein, Hawking or Newton.

Malic · Jan 24, 2015

Bigskill said:
I agree with Johaunna, The stars need to be boosted a bit.
So far you can barely see the diffference between a planet and a star....

Umm, that is how it is in real life... in fact one of the last updates was because the stars were too bright and they had to be turned down..

- Use the correct absolute magnitude in bolometric luminosity calculations

This means the math for star size/ distance and how much light it gave off were wrong, they fixed it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_magnitude
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolometric_correction

1.04 change log:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=94724

that is how space is

In fact this time of year, you go outside at night and identify the brightest "star" in the sky and you likely wont be pointing at a star and most likely at Jupiter.. a planet that is closer to us and the light it reflects appears brighter then stars that emit light that are much further away. With the distances that we deal with in space, what you are seeing in the game is correct and it should not be changed

Aslo the planet needs to be facig the star for it to reflect light.. you approach the dark side of a planet and you wont be able to see its shine.

Rhonda · Jan 24, 2015

It might be just voodoo but for me I main stars' visibility improved after installing SweetFX. You might want to adjust some settings to your liking (e.g. the presets are a bit too blurry imho).
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=87727&highlight=sweetfx

dementia · Jan 24, 2015

I'd go the other way and remove the lense flare effect. After all, you ain't looking out of your ship via a video camera but through the window of your cockpit.

The game needs to stick to its original idea of being as accurate a representation as possible. Even the science fiction elements (FSD, etc) needs to be based on the most up to date real world theoretical physics.

It is so cool that when real world exo planets etc are discovered, FD update the game to reflect them and you can travel to see them. I love that!

Turmis · Jan 24, 2015

Malic said:
that is how space is

In fact this time of year, you go outside at night and identify the brightest "star" in the sky and you likely wont be pointing at a star and most likely at Jupiter.. a planet that is closer to us and the light it reflects appears brighter then stars that emit light that are much further away. With the distances that we deal with in space, what you are seeing in the game is correct and it should not be changed

Aslo the planet needs to be facig the star for it to reflect light.. you approach the dark side of a planet and you wont be able to see its shine.

Hmm did you get the point? We were talking about a main star in a solar system you are in, not the thousands of stars you see in the space all around.
All who are here saying system main stars are ok ED: just take a look at the Space Engine, go to Pluto and have a look at our sun. Compare it what it looks like in ED.
Star/stars are just VERY bright in the system, because you are so much closer to them compared to stars in the distance. And when talking about star's spectrum, How about the smooth halo colour around would be a visual indication about star's colour?

dementia said:
I'd go the other way and remove the lense flare effect. After all, you ain't looking out of your ship via a video camera but through the window of your cockpit.

The game needs to stick to its original idea of being as accurate a representation as possible. Even the science fiction elements (FSD, etc) needs to be based on the most up to date real world theoretical physics.

I agree, at least there should be an option to disable lens flare. Every game I play, I disable lens flares if there is an option for that. Because im really fanatic about realism.