Into the dark!

[KnightRave]

First things first, well done FDev, this update is absolutely cracking, I've had no real issues other than a few random disconnects and the FPS works really well for me with a controller. I've only dabbled in a few on foot combat zones so far as the system I was in was at war when I loaded up but from what I have played so far I can see myself spending most of my time on foot for the next few months of play.

However the only issue I can't seem to get my head around is that things are very dark in Odyssey?
I have my gamma maxed out in options and my HUD brightness set to maximum yet everything still feels really dark in contrast especially when sitting in the ships cockpit, the only fix for me right now was to set my TV to vibrant display but only for elite, if I hop back to desktop I have to change it back or I get eyeburn.
Is this something anyone else has encountered or am I missing some graphical feature I haven't checked?

o7

 

[J Michaelson]

And when things aren't dull, dark, and washed out, they're so over-exposed you can't see anything at all such as when you scan some icy bodies with the discovery scanner. Can't say I'm too enamored with the "new" planetary tech, either. Every one of these planets is visually identical. The worlds look nice when on the surface, but coming for landing they are ugly as sin in many cases.

 

[willowfan]

I'm finding the dark is far too dark and the light is far too bright.

 

[konsumkind]

One could say it’s a day and night difference

 

[Ferris]

Same, very dark after update. I can barely even see the galactic disc from my cockpit when out in space.
Also noticed most gas giants now look very dark in the system map.

 

[akaine]

Same experience here.

The ambient lighting has been removed almost completely compared to the Horizons and the interface default orange coloring is much dimmer, even at max settings. The starfield and the Milky Way ecliptic effect has become much darker as well and these colorful bloom halos around some stars on the starfield look kinda unrealistic.

So after some thinking I've decided to compare the original Horizons' GraphicsConfiguration.xml vs Odyssey's one and copied some values from the former to the latter:

<HDRNode_Reference>
    ...
    <Percentiles>0.6,0.540000,0.9000</Percentiles>
    ...
    <ACES_C>2.43</ACES_C>
    <ACES_D>0.59</ACES_D>
    <ACES_E>0.14</ACES_E>
</HDRNode_Reference>
...
<HBAO>
    <High>
        ...
        <HBAO_RadiusInMeters>10.0</HBAO_RadiusInMeters>
        <HBAO_NearRadiusInMeters>2.1</HBAO_NearRadiusInMeters>
        <HBAO_NearDistance>100.0</HBAO_NearDistance>
        <HBAO_PowExponent>1.8</HBAO_PowExponent>
        ...
    </High>
</HBAO>

Please note that I'm just guessing here by applying common sense. Anyway, this change does make ambient a bit brighter and removes excessive blooming for the stars.

Now, to come even closer to the what we want, I also applied the following changes:

1. Made UI a bit more yellow (use this tool to make it any color you want: https://arkku.com/elite/hud_editor/):

<GUIColour>
    <Default>
        <LocalisationName>Standard</LocalisationName>
        <MatrixRed>        1, 0.1, 0 </MatrixRed>
        ...
    </Default>
    ...
</GUIColour>

2. Made Milky Way ecliptic nebulae effect bigger and brighter:

<GalaxyMap>
    ...
    <High>
        ...
        <MilkywayInstancesBrightness>2.0</MilkywayInstancesBrightness>
        <MilkywayInstancesSize>2.0</MilkywayInstancesSize>
        ...
    </High>
</GalaxyMap>

3. Added more stars to the starfield (no noticeable load time change even on my 3-years old mid grade pc rig):

<GalaxyMap>
    ...
    <High>
        ...
        <StarInstanceCount>120000</StarInstanceCount>
    </High>
</GalaxyMap>

Here are some screenshots for comparison:

Spoiler: Horizons default

Spoiler: Odyssey default

Spoiler: Odyssey tweaked

Oh, and there is always an option to use ReShade (https://reshade.me), of course. But this is for another topic.


Btw @willowfan, Ivanova is God! xD