Planetary Lighting on Approach

[Greasetrap42]

Ya, everybody knows lighting isn't the best. Here is a great example. When I saw this I looped around and re-approached for the screenshots, set about 1 seconds apart.

This moon is in full sunlight until I reach the point where the game realizes the planet it is orbiting is obscuring the sun. It is very sudden. Very jarring to see while flying.

 

[Codger]

Ok

 

[Nephthys Vasudan]

I've seen this too - but its.... subtle?

Lightning has been a little weird lately.
Also I've had situations where planetary rings go invisible and only show up in weird shadow situations - relogging seems to fix it.

(This isn't those rings that are barely visible - I'm saying literally they vanish graphically unless you relogg)

 

[Iron Body]

It's called an eclipse.

 

[Nephthys Vasudan]

It's called an eclipse.

It's called read what is said..... eclipses don't occur in split seconds.

 

[Greasetrap42]

It's called an eclipse.

An eclipse is supposed to be dark in the shadow of the planet... regardless of how far away the observer is.

What I am showing is the distance threshold at which point the eclipse shadow gets implemented. If I nudge the ship fwd or back the shadow turns on/off/on/off.

Edit: I can understand the game engine cheating when the distances are so large the player can't tell the difference. But not when the planet is directly in front of the cmdr. Certainly not in DSS range.

 

[Nephthys Vasudan]

An eclipse is supposed to be dark in the shadow of the planet... regardless of how far away the observer is.

I can understand the game engine cheating when the distances are so large the player can't tell the difference. But not when the planet is directly in front of the cmdr.

Agreed... I've logged out and logged in where I logged out in the dark and logged in sunlight on a planet - so yes time passes.

but it doesn't pass that fast in terms of orbits.
(Gap between logs was 10-12 hours plus)

 

[Mika L]

I have seen this many times, last time in my latest game session last night. It's quite disturbing. There is already an issue report about this, where more confirmations are needed: Lighting of close other bodies when landing on the dark side of a planet

 

[Kira Goto]

I’ve also noticed this myself on occasion, usually with twin orbit planets close to each other. Taking off from one, with the sun directly behind and obscured, the second planet would look to be in sunlight, despite not actually being so.

Then it suddenly switches to being pitch black when the game remembers that its surface isn’t supposed to be lit up.

Not a huge issue all things considered, but a bit jarring on the eyes.

 

[Planewalker]

It's on the issue tracker so feel free to vote.

Issue Tracker

issues.frontierstore.net

 

[metatheurgist]

Ah, I see you've discovered my favourite thing about the lighting.

 

[Galactic Fork]

This has been around since I first started playing in 2016. Don't expect it fixed any time soon. The other big lighting fun is when you're on the side of the planet not facing the primary light source, yet a second clearly visible nearby star in the sky casting 0 light.

 

[Nephthys Vasudan]

Honestly I don't remember it being this bad back when I played 2019/2020 era - something changed - don't remember having to turn up my gamma either.
Added my 2 cents to the issue tracker.

 

[metatheurgist]

Honestly I don't remember it being this bad back when I played 2019/2020 era - something changed - don't remember having to turn up my gamma either.
Added my 2 cents to the issue tracker.

Nah, this is just how it works since forever. The general lighting has changed since they redid the engine for Ody, but this particular quirk has been there from the start.

 

[jafergon]

There have been several tickets in the issue tracker regarding this problem before and all have expired without being resolved. I have given up personally with all lighting engine related issues. Patch after patch all lighting notes are about art tweaks to specific assets like stations, but nothing about lighting engine fixes.

 

[Planewalker]

This has been around since I first started playing in 2016. Don't expect it fixed any time soon. The other big lighting fun is when you're on the side of the planet not facing the primary light source, yet a second clearly visible nearby star in the sky casting 0 light.

Devs stated that 1 lightsource is on purpose for now just fyi.

There have been several tickets in the issue tracker regarding this problem before and all have expired without being resolved. I have given up personally with all lighting engine related issues. Patch after patch all lighting notes are about art tweaks to specific assets like stations, but nothing about lighting engine fixes.

Arh, they have made changes to the lighting as well as fixes and stated them in the patch notes.
-i agree it could do with some more TLC of course.


Edit: only 8 votes on the tracker, get going people!
(commenting here without voting is weird imo)

 

[Arioch]

(commenting here without voting is weird imo)

‘tis always the way when trying to drum up Confirmations Takes just as long to type a forum post as to add to the report.

(I’ve added my 3 confirmations already )

 

[jafergon]

So far all lighting notes that I've seen in the last year are about adjusting lighting, not fixing bugs in the lighting engine. All notes I've seen are about tweaking the intensity and values of lights in specific environments or assets. The problem described here is a bug related to the engine itself and how it computes light in different situations. Tweaks and bugs are different things and in terms engine bugs or limitations, the game has not received any love in more than a year. The broken stellar lighting, planets in the sky receiving the same lighting as your ship, planets suddently getting dark are engine and shader bugs that are being completely ignored. All of these issue had largely voted tickets that never got addressed and some of them expired. I'll vote the OP topic even if I've lost hope, because it doesn't hurt

Devs stated that 1 lightsource is on purpose for now just fyi.


Arh, they have made changes to the lighting as well as fixes and stated them in the patch notes.
-i agree it could do with some more TLC of course.


Edit: only 8 votes on the tracker, get going people!
(commenting here without voting is weird imo)

 

[Planewalker]

So far all lighting notes that I've seen in the last year are about adjusting lighting, not fixing bugs in the lighting engine. All notes I've seen are about tweaking the intensity and values of lights in specific environments or assets. The problem described here is a bug related to the engine itself and how it computes light in different situations. Tweaks and bugs are different things and in terms engine bugs or limitations, the game has not received any love in more than a year. The broken stellar lighting, planets in the sky receiving the same lighting as your ship, planets suddently getting dark are engine and shader bugs that are being completely ignored. All of these issue had largely voted tickets that never got addressed and some of them expired. I'll vote the OP topic even if I've lost hope, because it doesn't hurt

Cool. And your description makes it more clear what you meant, thank you.

You are correct that it might be an internal function issue.
I've speculated that they might be using PBR, because it would explain a lot.
-if it is indeed the case, it is not something that is easily solved or even mitigated.
I know this because i spent three months on a mod for another game that uses PBR.
It would be wonderful to have the lighting issues sorted once and for all, that much is clear.