q4 is the new light

[znôrt]

so i finally got to noosedive into the beta yesterday. i wast most intrigued with the lighting changes.

it was offputting at first. it was vr-high. fiddled with the settings and cranked almost everything up, screw framerate, and things started to look a lot better.

it has the effect of creating some consistent fade, even with gamma at minimum. however, after a while i realized i'm liking it A LOT, the fog could be scaled down but i will get used to it in no time. same for the light color tinting which is a bit extreme. but everything looks more real now. not just the new bright stars but how different bodies and structures blend into the environment. the light is just much more convincing. so ...

top job, unknown guy who works at frontier!!!
this alone is worth the whole update for me [yesnod][heart]

i tried to land on a planet but got stuck in a 'to close' loop. i assumed it was a bug but turns out i was being too stupid (or stoned) at the time to realize i had launched beta, not beta horizons XDDDDDDDD will try again tonight

so i went on to play with scanning. question: has anybody been able to fully scan maia? there was a missing rocky (icy?) body i just couldn't access, caught in an endless loop of 'zoom in'. for real, i could zoom in say 10 times, and then would zoom out 10 times again. i didn't want to go down that rabbit hole, though. anyway ... the whole scanning thing ... is ... well, let's just assume this is a first draft and ... ok, i'd rather remain silent now.

the codex and ui changes elsewhere i found meh, nice but not really relevant, except the knowledge base discoveries section which is a very good addition, it has great potential for engagement and also educational value. i want this full with good stuff now!! [haha]

plus i have my very own squadron now and no, you can't join!

 

[777Driver]

so i went on to play with scanning. question: has anybody been able to fully scan maia? there was a missing rocky (icy?) body i just couldn't access, caught in an endless loop of 'zoom in'. for real, i could zoom in say 10 times, and then would zoom out 10 times again. i didn't want to go down that rabbit hole, though. anyway ... the whole scanning thing ... is ... well, let's just assume this is a first draft and ... ok, i'd rather remain silent now.

For scanning, make sure you have looked carefully through all the bindings and set them to your liking (it is not as bad as people make out) Took me a few mins tops. Personally really like the new scanning method in VR, so much easier to locate HGE's.

Did I mention 'Make sure your controls are set up properly?' makes a huge difference to the experience. Orrery map is the icing on the cake for me

 

[thistle]

top job, unknown guy who works at frontier!!!
this alone is worth the whole update for me [yesnod][heart]

Yep, after using it for a couple of weeks going back to live is odd. Everything is less ... i dunno ... solid? There's a solidity that the new lighting gives to everything.

I didn't really like the lighting in station interiors initially, but whether they have changed or I've just got used to them, they seem fine now. My only gripe is agricultural stations, they still seem metallic green rather than actual green, almost turquoise, it's a little odd.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Was it the illusive Maia 2?

 

[znôrt]

For scanning, make sure you have looked carefully through all the bindings and set them to your liking (it is not as bad as people make out) Took me a few mins tops. Personally really like the new scanning method in VR, so much easier to locate HGE's.

Did I mention 'Make sure your controls are set up properly?' makes a huge difference to the experience. Orrery map is the icing on the cake for me

work! work!

Spoiler

[video=youtube;eO6OaVnbqaY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO6OaVnbqaY[/video]

you may be right. i had read about it but didn't remember the exact details. got me quite a few visits to options to set up a working minimum. however i was able to identify the whole system (including loads of uss!!!) except just that b-something. it just made me zoom into an identical copy of the same zoom level. i'll do my work-work and try again.

 

[znôrt]

Was it the illusive Maia 2?

could be. i have no idea what it was. gonna try and find out later

 

[SpocksOddSocks]

so i went on to play with scanning. question: has anybody been able to fully scan maia? there was a missing rocky (icy?) body i just couldn't access, caught in an endless loop of 'zoom in'. for real, i could zoom in say 10 times, and then would zoom out 10 times again. i didn't want to go down that rabbit hole, though. anyway ... the whole scanning thing ... is ... well, let's just assume this is a first draft and ... ok, i'd rather remain silent now.
[haha]

plus i have my very own squadron now and no, you can't join!

I had this too, but managed to get it eventually. I think it was a body that was moving rather fast, so as you try to zoom you keep missing it. I think I got lucky on one attempt.

 

[znôrt]

I had this too, but managed to get it eventually. I think it was a body that was moving rather fast, so as you try to zoom you keep missing it. I think I got lucky on one attempt.

this makes a lot of sense, actually. i remember sometimes bodies drifting strangely, not sure it was precisely that one but it could well be.

 

[znôrt]

the knowledge base discoveries section which is a very good addition, it has great potential for engagement and also educational value. i want this full with good stuff now!! [haha]

y actually meant the discoveries section

I had this too, but managed to get it eventually. I think it was a body that was moving rather fast, so as you try to zoom you keep missing it. I think I got lucky on one attempt.

well, i'm non the wiser. here's a video:

[video=youtube;0aKJCpMYaxM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aKJCpMYaxM[/video]

half of the video i'm zooming in, the other half zooming out (clicking fast so the ui doesn't catch up in the end). doesn't seem the body movement is the problem?

i suspect this is "Maia B 1 a a" which is the only body orbiting B1a: https://eddb.io/body/8814

--

anyway, i forgot to crosscheck the other bodies, and i'm not there anymore. went to watch lighting on planets and to buy myself a mamba which is ... a damn fine ship, once you slap a dirty drive on it! :O

 

[Saool]

It is nice, but stars need to stop colouring local space.

 

[Stealthie]

Gotta say, I share Yamiks' sentiment over the new lighting; it just looks like somebody's gone nuts with photoshop filters in a bid to make everything "look amazing" without noticing how far they've shifted from a natural effect.

It actually reminds me of what happens if you set your GFX card to full-range and forget to adjust your monitor settings to suit.
You end up with super-bright highlights and super-dark blacks but lousy gradients in between.

But hey, if the majority like it, I guess I'll get used to it eventually.

 

[znôrt]

But hey, if the majority like it, I guess I'll get used to it eventually.

lol! good to be in a majority for a change!

yes, sometimes color tinting and brightness are a bit overdone, but i like the combined effect way better in general. that's very personal i guess. for me it's not so much about realism but global effect and an environment convincing enough. we are still very far from 'real realism' in games, and our brains are experts in being fooled into making it up.

maybe they could add some sliders for parameters like tinting and reflection, though. also, i was still running with custom tone mapping settings, need to see how it looks with default and play a bit around.

 

[60mm]

Night Vision looks amazing, and I like the color grading too. Only downside, and it's big, is now the game appears to have perma-boosted gamma. Also not a fan of how the lighting is effecting local space either. I noticed planets anywhere near a sun do not have a dark side. The "dark" side is shaded. That it not how it should work.

 

[Valorin]

The new lighting is amazing at some places. Only thing that supposedly the colour grading screws up is that the light from stars tint the background including the Milky Way. For me that's a bug, a pretty significant one even, and I guess most people who like the science in Elite would agree.

 

[thistle]

I think for me the real difference is only obvious going back to live, the lighting (if it is just lighting) makes things seem more substantial in the beta, less 'edgy' in the sense of edges not the faces of objects being highlighted in live.

If that makes any sense at all.

Just to confuse things (myself included) even more - I'd liken live to a technical drawing, whereas beta is a painting. The areas between the lines have been filled in ...