Night lighting effects

[Sakura_Chan]

This addon was created to enhance the night lighting effects of Arma2. Here is what is contained within the addon:
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- Dim and yellow military style headlights for vehicles
- fixed missing green blinking light on Osprey
- new colors and sizes for aircraft positional lights
- removed ugly lighting on aircraft, lights were really bugged and didn't add anything so I removed them
- new light cones for streetlamps
- new light cones for directional lights (headlights)
- reduced effect and range of searchlight
- increased campfire/burning barrel/fireplace smoke and fire effects
- reduced campfire/burning barrel/fireplace light brightness and changed color to a soft orange
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http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w312/lethalSakura/vehicle.jpg
http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w312/lethalSakura/night4.jpg
http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w312/lethalSakura/campfire.jpg
I also recommend using my sun and light flare mod
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=6468
but it is not necessary.

Link - Mirrors are appreciated!
http://www.armaholic.com/page.php?id=7137
Thanks goes to Armaholic!
This addon is fully signed and includes my key, so servers can enjoy better nv goggle missions too.

[Kremator]

Fantastic work Sakura_Chan !

Downloading now.

[Herr_kalashnikov]

Looks realy nice giving it a try to, thanks

[MEDICUS]

Very nice one, Sakura_Chan!
Give's a really nice atmosphere! :)

Thx for this,
MfG, Medicus

[Atin]

It looks very nice.
Bad thing I always wear Nightvision googles at night XD

[twisted]

this is good. thanks!

[Electricleash]

Absolutely spot on! Exactly what I've been waiting for.
Thanks Sakura_Chan!
E

[Cionara]

Nice work, tested and it's lot better than vanilla.

[No Use For A Name]

wow!! so much better then the stock lighting "cones"! Thanks!!

[OrdeaL]

Like everyone says..FN Fantastic mod mate just like your sun mod! Thanks!

[Lee_H._Oswald]

Really fanatastic, a must have!

Thanks for your amazing work.


MfG Lee :)

[Daniel]

Love this, nice subtle addition to the atmosphere. Especially the campfire fix!

[{G&L}ACF{SCOTDG}]

Thanks for a great addon and makes Arma 2 nicer to look at :p

[Buliwyf]

G-R-E-A-T A-D-D-O-N !!!

Thanks for this... :notworthy:

[nikita320106]

long waiting and most needfull job)
thanx alot)

[Flash Thunder]

Great mod Sukura. :cool:

But one thing, why does the lighting still have very weird looking stages/layers? Is there an option to make it look like real light or is that just the engine?

Like the headlights!

[anfiach]

Not a big fan of your sun mod (think it was a bit over done -my personal opinion) but this is great.

Question, were you not able to do this for the aircraft lights (heli spotlights)? I hope that you can fix them because they do actually have a use in some mission designs.

Keep up the great work.

[Kremator]

PAH! Sun mod is superb. Philistine !

[Sakura_Chan]

were you not able to do this for the aircraft lights (heli spotlights)? I hope that you can fix them because they do actually have a use in some mission designs.

What do you mean by fix? they use the new cone effects don't they? wtf?

[anfiach]

What do you mean by fix? they use the new cone effects don't they? wtf?

I thought you said you removed all aircraft lights, I didn't even try them . Apologies.

[Sakura_Chan]

I just removed the lighting effect of the little green and red marker lights. if there was a blinking light on a chopper, the non blinking lights would turn off when the blinking light was on. The marker lights are still there, they just don't shine on the model.

[Alex72]

I do love this addon and use it all the time. But i think the streetlights are too dim. Not just in your addon, but they have always been too dim IMO. Even in ArmA1 and it came over to ARMA2 as well. Villages doesnt look like villages from a far, and it would be very nice if they could be tweaked to be brighter.

I did a simple thing and brightened 2 lights (maybe a tad too bright), but coming with a helicopter or on foot from far away you really see the towns and it looks much better. Again IMO. Thaught i mention it here as you are the lights guru now hehe. ;)

Tweaked bit brighter (Sakura lights all the rest. I changed the 2 to the right):
http://web.comhem.se/aphex/lights.jpg

What do the rest of you think? I mean overall about ARMA2 street lights - not that Sakura Chan HAVE to do this. :)

Alex

[Inkompetent]

Nice change Alex, and I agree. Looks like more real street lights. At least the kind of lights I'm used to see (unless it is those yellow, worthless mercury lights that I can't see why one use at all :P )

Suffice to say that this lightfix is permanently on my computer :)

[Defunkt]

The new light cones look good and Alex's edit even better.

[No Use For A Name]

brighter definitely looks better Alex.

[NoRailgunner]

Indeed great lighting effects! Alex72 yours looking imo a tad too bright for a small village somewhere in Chernarus. Maybe there is a "perfect" streetlight between yours and Sakuras?

[STALKERGB]

Agreed, brighter lights like that would be better, you'd be able to see the village you were about to flatten with tanks from a distance :)

Slightly more seriously, it would be quite a good tactical aid IMO, being able to clearly navigate from village to vilage in the dark or spot the gaurds in town before you attack from the dark.

[Sakura_Chan]

I liked the old dim streetlights, plus I didn't want to make it give one player an advantage over someone who didn't have the mod. I could easily release a second version that could allow the user to set up the brightness from an external .hpp file. That way everyone could set it up just the way they want. Oh and btw, those aren't my lights, I didn't touch the streetlight brightness or color values at all, so they are BIS lights ;)

[Kremator]

Brighter streetlights look much better IMO.

[Alex72]

I could easily release a second version that could allow the user to set up the brightness from an external .hpp file. That way everyone could set it up just the way they want.

Wow man! That would be awesome if you could. :) Didnt want to give you more work really sorry. :o I just felt with the awesome addon you have here, and with the lights more brighter (more realistic imo) this will be perfection.

If you do make a version where we can brighten it up - huge props to you. Again.

Regards
Alex

[Sakura_Chan]

What brightness settings did you use btw? How much brighter should they be? Each light has their own brightness, I figure I could just multiply them by one number to keep them all balanced.

[Yokhanan]

Yeah both are nice, but the more brighter one would be a weeeeee bit more better. Not too dim and not too overly bright. :)

[Alex72]

Sakura Chan:

I didnt tweak the actual lamp posts lights but added the light logic. So i dont know if those values are the same.

So i made a GAME LOGIC and added this:

light = "#lightpoint" createVehicleLocal position this; light setLightBrightness 0.15; light setLightAmbient[0.0, 0.0, 0.0]; light setLightColor[1.0, 1.0, 1.0]; light lightAttachObject [this, [0,0,12]]

So the brightness i set finally to 0.15 wich i think was slightly less bright than in my image above. But if the values are the same for the logic and for what you do i think between 0.1 - 0.15 could be good? Also to remember is that the light logic spreads its light spherical. So they give more light around than the cone streetlights so some testing i guess is needed

Alex

[Dwarden]

i like what i see here ...

[Sakura_Chan]

the default lights range from 0.15 to 0.33, plus the color will also affect the range on the light. I'll do some tweaking and release a new version along with a more complete ai driving fix later on this week.

[Kremator]

Superb Sakura Chan !

Looking forward to both.

[Alex72]

Yes very nice Sakura! Thanks a lot for doing this. :)

[KeyCat]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing Sakura Chan!

/KC

[jpfennig]

Great Job Bud,

Love the vehicle lights and other tweaks.

However, the streetlights really look crap no matter what. I've never seen such a ridiculous looking light, is there something wrong with my settings and/or GPU?

I mean look at it! "Hello, I'm a light cone!"

http://i588.photobucket.com/albums/ss327/jpfennig/streetlamps.jpg

[randir14]

No they look bad for me too, and when I'm under a street light it looks weird, the light isn't smooth it looks like a gradation scale or something. Everything else looks good though.

[jpfennig]

No they look bad for me too, and when I'm under a street light it looks weird, the light isn't smooth it looks like a gradation scale or something. Everything else looks good though.


Yep, everything else is fine. The only other main annoyance is the flickering building textures at long range.

When I first bought the game and tried out the editor on a night mission I seriously thought the streetlights where umbrellas for a short time.

[NeoJD[NY]]

same here.

[ladlon]

Three things I noticed:

1) Random brief flickering (like a lightning flash), where the area in front of me is briefly lit brighter. No idea what triggers that, though.

2) If I'm in a vehicle, turn off the headlight, then leave, the lights are back on when I'm outside. Seems to only happen when there are other AI in the vehical. Once they are out, it behaves properly.

3) This too might have been mentioned, but it would be great if the lightbulbs of the streetlamps were actually glowing. Looks odd with no lit bulb.

Otherwise, VERY nice work! Looks much better. Quite realistic!

[CarlGustaffa]

If AI is in commanders position when you get out, then he will ruin your light day. So always switch to commanders position before getting out.

[ladlon]

Hello again, CarlGustaffa... No, I had it happen with a Humvee (me in the driver's seat). If I had the guys leave, then tried the same routine, it worked properly (light stays off).

I'll experiement with it more, and see if there's any specific situations that trigger that (aside from SOMEONE in the vehicle).

[CarlGustaffa]

If you order the guys out, there will be nobody there occupying the commander (or gunner if commander position is lacking) position, so yeah, I would guess it worked then :)

Just tried it with HMMWV.
1) If I am commander (vehicle has commander position), I control the vehicles lights from commanders position. Nobody will turn it on when I exit, since gunner position is "ranked lower" (I guess) than commanders position.
2) If I start as driver of vehicle, I'm not even allowed to switch the lights, it's all controlled by the vehicle commander.

Vehicle commander: Anyone in the vehicle in the commanders position (if vehicle has one) or gunner position (if vehicle has no commanders position). If I am group leader and driver of a HMMWV with no guns (with 3 extra grouped AI in cargo), and change to back seat, new AI driver will not turn on lights.

So it seems to work like this: If AI is in highest possible vehicle position (commander, gunner, but not driver), he will turn on the lights even if you are leader of the group.

[ladlon]

Wacky...

[Bulldog Six]

can you provide a script only version of the orange lights and vehicle headlights?

also, have you thought about making a blue lightstick which would be attached to a vehicle's antenna? I've worked for the army a couple of times and I've seen them do that a lot for night missions.

[stevedrumsdw]

Is this mod recommened for OA as well?

[Ulanthorn]

Is this mod recommened for OA as well?I tend to say NO, since the whole lighting was reworked in OA and practically already features what this mod did.

[CarlGustaffa]

Yea, no need. The lighting is already pretty stunning.

[Sakura_Chan]

Yeah AO pretty much uses this mod lol. There is one change I would make though, the streetlamps could really use an actual bulb, not just the lightsource. The engine can handle a lot of lights (like runways for example) so adding a second light wouldn't break anything. The streetlamps would have to be re-classed though, to a class that can handle both light types. I'm trying to get back into modding, I've got a different computer now, so I have to reinstall all my mod tools on it. I can't even open a pbo currently.