Arma 3 lighting

[erupter]

Yes you are right

[JuggernautOfWar]

I think this is related, although it is for ArmA2 instead.
http://forums.bistudio.com/showthrea...-1-61-proposal
This has been implemented in the latest beta patch.

[frostwyrm333]

Have you tried the newest beta patch? It fixes HDR somewhat, worse cases remain but its harder for them to appear, also whats with the forums are they on fire?

[PuFu]

Yes but then we'd be tapping into radiosity. And I seriously doubt Arma3 engine supports it.

Current engines supporting radiosity:
Battlefield 3 - Geomerics Enlighten
Need for Speed: The Run - Geomerics Enlighten
Unreal Engine 3 - Geomerics Enlighten

Cryengine - self developed


Geomerics' Enlighten engine is a GI engine available for licensing.
BI could easily buy a licence and use it in their own engine as DICE did with their Frostbite engine.

If you get into a discussion, at least be informed about it
1. there are more so called real time GI 3rd party engines out there (which isn't really what is advertised, just check the FAQ). Autodesk Beast for instance
2. you obviously have no idea what "licesing a 3rd party lighting engine" means, if you think doing it is just easy (even if you have the money for it).

Now, for the second part, what a GI engine should do, and what Enlighten doesn't: A GI engine should be able to take into account all the the lights, material and surface properties in the scene, all of which affect the amount of lighting, as well the overall "mood". Still, Enlighten doesn't do (from their FAQ):

Enlighten cannot handle geometry that is created entirely procedurally at runtime with no prior knowledge of visibility.

Enlighten performs a precompute on the static geometry in the scene. Once this is completed the scene can be re-lit, re-textured and re-coloured dynamically. Typical precompute times are 1-2 minutes per system. The precompute can be distributed across multiple nodes.

What it means is that any sort of new light source in the scene needs to be run through the pre-compute phase, so no, you cannot add new light on the fly.

and last but not least:

Dynamic objects pick up radiosity so naturally fit into their world. They do not contribute to radiosity, though than can be simulated if necessary.

which again, means that the GI solution is a baked one (even if by baking i don't necessary mean map baked), and not dynamic.

The only engine out there that MIGHT be real-time GI, is the upcoming UE4:

[imarobot]

The E3 presentation was amazing, really great work on the lighting. The lighting and HDR specifically were the most frustrating parts of ARMA 2, so I'm really glad they reworked it. This is going to be a really exciting game, the ultimate military sandbox.

[Panda_pl]

Adjustment of your virtual eyes during sunsets, while engaging something due west has always been a problem, thus unnatural 'blackness', or blindness in these circumstances.

Now I am going on a whim but I think the problem of dark shadows at dawn might be the sky brightness is linked to the sun and so is the global illumination (or in other words: the uniform, or dome lighting).
In reality the sky will light up and start reflecting light before sun is over horizon.

So the change in global lighting should lag behind sun in the evening and precede sunrise in the morning. I am not sure but I think the sky already lights up a quarter before sunrise or something like that, as it should, but even if it does I don;t know if there is an accompanying change in global lighting.

[erupter]

If you get into a discussion, at least be informed about it
1. there are more so called real time GI 3rd party engines out there (which isn't really what is advertised, just check the FAQ). Autodesk Beast for instance

Ok, so? I just cited one as an example: there are good people working on a huge problem and providing solution.
I suggested BI concentrated on what it does best (simulation), buying ready-made solutions from people in the know of other problems.

2. you obviously have no idea what "licesing a 3rd party lighting engine" means, if you think doing it is just easy (even if you have the money for it).

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/easy 8. Readily exploited, imposed on, or tricked
I'm a programmer and I know the difference between baking a solution from scratch, and implementing someone's solution.
Nothing comes free, but some things come cheaper than others. At least in programming terms.
Then it's always a balance between what you want to achieve, and the amount of different resources you want to commit (money and man-hours in this case).

Now, for the second part, what a GI engine should do, and what Enlighten doesn't: A GI engine should be able to take into account all the the lights, material and surface properties in the scene, all of which affect the amount of lighting, as well the overall "mood". Still, Enlighten doesn't do (from their FAQ):

That's a wish of yours: I don't know of any real REAL-TIME FULL GI engines.
All of them, that I know of, use pre-rendered assets.

[tremanarch]

You can't be serious bro!
HDR to photographers is what tuning is to race drivers!
C'mon, just read a bit around about HDR.

No human eye has the ability to gather that much range you show in that photo.
If you go to that same spot you'd notice that you DON'T see that place like that photo.
On the opposite.
I think you're mixing many things up.

There are more than one ranges in this discussion:
tonal range ie colours, and no electronic apparatus has the ability to show the quantity the human eye can discern
light intensity range ie contrast, and no electronic apparatus (again) can match the eye (or nature for that matter)

The human eye has an exposure capability superior to that of the photo film, but that image you posted has been achieved with at least THREE different exposures, possibilty more.
The combined range of THREE exposure is superior to that of the human eye.
So you again are faking and in fact the colours look unnatural, and you wouldn't see them that way should you be in the same place at the same time.
More to the point you'd probably see the ceiling much darker in that very same condition.

I can't believe you don't know the very same eyes you use to type on this forum...

You're right bro'
I might have explained it wrong. I mean when you put your eye on sth. it quickly makes the best picture possible.. you cant see sth like a whole place at once with your eyes (try it out you can only focus on a tiny spot the brain makes the rest - we see with our brain not with our eyes though), because only a tiny tiny spot of your view is sharp and good.. its really hard to discuss it in a foreign language.. And of course you cant see such HDR pictures as a whole, but in tiny pieces if you had thousand eyes .. ^^ (and not thaat good yes, they look kind of artifical too, there are better and worse HDR Pictures)

as a rule of thumb the only thing you can see good and sharp is when you stretch your arm and look at your thumb, its this size of a picture you get from your eyes,, but they are moving quickly and scanning the scene...

and yes the pictures are too good of course, but it is what I tried to say to explain, It didnt work out.. the games imitades cameras not eyes, herein lies the mistake in my eyes but its not really better possible...

I mean we have even lens flare in all these games, but since when are we looking through camera eyes? At least myself I have biological eyes and no teleobjectives on my head )

[Stauff]

Even though its not directly related to lightning im wondering if we will have more post-processing options in A3?
Most of you know that blur and bloom are options that cannot be tweaked (as far as i know) individually. Hence, most pvp players turn this option to disabled or very low and lose the benefit of SSAO and color corrections. Is it a difficult task to give a option to treat these individually?

[Steakslim]

Unsure, but this is something more suited to ask in the Wishlist thread, though it has been requested many times in the past. I think everyone here would like to have full range of what options they want on and off without having to resort to third party methods.