Lighting Tweaking (dev branch)

[Tonci87 163]

Guys, one little question:

Am I the only one who notices that the small lighthouse at the entrance of Ageia Marina harbour is not working?

[pauliesss 2]

I am not sure if weapon flashlight is still WIP but it is still very weak during the night.

[daze23 1]

I am not sure if weapon flashlight is still WIP but it is still very weak during the night.

the headlights on the vehicles as well

[sproyd 2]

I run a mostly GPU bound set-up (rare I know) as I have a Core i7 laptop @3.2GHz and a GeForce GT650M 2GB

Here are my specs for the latest dynamic lighting changes, in the middle of Agia Marina street lights section. Almost all settings at Standard, with no MSAA, Standard FXAA, Very High Textures.

rev 04711

Dynamic Light Setting:

Low: 33.25 fps

Std: 31.55 fps

Hi: 30.00 fps

V Hi: 27.1 fps

Ultra: 24.5 fps

So as you can see, a very linear FPS changes now with the setting actually working. In terms of visible fidelity from an infantry perspective the jump from Low to Std is the most beneficial. Beyond that just seems to light up areas over 100m away or so - could be important in medium range urban engagements. Obviously if sniping then you are going to want a high setting as you are essentially going to get more light on your screen.

[nodunit 397]

i remember how in old games environmental shadows were baked into the level but still calculated once according to the light source they were caused by. i wonder if a compromise would be possible like for example having something like it for streetlights that is kind of static and gets just blended out into daytime. what i mean is like only considering static objects like houses but ignoring dynamic ones like characters and vehicles. this would also exclude moving lights like flashlights and car head lights.

so we could have the shadows that NodUnit created there without having actual dynamic lights. the only problem i see is if a house gets destroyed and thus changes its shape.

That could work, hell I'd be willing to deal with the change in structure, even go so far as to have a now non existant radio tower casting a shadow if it meant having that shadow.

[twisted 127]

one lighting tweak I'd love to see is the shadow on the back of hills working like a shadow should. right now trees get illuminated behind the hill they are on and the hill doesn't cast a shadow.

that's not so noticeable on big hills but on smaller ones its no uncommon to see your own shadow floating on the ground below as the hill isn't casting the corresponding shadow.

this also results in the valleys between hills not being as dark as they should be as quite a bit less light is reaching down there.

of course, time and resources are finite. so if i had to choose one tweak to the above it'd be hills casting shadows onto other terrain. the lack of this affects stealthy gameplay and can give a players position away. there's been a few times when i've noticed player shadows cast floating on the ground and thereby revealing them prone up on the hill (which isnt casting a corresponding and otherwise masking shadow) above me.

[DaRkL3AD3R 1]

I hate to be a killjoy but that type of stuff just isn't feasible. It's incredible that they're pulling off the stuff they currently do.

[metalcraze 290]

That's been an issue for a long time twisted... It became even more obvious in ArmA3 where colour gamma is really vibrant. Light bushes on shadowed hills just look really awkward. And yeah I would like to see BIS fix it. It shouldn't be resource intensive either - if bush position is shadowed just lower the brightness of diffuse texture by half of something.

[omerc 10]

I hate to be a killjoy but that type of stuff just isn't feasible. It's incredible that they're pulling off the stuff they currently do.

Just let them do their work.

[kng 1]

I noticed that the flares are totally different in the dev build 0.55 than in the 0.54 build. Did anyone else notice that too? Is there now a way to tweak the flare settings like the brightness or size of the flare?

0.54 flare: http://i.imgur.com/eFjINuK.jpg

0.55 flare: http://i.imgur.com/wAAjeQr.jpg

I kinda like the way it looks in 0.54 much more, the emitted light is also much more powerful.

[Mr. Charles 22]

0.54 flare: http://i.imgur.com/eFjINuK.jpg

0.55 flare: http://i.imgur.com/wAAjeQr.jpg

I kinda like the way it looks in 0.54 much more, the emitted light is also much more powerful.

I liked the older ones too :(

[metalcraze 290]

It's obvious for a long time that all flare and glare effects share exactly the same texture.

Lamps, sun, flares = same texture. It will change.

But I do like the new one a lot more. It looks like flare does emit some light instead of artificial, static, never changing spikes.

[CaptainObvious 95]

But I do like the new one a lot more. It looks like flare does emit some light instead of artificial, static, never changing spikes.

Real flares however are bright as a mofo and glare quite a bit actually, IIRC the old flare was flickering a bit, just like they do in real life, I would like to see that again

[daze23 1]

nighttime lighting does look really awkward sometimes. here it looks like some kind of neon 'Blood Dragon' game

http://i.imgur.com/bA3myyY.jpg

[metalcraze 290]

It's old ArmA2 issue where ground is lit a lot more than objects placed on it.

It's clear that lamp light does not reach the house but the ground still gets that light. And too much of it.

I've posted a similar screenshot a while back and I really hope BIS fixes this.

[NeuroFunker 11]

nighttime lighting does look really awkward sometimes. here it looks like some kind of neon 'Blood Dragon' game

http://i.imgur.com/bA3myyY.jpg

Far Cry 3 more like. Yes it might be a bit to much saturation of moon light, but i don't think its a big problem at all

[MaXyM 10]

It's obvious for a long time that all flare and glare effects share exactly the same texture.

Because... it does work this way in the real world.

Flare shape doesn't depends on light source, but on optics the light goes through.

[daze23 1]

Far Cry 3 more like. Yes it might be a bit to much saturation of moon light, but i don't think its a big problem at all

"Blood Dragon" is the (neon) Far Cry 3 stand-alone add-on thing

it's not a "big problem", and I'm sure it can be fixed/improved. I'm just pointing it out

[DaRkL3AD3R 1]

"Blood Dragon" is the (neon) Far Cry 3 stand-alone add-on thing

it's not a "big problem", and I'm sure it can be fixed/improved. I'm just pointing it out

I knew what you meant and I agree with you, it's what I've been talking about for awhile now when I say the moonlight makes it look like some kind of elf fantasy world. Sky is just way too bright blue at the moment. Feel like I'm watching Avatar the movie :mad:

[sofianebilal 10]

I knew what you meant and I agree with you, it's what I've been talking about for awhile now when I say the moonlight makes it look like some kind of elf fantasy world. Sky is just way too bright blue at the moment. Feel like I'm watching Avatar the movie :mad:

i agree the sky is so blue with and without moon in the last dev build !

[pauliesss 2]

Flashlight intensity during the night is still weak in the current dev. branch.

[metalcraze 290]

Are there any plans to add a few more lamps to the remaining half of Agia Marina?

It calls for them.

[nikiforos 450]

^Good question !!

[tpw 2314]

Just had a play with the latest dev build. Sodium lamps now actually work, but have been removed from most of Agia Marina for some reason. Torch intensity is OK as far as I can tell.

I'm encouraged by a lot of the improvements but feel that there are still a few issues of varying severity:

1 - Make the bloody night sky black for $%&^s sake. It's really disconcerting to have the environment so dark and yet have a dusk bright sky all night. I sincerely hope this is just a side effect of the fiddling with apertures etc, and can be addressed.

2 - The player's weapon blocks out street light sources but not their flare effect.

3 - Performance is better but really suffers in certain areas (eg the military range at Agia)

Apart from the unrealistic (or should I say non existent) shadowing, the night lighting quite often looks uncannily realistic. Arma2 feels quite primitive in comparison!

[GranolaBar 10]

Nice update of lighting in two weeks.

At the moment with the update of 09/05/2013 -> 0.57.105007, only the normal Hunter has potentially the full lighting who run without problems.

-> Link

The Hunter HMG and GMG have left light problem. All vehicules (do not include the normal Hunter) have problems with lighting with an angle of 45°. The left light or right go died when you where in an angle of 45° or more / vehicule.

-> Link One

-> Link Two

The light of lamp could cross the inner (middle) window frame.

-> Link

When user use high lighting, he has many problems with lighting on some building and in this exemple the camp fire who turn of and on constantly when you where in a vehicule with a range of 20 m.

-> Link

At the moment; If you want to kill many problems with lights distance view, use very high settings or ultra : but increase significantly use of GPU.

-> Link

Edited May 9, 2013 by GranolaBar