It's Impossible to See at Night! - Other threads will be locked/deleted!

[eero.afheurlin@iki.fi 0]

"Realistically render nighttime environments" ?

I was planning on staying out of these "discussions" but really, spend some time in the countryside in the night. even when it's winter (summer in Finland is silly bright since the sun barely goes below horizon even in the south and above the arctic circle it doesn't go down at all...) and there's no snow coverage yet (which again reflects a ton of moonlight) it's still easy to see where you're going and moving people can be seen 20m away easily. Someone walking on a grass (or other low vegetation) field is really easy to see for 100-150m distance they do not have woods or other dark and irrelugar background behind them from where you're looking, if they silhuet against the sky then they're even easier to see

If there's heavy cloud cover then there's less moonlight, though near cities (if they still have lights, I have kept my distance from cherno etc) the city lights also add a lot on ambient light.

So the current night system is IMO broken too, I did play some night missions in ArmA2 "proper" a longish while back and I think I recall it being pretty good then on the default brightness/gamma settings.

The problem here I guess is that if we want proper "realistic" night on normal gamma settings then increasing gamma (and to some extend brightness) will allow players to see much better and only way around it is to lock the gamma/brightness adjustments (making just about everything that is slightly dark 100% black, killing all of the dynamic range the you see for real when walking in nighttime, is not the "realistic" way to go about it)

So for realistic nights: 1. bring back the dynamic range (DR) 2. adjust the HDR lightning system so to emulate the way you eyes adjust to darkness, so if you use a flashlight or fire you weapon (muzzle flash...) you lose a lot of the DR (going back towards the "blind at night") and then gradually restore DR again (it's actually pretty quick to restore). Flares even though they're red (which as a color doesn't hurt you night-vision as much) are so bright that crossing your vision directly with a flare -> large loss of DR, as for chemlights I don't think I have used blue ones for real so can't say about that.

Anyway I'm fairly sure Rocket knows all this already (AFAIUnderstand he's been in the military too [Finland has compulsory service for all adult males, so yes: been there, done that...]), just trying to educate those that think the current system is "realistic" somehow...

Now, it might be that Rocket want to keep it this way for other reasons, but realism isn't one of them.

[Robert Shannon 27]

Actualy, how else would you want night time to look like with only the crecent moon to light it up?

[daish 11]

The nights are perfect.

Props for rocket and the arma II team for having the balls to realistically render night time envireoments. And i've never seen a nvg in this game.

your a fucking moron not being able to see at all unless you use a light or flare is not realistic and its unplayable

night servers empty out soon as they get dark

any new players who try the game for the first time and happen to be on a night sever will quit the game and never come back

[gibsongaming 0]

The nights are perfect.

Props for rocket and the arma II team for having the balls to realistically render night time envireoments. And i've never seen a nvg in this game.

You're an idiot.

[dallas 5195]

No, you.

The nights are perfect.

Props for rocket and the arma II team for having the balls to realistically render night time envireoments. And i've never seen a nvg in this game.

DayZ daytime and nighttime are two different games. I think the people who complain about nights being unplayable are just scared of the dark. No shame in that, I was too in the beginning, but if you don't give nights a chance, you'll never know what you're missing or learn to adapt to the different gameplay.

[hertsolvent 4]

Sometimes the night is, well kinda what night time is like - dark but you can make out enough to see z's, buildings etc. I love playing when it's like this.

But sometimes it's just pure pitch black, pretty much impossible without flares, nvg etc. Why is it inconsistent? Is it a server by server thing?

Either way it would be a shame to lose the day/night cycles, love playing and seeing the sun set on hills...

[dealman 3]

Sometimes the night is' date=' well kinda what night time is like - dark but you can make out enough to see z's, buildings etc. I love playing when it's like this.

But sometimes it's just pure pitch black, pretty much impossible without flares, nvg etc. Why is it inconsistent? Is it a server by server thing?

Either way it would be a shame to lose the day/night cycles, love playing and seeing the sun set on hills...

[/quote']

This, so this.

is kind of how I'd like the night to be, dark enough to make it hard to spot zombies - but still visible enough to see at least something.

Also note that he did Brightness adjustments while editing the video.

[taodude 3]

The new beta patch, 94103 is up at http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php

[94001] New: moonIntensity command

The functionality of this command is my question. Will this allow the moon to give more light to the ground? If so, observing the cycles of the moon (full to new and what not), this could add much more realism to the night ground.

I am of the opinion that the current night is way too dark. Having had to do land navigation, at night, in the Army in North Carolina, plenty far from civilization, I can personally attest to how even in a pitch black sky, you can still see some stuff. Sure, I ran face first into trees (or in NC, the face height spiderwebs that were everywhere; f*ck those things, still gives me nightmares) and it was reaaalllly tough to make out details, but you could still see. I terrain associated my way through the night more times than I can count.

**The point is, if I could do it in real life, with a UTM military topographical map, a red-light, a compass, and the night sky (in various shades of illumination), I should be able to do it in this mod that desires to simulate real-life as accurately as possible. ** Just my two cents.

Quick note, I haven't used a compass yet in this game. Terrain association to find your way around is far too easy. Except north of Cherno. I think the map's wrong for that area. :-\

---

The new beta patch' date=' 94103 is up at http://www.arma2.com/beta-patch.php

[94001'] New: moonIntensity command

The functionality of this command is my question. Will this allow the moon to give more light to the ground? If so, observing the cycles of the moon (full to new and what not), this could add much more realism to the night ground.

Dammit, reading is fundamental, eh?

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?136406-ARMA-2-OA-beta-build-94103-%281-60-MP-compatible-build-post-1-60-release%29&p=2178545&viewfull=1#post2178545

It is only Get, not Set.

If you want to change moon intensity, change date.

1 is the maximum value for moonIntensity, but it is not configurable, and according to BI, you can only change the amount of light from the moon by changing the date.

Still, it'd be nice to have a realistic amount of visibility at night.

[Noth (DayZ) 0]

I just got out of a game i finished where i played at night for the first time. Played for about an hour, and only pulled one zombie. I don't know if the zombies is affected at nighttime or not, but i find nighttime much easier than daytime. The tension is also much higher during nighttime because I can't really see much.

Didn't find any weapons except an hatchet though, searched three or four barns and three deer stands, so that was kinda unlucky.

All in all, i find the lack of vision improving the game, rather than breaking it.

[stardruid 1]

I don't mind night time if it was a realistic darkness. Like other have said, I've been place far from civilization (Alaska in my case) and even during winter (4-6 hours of daylight where I lived) I could see more at night then this game allows. I'm not going to spot a eagle 200yards away in a tree but I can see the tree, bushes, fallen trees etc around me just fine.

Frankly the darkness in this game is more like the sun died complete then it is night time.

[mr.c 0]

I like it at night. It is realistic and makes the game more fun. After all, if we could see as well at night as we could in day whats the point?

[TheGoldElite 0]

First point, anyone who has used the word realistic to describe the light levels is completely retarded, go outside for an hour and see how much you can see in the country. Even on clouded nights with no full moon, it's not PITCH BLACK, its JUST DARK.

It is the way it is, as to reduce the amount people can just brightness/gamma hack, NOT FOR REALISM

I hope they can make those unadjustable ingame. People can still fiddle their monitors but it wont have as much effect. Then we can have slightly brighter nights with shades or grey, which is more realistic.

[mr.c 0]

Nah, it's actually pretty accurate. The night in game represents night in reality accuratly - maybe you're not good enough to play DayZ

[hawkygaming 43]

Imagine your Town/City you live in with no Lights. Bam. Exactly like this.

[dealman 3]

Mr.C, this isn't realistic. Not even close.

All you see is black and some stars. Seriously guys, stop being such anus-stimulated fanboys, this is not realistic - not even the slightest whatsoever. Damn you guys are annoying, just realize the fact already.

[mr.c 0]

Exactly! It is realistic. I guess incompetant kids will allways find things to whine about though.

[funionz 7]

The best part is watching people argue back and forth on this topic still, when they are already testing a new lighting system because they realized the old one was fucking broke

[ElPresidente (DayZ) 0]

Exactly! It is realistic. I guess incompetant kids will allways find things to whine about though.

At a night like this (stars/clear sky), you should be abel to see at least something of the environment. Just black with a few white dots is not realistic ಠ_ಠ

[Zyme 22]

I will say it again. Because so many stupid people comment in this thread.

It is PITCH BLACK on some monitors, IT DEPENDS ON YOUR MONITOR AND MONITOR SETTINGS. And perhaps even graphic cards.

So having 100% black, which is HTML code #000000 is NOT realistic. WHEN YOU CAN'T SEE YOUR CHARACTER!

Stop being so narrowminded and retarded, not everyone can see the game the same way as you can.

[mr.c 0]

Get a better monitor then and quit whining.

[racecar 0]

Get a better monitor then and quit whining.

Yes people should absolutely drop a ton of money on a new monitor instead of the tone mapping being changed slightly.

[vazura 5]

Get a better monitor then and quit whining.

Yes people should absolutely drop a ton of money on a new monitor instead of the tone mapping being changed slightly.

^

[funionz 7]

Get a better monitor then and quit whining.

Has nothing to do with monitors. I have a $600 monitor with a color calibrator for graphic design, doesn't change the fact that the nights are broken and are being fixed by rocket with the new lighting system.

[dsi24 227]

No' date=' you.

The nights are perfect.

Props for rocket and the arma II team for having the balls to realistically render night time envireoments. And i've never seen a nvg in this game.

DayZ daytime and nighttime are two different games. I think the people who complain about nights being unplayable are just scared of the dark. No shame in that, I was too in the beginning, but if you don't give nights a chance, you'll never know what you're missing or learn to adapt to the different gameplay.

You can tell that the people complaining about night in DayZ have never actually played it, it's only scary dark for an hour or so after the sun goes down and before the moon gets above the terrain.

[zolfo 13]

stop crying about the night time. all the power is out and there is no power generation, ITS A ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE GET OVER IT. if you dont like the fact that you have to work in order to survive go back to WOW and fondle you characters for a few more months.