What I think the night should look like;

[victusmortuus 1074]

 

Taken from Reddit, user Kittykathax. (hopefully they don't mind.)

 

This picture is self explanatory and it looks absolutely amazing.

 

 

Original picture before photoshopping.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Victus Mortuus

[mark3236 (DayZ) 77]

Yes!!! THIS.

 

make night brighter, work on light source (arma engine is terrible at that... see flashlight for example.) and it will be like this.

[Mao Zedong 48]

That would be amazing.. first one looks great. Not sure how they would address the gamme/brightness thing though.. Maybe just put a cap/limit on how much you can turn them up.

[Jamz 253]

That looks good.

[scaramoosh 162]

Yeh they need to make night time fun to actually play at normal gamma settings.

[dethica 85]

it looks good, but is ridiculously unrealistic. nights don't look like that in that particular part of the world, especially in late autumn.

you guys should go outside more. its not far cry 3 or world of warcraft out there, nights are DARK and making out colours is very difficult.

[symptom 185]

As long as the moon is full, I don't care.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

That upper picture reminds Arma 3 lighting. But that picture is way too bright.

 

DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

Upgraded graphics and physics engine (including ragdoll, etc.)

 

So there's hope. DX11?

 

I also hope that the screen going grey after lost blood is removed at some point. Kills all the beauty of the Chernarus :( That picture looks like the guy has lost some blood.

[032125 (DayZ) 91]

it looks good, but is ridiculously unrealistic. nights don't look like that in that particular part of the world, especially in late autumn.

you guys should go outside more. its not far cry 3 or world of warcraft out there, nights are DARK and making out colours is very difficult.

Wait... color and light work differently in Eastern Europe than they do in the rest of the world? Where I come from (the deep forest) it certainly gets pitch ass black in the woods, but street lights and stars still have colors. Objects that reflect light may become imperceptible in the dark, but the color emitted by light does not.

I think the OP is spot on; Arma took a lazy shortcut on nighttime lighting, and Dayz has an opportunity to improve that.

[edit] that is a very bright night and the orange paint could be toned down, but the stars and the street lights are much better.

Edited December 18, 2013 by 032125

[Sterling (DayZ) 22]

This is one of those things where it comes down to: Realistic vs Fun. Is DayZ's goal to stand out as a "What could realistically happen if a Zombie Apocalypse occurred Simulator," or a "Let's make this as enjoyable as possible." I think they're trying to go for more towards the former, while keeping in mind the idea of enjoyment that can potentially be derived from the game. It's more realistic to have your vision limited from nighttime, so I don't expect for that to change at all anytime soon. 

[-Gews- 7443]

it looks good, but is ridiculously unrealistic. nights don't look like that in that particular part of the world, especially in late autumn.

you guys should go outside more. its not far cry 3 or world of warcraft out there, nights are DARK and making out colours is very difficult.

 

He's right, you know. Nice picture but night doesn't look like that.

 

Here it looks kinda like this:

 

 

 

 

 

And here is how colours look under a street light. In the day, the foliage is all bright and vibrant green. Under the light it's sickly yellow.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a construction site I visited at night. Street lights. All of it appears yellowish. The rest is PITCH black.

 

Edited December 18, 2013 by Gews

[firemedic 7]

That picture is over saturated I agree but besides that it's not half bad to what things really look like. Where I'm at when the moon is out you can see everything pretty well. When the snow comes out it's basically like the sun never finished setting. The color saturation of course is very grey but in that picture, from going from a city all the way out to the dense woods, that's not a horribly inaccurate render for what that specific area would look like in real life. I rendered it to be a little more accurate from my experience. But that's my take. I can also easily go out and do a long exposure that matches what I can physically see as well. I vouch to use no exaggeration in the picture.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

I got one proposal so you can even see little in pitch black. Add "light" that reaches 0,5m-1m around you but of course other players don't see that "light" so it's only client side. In real life you can touch, feel, smell and hear and that "light" would simulate those.

[firemedic 7]

I got one proposal so you can even see little in pitch black. Add "light" that reaches 0,5m-1m around you but of course other players don't see that "light" so it's only client side. In real life you can touch, feel, smell and hear and that "light" would simulate those.

I like that idea. That would work decently well. It's hard to say we want to enhance the light levels though while trying to play a game made to simulate real life to the best of it's abilities.

[Powell (DayZ) 734]

this would be amazing but would take a LOT of re-writing in how the lighting works

[Jaux 12]

You could use SweetFx to add a color and shading filter to get a result similar or exactly like that photoshop.

Not sure if third party software enhancements are allowed though? Can somebody shed some light on that?

Edited December 18, 2013 by Jaux

[dethica 85]

That picture is over saturated I agree but besides that it's not half bad to what things really look like. Where I'm at when the moon is out you can see everything pretty well. When the snow comes out it's basically like the sun never finished setting. The color saturation of course is very grey but in that picture, from going from a city all the way out to the dense woods, that's not a horribly inaccurate render for what that specific area would look like in real life. I rendered it to be a little more accurate from my experience. But that's my take. I can also easily go out and do a long exposure that matches what I can physically see as well. I vouch to use no exaggeration in the picture.

 

this is what night looks like in the summer, pretty much. autumn is a lot different. thats when dayz takes place.

it should be darker and there should be more contrast, colours should be more washed out, maybe add just a hint of tone on (orange etc).

 

the original (unshopped) image lacks contrast, other than that it is pretty realistic.

[firemedic 7]

this is what night looks like in the summer, pretty much. autumn is a lot different. thats when dayz takes place.

it should be darker and there should be more contrast, colours should be more washed out, maybe add just a hint of tone on (orange etc).

the original (unshopped) image lacks contrast, other than that it is pretty realistic.

When there's light (artificial but also natural) autumn is actually pretty vibrant. Its almost a permanent autumn in certain parts of Georgia and I have been able to walk through forests in moonlight only and have had amazing and rich experiences. Same goes for the fall in Alaska. Otherwise yes the orginal unshopped image is pretty accurate for parts where its strictly moonlight but for the scene depicted there would definitely be defining color to things quite near where I set it.

[SalamanderAnder (DayZ) 1747]

I'm pretty sure all this would require is some tweaks to the shader file. The thing about night in DayZ is that it lowers color saturation to basically 0. (one of those old remnants from arma 2) All you have to do is tweak these saturation adjustments and it should work. Not that I'm an expert or anything.

[svisketyggeren 662]

Dayz nighttime will look like nighttime in the real world...get over it

[hells high 676]

Realistic or not it'd make the game more appealing, especially if you consider that most people play in the evenings when servers are dark.

[drouz@netti.fi 57]

I think that top image is abit too much videogame style but i agree they need to add some colors to nighttime.

 

 

 

This is a pretty good example how night should look like. Credit to http://www.reddit.com/user/AugustsOnlySon

Edited December 18, 2013 by drouz

[deebz1234 243]

Dayz nighttime will look like nighttime in the real world...get over it

boring...

why not show off the beauty with a little fake saturation!

 

[Weedz 1105]

Night time; Brought to you by people who don't live and have never been to the countryside at night.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

All pictures are 18, 21, 24, 03 and 06 o'clock in that order:

 

Arma 2 clear night sky

Arma 2 cloudy night sky

 

I can throw Arma 3 lighting in Chernarus comparsion later. If the graphics/lighting engine gets upgraded somewhere in the level of Arma 3 I can say the night time is beautiful and not black & grey like what we have now. But those photoshops got bit too much color at least on that right house.

Edited December 18, 2013 by St. Jimmy