A simple and effective fix for night time gamma "cheating"

[alleycat 135]

doesn't work. Even with no moon or ambient light maxing the gamma and brightness gives you some vision. It's low detail and you wouldn't be able to make anything at a distance, but it does work. 

 

Everyone needs to get over this as a "thing" and shut the fuck up about it. It's existed as long as games have had nights and there is nothing anyone can do.

 

Are you sure? If you test it now (22:00 central european time, the moon is already up ingame and in real life) so you will have some ambient light.

[Sickerthansars 53]

you are aware the a3 engine already makes it so you cant see farther with gamma/brightness turned up someone posted a big thing about this yesterday with screens you can still see things closer to you more clearly but really if you're within that range and get snuck up on then shame on you

[agentneo 337]

yeah the Arma 3 way would be the ultimate fix

[Jorgenheim 11]

They should make shadows mandatory.

And just lower the amount you can change your gamma and brightness.

 

Shadows kill way too much performance for some computers. A lot of people need them disabled on even some high end computers to make the game even playable just because how it's optimized.

 

Just lowering the amount you can change your gamma and brightness won't do anything with people just changing their monitor settings also.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Jorgenheim

[Karmaterror 982]

STUPID QUESTION ALERT!

 

Isnt the moon our only light sourse at night....if the moonlight its self was gone then wouldn't it be pitch black. There would be no shadows or anything??

[alleycat 135]

STUPID QUESTION ALERT!

 

Isnt the moon our only light sourse at night....if the moonlight its self was gone then wouldn't it be pitch black. There would be no shadows or anything??

 

It is pitch black without moonlight.

 

[Karmaterror 982]

yeah but there is slight shiluete visability against a slightly lighter sky because of the moonlight....without it wouldn't everything just be solid black....I mean 100% stuck in a void black?

[alleycat 135]

yeah but there is slight shiluete visability against a slightly lighter sky because of the moonlight....without it wouldn't everything just be solid black....I mean 100% stuck in a void black?

The night sky is a painted texture for the most part and not affected by light sources.

Edited December 18, 2013 by alleycat

[SalamanderAnder (DayZ) 1747]

It is pitch black without moonlight.

 

 

No, it isn't. Have you ever been to the country? Without light pollution, the stars alone can be bright enough to cast a shadow. Overcast nights are pitch black, and they still are that way in the game. Especially indoors, gamma correction basically makes no difference. In a lot of buildings, items spawn in such a way that not even your vicinity menu will detect them. The only option to thoroughly search for loot is to use a light anyway.

[CaffeinatedTech 3]

MagLight, with adjustable beam, held at shoulder level ready to brain zombies with is my solution request.  I wouldn't touch the gamma slider if the flashlight wasn't crap.  Other people would I know, but they can and will do what they want.

 

The only other solutions I can see include decreasing the realism slider more towards the arcade end.  If that is what happens, then so be it.  Something clearly needs to be done about night time though, it seems like almost EVERYONE is either avoiding night, or gamma cheating.  Both ultimately make the game less appealing to new players.

[PongoZ 127]

Sure, do that, make it so that night is truly unrealistically unplayable. See what happens.

for those of you who have never spent time in the woods at night, it has no relation to this game. Really. 

your eyes adjust, you can move thought woods with ease, you can see 100s or meters across fields, you can shoot your weapon over open sites. 

The only place where I have seen dark like in this game in real life is under triple canopy in Panama. Cant see your hand dark. 

 

This games representation of dark is just ass, without that being fixed, do not dare touch the gama fix.

[Karmaterror 982]

Its just baffling me lol....without a single light ray to even light that painted "skybox" night texture how could we see it? Iv just got a picture in my head of (I think its) hammer editor where if there isn't a light source somewhere you carnt see a thing. Everything outside your torch may aswell not exist lol

[reddeer01 5]

This wouldn't be an issue if the damn streetlights and flashlights we're even half as realistic as the damn star constellations and moon we trust in guiding us through that pitch black darkness. Even if the flashlight gave of like 20% ambient light to the surrounding area it would be an improvement.

We don't need light to reflect off of surfaces etc like in other engines. Just basic fixes which mean we can see more than 25% of our screen as we shamble hopelessly around the 4th floor of that high rise only to realise we haven't actually moved for the past 10 seconds because we've been walking into a fallen bookcase I didn't see due to it being 2 inches out of the beam of my flashlight when I glanced earlier...

In case it isn't obvious. I quite hate how playing at night seems to add more of a nuisance clause to the game instead of adding atmosphere, scariness or making general decisions harder and instead gives players the excuse to perform a "necessary evil" that this threat is trying to fix.

Edited December 18, 2013 by reddeer01

[serb 54]

I must say that only thing that bothers me in dayz, mod or standalone is this issue, every time i played at night and i had to change my settings i was feeling really bad, its killing the game and the whole night time gameplay!

But again, they probably know the way to fix that so that tweaking settings wont help you any how during night time, and i just hope so they will

[nilloc93 19]

I honestly don't' see the prob with max brightness/gamma, its not as effective as NVG and its more realistic than "its dark out i can't see shit" unless you're standing in a dense forrest you can see quite a ways at night.

 

Furthermore you can't stop people from using it, I have adjusted video settings on my video card when i'm playing at night, the ingame controls are inconsequential to me

[alleycat 135]

 

 

 

As I expect you guys talking about clouds brightening up the night is not true. The above screenshot was taken shortly before dawn, when the moon has already gone. Gamma jacked up to the max. And clouds at normal.

 

The only thing clouds do is when you turn them completely off, the terrain will not receive any lighting. But the above is with clouds on NORMAL, and no moon present, PROVING my idea that removing the moon lighting will fix gamma cheating and equalize night time for everyone.

[HMS 115]

Alleycat, you are absolutely on to something. You have laid out the exact parameters with which to try this out.

Moonless, clouds normal, gamma jacked up, still blind as hell. You did not mention HDR - setting it higher helps, but still not on the darkest nights.

I have played on the darkest DayZ nights and I can confirm. Cranking the gamma does nothing whatsoever to make it easier to see. I am a huge fan of night time playing as it is easier to avoid the walkers. I hope your suggestions are considered.

[ryan__mc__@hotmail.co.uk 131]

They should make shadows mandatory.

And just lower the amount you can change your gamma and brightness.

 

Don't people like you ever think of what you write before you write it ? What about people with shit pc's ? and gamma and brightness is there for a reason ....anyways people will just turn there brightness and gamma up another way if the in game ones where locked,

 

Btw shadows don't make a difference to being able to see things at night using gamma and brightness + some other settings.

[ryan__mc__@hotmail.co.uk 131]

How to fix gamma "cheating"

 

It is a fairly simple issue. If you notice, when there is no moon during that night or it is early night or very late night (moon disappeared or not risen yet) then even max gamma settings wont increase visibility. That is because gamma works as sort of a low light intensifier. It amplifies already existing variations of light levels (caused by moonlight). If there is no moonlight, there is nothing to amplify and the gamma wont artificially increase the visibility.

 

 

Yes lets punish everyone by removing the moonlit night gameplay....thats not a fix ...thats a workaround and a horrible one at that may i say ...thanks for trying tho.

Edited December 21, 2013 by Massicor

[CREDiBLE 42]

Yes lets punish everyone by removing a the moonlit night gameplay....thats not a fix ...thats a workaround and a horrible one at that may i say ...thanks for trying tho.

I think we can discuss this page up and page down for the next year, but leveling the playing field graphically comes at a cost. And that cost is the sliders and the different graphical options. The way I see it it boils down to a trade-off between the individual graphical performance and the collective equality in terms of visibility. Where to draw the line is the difficult question.

[flygamer1 176]

That defeats the ENTIRE purpose for having a detailed night sky.

I would rather have a fair game play experience then detailed nights

[Diggydug (DayZ) 331]

I'd rather night be moonless, personally, where gamma doesn't work apparently, than everyone basically having night vision.

 

We're in alpha, let's try some things out. I know in ArmA 2 on moonless nights gamma didn't do anything, so I'll take your word it's the same here. I actually had a point where I was relying on muzzle flash once to make sure I wasn't running into trees when I couldn't see stars. THAT was an adventure.

[chris90 54]

hey,

 

normally i play on german server, the server 1-51 is 24/7 daytime, if i connect to FR or NL servers its dark.

 

what is it with day and night time atm ? wasnt it 12 hours day and 12 hours night ?

[DannyRed 32]

Night should be night to everyone. If it's not dark for some it destroys it for others and that's simply not fair. 

If there's no way around it then the nights should be more brighter so at least everyone could see without fiddling with the gamma settings.

[Kra 151]

I totally agree, I love running around in the dark flipping my torch on and off to spot loot or where I'm going. But it didn't take long for people to realise full gamma = night vision.

 

After running into more than a few people at night not even bothering to carry torches and getting axed/shot by them, I feel myself at an absolutely massive disadvantage if I don't do the same and instead become a waving beacon of "Here I am! Come shoot the noob who doesn't use full gamma!"

 

It's stupid, stop cheating.