[Guide] Seeing at night

[zekez 4]

Very short tutorial I made, basically because I was testing the audio and tired of 20 minute long tutorials. [Putting it on 720p and fullscreen will show you the best results]

Let me know what you think.

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I will probably be making more nice and short tutorials for the more basic things later. And yes, I expect a bunch of comments about gamma hacking and it "not being realistic" but realistically at midnight during the zombie apocalypse I'd be sleeping, not scavenging.

[Kingllama 18]

Thank you so much. Yea i'd be scavenging if anything at night if the moon was out but if not i'll camp at a spot for a night.

[jamesjordan24@hotmail.com 14]

Sigh, gamma boosting..

[Azada 0]

Well I'm not a fan of exploiting unintended game mechanics like this, but i see how this could help some desperate people.

[zekez 4]

"I expect a bunch of comments about gamma hacking and it "not being realistic"

And here they come!

Like I said, I'm not a fan of it, but how else can I enjoy a game that is linked to the server time when I can only play at night

[Kingllama 18]

I'm sorry but i've been in a situation where the power was out for more then 12 hours and i lived in a city area it isn't completely pitch like it is ingame. It has more light and i had the ability to see. But in buildings it was pitch black.

[zanarias 3]

People sigh and whine about people doing this sort of stuff, but they wouldn't be doing it at all if night wasn't stupidly black to the point where it's unfun--there really needs to be a middle ground where it's possible to ~sort of~ see, but difficult without flares/chemlights/NVGs/flashlights. Sadly, it seems more like a problem with the ARMA 2 engine than the mod itself.

[zekez 4]

How to say this nicely... I've done a couple hundred combat patrols in the Marines, and I've never seen a night as dark as in Arma 2. With full HDR and Gamma, thats pretty close to real life

[feda 2]

How to say this nicely... I've done a couple hundred combat patrols in the Marines' date=' and I've never seen a night as dark as in Arma 2. With full HDR and Gamma, thats pretty close to real life

[/quote']

This. I've been in the countryside on a moonless night without a single lightsource in sight and it's nowhere near as dark. The eyes can adapt pretty well after a while. I think this feature of the mod is beyond retarded and I hope the author comes to his senses soon. This is NOT realistic. I think I speak for many DayZ fans when I say that I absolutely refuse to play when it's nighttime on a server. It might be a tolerable experience if you're in a team with flashlights and lots of flares and chem lights, but for a solo beginner it's simply UNPLAYABE - the likelihood of attracting a horde that I can't even see is too great.

Sadly' date=' it seems more like a problem with the ARMA 2 engine than the mod itself.

[/quote']

It's not! ArmA2's default night is not that dark. The author intentionally changed it because he's under the impression that it's "realistic" like it is now.

[zanarias 3]

I was misinformed then, I haven't really played ARMA 2 that much, particularly at night. I was going off posts I've seen before.

I hope he at least adjusts it a little.

[Kexfabriken 1]

Being raised at the countryside i can also say that this kind of night is just retarded, you eyes adapt amazingly and its never pitch black like this.

[AlarmedBread (DayZ) 3]

Being raised at the countryside i can also say that this kind of night is just retarded' date=' you eyes adapt amazingly and its never pitch black like this.

[/quote']

Actually it is pitch black like this if you're near light pollution. Near a city with no moon you can't see your hand in front of your face. The light pollution blots out the stars and milkyway that should be lighting up the sky. Yes well out into the country with clear dark skies the stars are bright enough to see the ground at night and a full mooon is like daytime. If it's cloudy though you can't see anything. The inverse is true being near light pollution, clouds make it easier to see since the light from the city bounces off them. IMO BIS did a fantastic job of replicating this. You can judge the amount of light pollution around by looking at the stars, maybe it's not perfect, but they were not trying to model clear dark skies in a populated area as that would be silly.

The biggest annoyance with night right now is the wall of bright text chat.

[Captain Kirk (DayZ) 0]

When I started playing 2-3 patches ago I could still see at night. You could tell if stuff was moving but not much else. All I could see was the contours of the buildings and trees. Nothing was in detail and the further away stuff got the less I could make it out. I was really impressed with how cool this was that you could actually play even though it was difficult.

I dont know what happened if the weather system keeps setting to cloudy during nights now or if i changed some setting because i might aswell turn off the monitor at this point. I just think its stupid how you cant see shit at night now and have to join a bad ping server. But I really like the day night cycle

[dut 21]

I like the unnaturally dark nights in DayZ.. Well I did, now I've decided not to log in until I find some NVGs during the day. They're incredibly overpowered and apparently common thanks to people duping.

[Evilsausage 87]

Night is too dark. I dont mind if its dark further away.

But it should atleast be possible to see your feet in front of you.

I just wish i could find night vision.

[ZogVarnoka 26]

I believe Rocket commented that in patch 1.5.8 the darkness setting will be adjustable by server admins. Can not for the life of me find the post though. I know its buried somewhere in some topic on the site....damn my lack of search-fu.

[Grey508 17]

When I started playing 2-3 patches ago I could still see at night. You could tell if stuff was moving but not much else. All I could see was the contours of the buildings and trees. Nothing was in detail and the further away stuff got the less I could make it out. I was really impressed with how cool this was that you could actually play even though it was difficult.

I dont know what happened if the weather system keeps setting to cloudy during nights now or if i changed some setting because i might aswell turn off the monitor at this point. I just think its stupid how you cant see shit at night now and have to join a bad ping server. But I really like the day night cycle

What has happened is the moon's phase has progressed. We are currently at new moon, so it is as dark as it will get right now. A few patches ago, the moon was still visible - a little over two weeks ago, it was full, and so playing at night was easier. In a week or so, it will begin to get noticeably brighter again.

[milancz 10]

Nights like in DayZ aren't impossible, but are very rare and can depend on lot of things, even location. I experienced a night like that only once. I live in the Czech rep. (Chernarus terrain is based off it) so I know what the climate conditions look like here. We were on a 3-day airsoft scenario in area with huge forests. Only kinda serious teams were invited and a lot of these guys serve in army or police and are doing it for fun. Though this particular night, nobody was able to see anything. Our group sent to secure a bridge was led by few people with NVGs and we had to walk in line and pat each other's back constantly because without an NVG nobody was able to see shit, absolute pitch black night. Only thing you could see was the sky inbetween the trees. There was decent visiblity at clearings and outside the forest but in it? Hell it was like being blindfolded.

TLDR: Pitch black night is possible only in dense forest. It still can be bad outside of it, but not that hard like in DayZ but I accept it as the part of the atmosphere, its fun for me. I only crank up graphic settings when I need to kill some bandits because they will use it 99% of the time and its almost like an old GEN I nvg.

[Stinglock 1]

Here I was expecting some actual tips or pointers of how to search without attracting attention at night time, proper flare/chem light usage or something other than a one minute

HOW TO max hdr and gamma tutorial.

I think tutorials shouldn't be able to be summed up in one sentance. If you're going to do that you should try making a series of them and putting them all up when done.

Regardless, 1/10 for making an effort.

[zekez 4]

I'm sorry my 60 second guide for new players to see at night offended you, the entire point was to make them short and sweet so you didn't have to watch 20 minutes of someone running around, I will be posting one tomorrow about inventory/bags, it will be about 60 seconds long, I'm sure you'll find issue with it.

[mattressi 3]

I'm sorry my 60 second guide for new players to see at night offended you' date=' the entire point was to make them short and sweet so you didn't have to watch 20 minutes of someone running around, I will be posting one tomorrow about inventory/bags, it will be about 60 seconds long, I'm sure you'll find issue with it.

[/quote']

I completely agree with you. I don't know how many tutorial videos I've watched were I'm trying to use my mind to force the narrator to get to the point. Short and sweet videos are nice; there's no extraneous crap and I don't need to click through to try to find the part where the narrator actually talks about what I want to hear.

[Stinglock 1]

I'm sorry my 60 second guide for new players to see at night offended you' date=' [/quote']

No need to apologize and this didn't offend me at all. I was simply saying what I thought after I entered this thread and saw your video.

After all, you did ask in the first post.

Perhaps don't ask what people think if you have such a problem with criticism. Just a suggestion.

Also, I'm glad you're making another short tutorial video, me take issue with it? You seem to forget I previously suggested you really should get as many of them as you can up, it could go nicely with a wiki page or as a youtube playlist.

[Lulu! 3]

Use a flare at night, those light up a vast amount of space. Don't want to attract a attention to yourself by lighting a flare, then move in the dark! Gee, it's almost like the designers made it this way to trade off your sight with that of your enemies.. hmm..

[Deadnaut 0]

Cheers Zeek - very handy for a newb who has only been able to play at night.

[Publik 404]

It's slightly better than it's been. When I started, around 8PM it got pitch black. Now it's reasonable under gamma/HDR.

-Not being able to see anything is not fun

-Players who only want to PK will exploit the gamma/HDR

-Lucky players and clans that dupe have NVGs

Why should I cripple myself by not also using gamma/HDR?