Global Illumination/ Light Intensity

We've all tried to play DCS at night and we know how it feels.

It is a dark hole of a night, unless you got a full moon. Light sources barely produce any light/illumination.

Runway lights, landing gear lights, cockpit lights, navigation lights (in the huey the navigation lights and strobe shine brighter inside the cockpit than on the outside) we have all seen the.... or rather... not seen them, because they barely cast any light.

An eye adaption effect is also needed (the ability of the retina of the eye do adapt to different levels of light)

I am just going to leave couple of examples:

Black screen with a HUD simulator.

https://streamable.com/lnx7e - No cockpit illumination from interior and exterior lights

https://streamable.com/qf186 - Illumination with no moonlight, again missing from interior lights

https://streamable.com/5mv1p - Illumination by moon light

Click on the links for video

The taxiway lights are actually on in that video

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You can see even in this old airliner footage how much more light you can see form an airfield and form the landing light

You can also see the illumination from the nav lights and the landing gear light from the intro of this Mover video.

I know cameras are not the ideal way to make a point, but it is just an example, most of you have driven a car at night or flown at night in an airliner..... you know what I mean

You can see town lights better than airfield lights, unless you use the zoom key (change POV), this should be changed ! PLEASE !

I am not even going to comment on the lights shinning trough aircraft and some of the texture and lights on the older modules....

Why are NIGHT modes used on lights ? So they don't blind you and be too bright at night when your eye is adapted to the low light environment.... in DCS you need all the brightness you can get....

You just cannot deny that there is an issue there

even the lights that do work do not work very well. the taxi lights barely illuminate anything, both the ones mounted on the aircraft and the ones mounted by the side of the taxiway.

In fact the DCS at night is poor in detail. The lights are also poor in detail. I already created topics here talking about it and I was almost banned.

lol one of the posts disappeared ?it doesn't say it got deleted :lol:

I always avoid play night scenarios, it feels like a space sim. just full moon is different

This should be in the bug section to be honest, not in the wish list one

I always avoid play night scenarios, it feels like a space sim. just full moon is different

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Care to share time and date settings so I can experience full moon night flying please?

 

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Google it, and when the moon is out full or not nights are amazing in dcs.

Google it, and when the moon is out full or not nights are amazing in dcs.

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What time and date settings do you use in the sim?

 

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You seriously have to google it for the region you are flying and year.

What time and date settings do you use in the sim?

 

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https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/ Use that, works wonders for night mission full moon.

Care to share time and date settings so I can experience full moon night flying please?

 

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Same locations

First pic 15th June 2011 , 23:30

Second pic 2nd June 2011 , 23:30

Same locations

 

First pic 15th June 2011 , 23:30

 

Second pic 2nd June 2011 , 23:30

+1 exactly what I was looking for, thank you kindly.

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Care to share time and date settings so I can experience full moon night flying please?

 

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These dates work perfectly in DCS.

http://www.iag.usp.br/astronomia/datas-de-mudanca-das-fases-da-lua

Black screen with a HUD simulator

I agree with almost all of this but from a ton of possible better examples you pulled out this one?! What exactly you were trying to see at black night, at 40k, nose 10 degree up? I mean beside beautiful stars view.

I agree with almost all of this but from a ton of possible better examples you pulled out this one?! What exactly you were trying to see at black night, at 40k, nose 10 degree up? I mean beside beautiful stars view.

It wouldn't matter what altitude the screenshot was from..... 20, 10, 5 thousand or on the ground.... The point is that you cannot see shit in your own plane. You just got some bright colored textures for light and no illumination, what so ever.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3958364&postcount=251

also we got this, too bad it is only for the new maps

Another thing I cannot understand how the light and illumination from the moon works extremely well, but no other light source works like that ...

Another thing I cannot understand how the light and illumination from the moon works extremely well, but no other light source works like that ...

Presumably, the moon just ramps up a global illumination brightness value and everything moves out of the hard-clamped RGB(0,0,0) region.

Presumably, the moon just ramps up a global illumination brightness value and everything moves out of the hard-clamped RGB(0,0,0) region.

Don't know.... the moon actually illuminates your cockpit, where as, for example, a pole light on the ramp doesn't

You can see what I mean in the first streamable link I've posted

Well, the altitude does matter because it changes the distance from objects. Also I don't agree that you should see much beside the stars on the black night (no moon) in the low populated areas like mountains or at the sea.

Now the rest is just design choices because it's not the engine limitation. Some lights are set too low (like nav lights), some light distances are cut too fast (cities, airports), some are ditched altogether (airport poles give just textures on the ground under them) and other bleed through objects. Some of it is related to performance issues but there are good examples that things can be done and tweaked. Look at A-10C super strobes for example or Tomcat landing lights.

Again.... what that particular screenshot was demonstrating was cockpit illumination, not ground....

I mean, try to read what I've posted first, please....

No one has said that you should be able to see clearly everything during a no moon night, read again..... but it shouldn't be pure black (like #000000) either....

Enabling the flashlight at night and pointing it at the canopy enables you to see stuff on on the ground, or the clouds, or distant mountains even . . .

Again.... what that particular screenshot was demonstrating was cockpit illumination, not ground...

Ok, the cockpit is perfectly readable as is the HUD. It's FC3 so you have cockpit lights on/off only. Beside Mig-29 the modules have not been touched since 1.5. The Su-25 cockpit though is poorly lighten.

As for the night too black or too dark - seriously? No light sources means darkness.

As for the night too black or too dark - seriously? No light sources means darkness.

The problem is that light sources somehow also mean darkness.

Ok, the cockpit is perfectly readable as is the HUD. It's FC3 so you have cockpit lights on/off only. Beside Mig-29 the modules have not been touched since 1.5. The Su-25 cockpit though is poorly lighten.

As for the night too black or too dark - seriously? No light sources means darkness.

Please, try to read... for the third time, or I would ask you to stop posting, seriously ....

Do you know what illumination is ? Did you watch any of the videos ?

Explaining it to you for the last time.....

Light illuminates, what we have right now, is not light. It is a bright texture in your cockpit which casts no light (or at least acts that way) and that is not only on FC, you can see it in the Hornet video as well. Same for post lights and the same for town lights.

The moon is the only light source which acts as a light. There is almost no situation where there is completely no light and your eyes adapts to night. The instrument lights should illuminate the cockpit to a certain degree and it shouldn't be complete black.

Even if you are flying over water, or a dessert with nothing in miles and you have your cockpit lights on, you should be able to see it (and NO, I do not mean see as in a bright day, so don't act stupid.... although it might not be acting)

When you go out at night, or you wake up in the middle of night can you see your hands ?Answer me that.... because in DCS right now, if the moon isn't out, you ain't seeing shit.