Lighting Tweaking (dev branch)

[[frl]myke 15]

Please do not feed the troll. Infractions were handed out where necessary. Now please back to topic without flamebaiting. Thank you.

[Tonci87 163]

What Nordkindchen writes does make sense and would at least improve the situation. It wouldn't be perfect but it would be an improvement.

[-ghost-tf 12]

What Nordkindchen writes does make sense and would at least improve the situation. It wouldn't be perfect but it would be an improvement.

Indeed, very good solution and not too hard to do, nice suggestion like usual Nordkindchen.

[nodunit 397]

Indeed. Funny thing is that the "first view" you get on a FLIR monitor ingame the contrast seems good, then the adjustment\auto-contrast kicks in and make thing look like this, worse.

Quite

>.<

No need for fantasy-based examples.

It's not fantasy, FLIR detects heat and heat is going to vary on temperature, along with the various filters build in to adjust the image. In a location such as Altis and Stratis, with the bright sun and tropical climate, concrete should be closer to a cloudless day (IE OW MY FEET OW OW OW) but it doesn't even have to be that hot to show up.

For example, this is a video of an aircraft approaching a runway at night, near pitch black yet you can see the thermal signature from the ground, trees and especially the roads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJIvsI9AtIs

Here is another, though this may be in daylight..even so the thermal imaging in Arma 3 daylight looks nothing like it

Apache's flying over holloywood switch to FLIR at 04:45

Another airpot FLIR video, notice how the system is so sensitive that minutes after the big commercial jet has been moved, the concrete below it is STILL cool.

This is footage from RAH-66 FLIR

from http://www.aircraft-manuals.com/siraheafanta.html

Another example of how FLIR has great contrast even at night is this, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT89z4cJbIM at 1:00 you can see the scene becomes night, yet at 1:30 when FLIR is turned on there is a very high contrast in surroundings, and for a split second at 3:30 you can see a rabbit run across, and has nearly the same heat signature as the concrete headstones.

Finally...for the thermal contrast we have right now would require very cold temperatures,

eat 0:42 people stand out against the background, and the windows, things which as usually black in white hot mode to signify being cool...are actually white! The windows are one of the hottest things in the scene, and at night (0:59) the windows are nearly as white as the people are.

The thing is, BI doesn't have to add new TI textures for the ground, trees, building, bushes and so on. All that needs to happen is for HDR effects to be REMOVED from thermal imaging completely, it can be seen still effecting the de-contrasted image if you zoom in close enough to a bright enough surface. Having the same effect as

HDR did in Arma 2. This REALLY harms the overall fidelity of thermal imaging and it's useage in PIP as a whole. Edited August 8, 2013 by NodUnit

[sqb-sma 66]

Fantastic post, and quite correct too. Just a note, FLIR doesn't detect the heat of an object, it detects the temperature (based on heat radiation).

In other words, 27 degree water and 27 degree aluminium would appear the same shade.

[kylania 568]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JutD-K28fcc

Morning clouds at 0:50 ->

Wow, I must have bad settings. I tried this and the clouds didn't pass by at all that like that. They moved back and forth in square repeating patterns, the whole sky moving at once. Very jarring and distracting.

[DaRkL3AD3R 1]

So were the new cloud techniques removed due to the morning bug? Because these old ones pale in comparison to the new clouds :(

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Wow, I must have bad settings. I tried this and the clouds didn't pass by at all that like that. They moved back and forth in square repeating patterns, the whole sky moving at once. Very jarring and distracting.

It's not only you, they only act like that when the wind is set to auto. Setting the wind direction in the editor would make it look like in the videos.

[nodunit 397]

Fantastic post, and quite correct too. Just a note, FLIR doesn't detect the heat of an object, it detects the temperature (based on heat radiation).

In other words, 27 degree water and 27 degree aluminium would appear the same shade.

That explains a lot, I did not know that..

[Azzur33 1]

Wow, I must have bad settings. I tried this and the clouds didn't pass by at all that like that. They moved back and forth in square repeating patterns, the whole sky moving at once. Very jarring and distracting.

You have to change Wind from "auto" to "manual" in Intel menu, and then choose the direction.

[fragmachine 12]

If the new clouds were removed then I hope that it happened temporarily. Would be nice to see also different clouds - not just Cumulus but also Cumulonimbus convecting and piling up before storm and typical anvil if cloud turned to be active (stormy). :)

[Anachoretes 10]

Cumulonimbus

You can see it by increasing forecast. But without anvil heads.

[GranolaBar 10]

Hum,

In my opinion, Sun must have more luminosity or "reflect", whatever the time, i have never problem to see in the direction of the sun, maybe i lost a little visual and i must show under, but a "very little".

Other people, what do you think about that ?

[fragmachine 12]

You can see it by increasing forecast. But without anvil heads.

wow and I didn't noticed it? That is a good start though. I would be focused on improving things that are in-game right now - adding anvil on top of the stormy cumulonimbus would be nonsense if we couldn't set the place and distance of the storm cell incoming - so the player could admire the views - not just always see clouds over his head. Also the sky is not deep blue before and while thunder. Even few hours before guessed storm sky should became milky-like more sluggish, fuzzy white coloured rather than blue coloured. Wind should increase slightly. Next thing i don't like in-game is water. Maybe it is shader or lighting problem - im not specialist but it is too blue imo. I've seen AiA Chernarus water looks lovely compared to A3 water. But that is just my opinion.

[aus_twisted 0]

Would be awesome to see some of these in ArmA, then maybe we could make a storm chasing mod hehe

http://www.redbubble.com/people/stevetwisted/works/8512879-explosive-updraft

[GranolaBar 10]

If we want the same sun than the real life :

it's here : http://www.greecevirtual.gr/en/north-aegean/agiosefstratios#/sight_mnimeio_sialma2/

Touristic view from the true Island of the game : Agios renamed to Stratis.

http://ma-galerie-dart.wifeo.com/images/Hexagone_u1230344056.png

In 3nd view^^, sun had a geometrical form, nor circle... why only in 3nd view, mystery^^

[googlava 57]

Yeah, this is good reference, I wrote same to http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=854

[Tyl3r99 41]

when will the 1/2 lighting be fixed?

airport is like a graveyard :( needs more light

[GranolaBar 10]

when will the 1/2 lighting be fixed?

airport is like a graveyard :( needs more light

For 1/2 lights were not on, after 3 questions, where is this info ?^^

Actually even with 10 vehicules, you can't have all the lights from them. Lights were as pregnant woman who does not stop eating chocolate. Difficult to contain here :), frame drop issues.

[Tyl3r99 41]

For 1/2 lights were not on, after 3 questions, where is this info ?^^

what do you mean? info from me or the devs?

[GranolaBar 10]

what do you mean? info from me or the devs?

^^ i don't found where we have 1/2 lights. That's all, you or other say's but i don't found where Dev's explain why.

[sqb-sma 66]

The other thing is overcast conditions appear to scale the sun intensity accordingly. 30% overcast = 30% less sun intensity.

Thing is, even when it is partially overcast, the sun's either shining on the ground or not, it shouldn't be partially less. The best solution, of course, would be cloud shadows, but failing that I think that the loss in sun intensity should be far less.

[Tyl3r99 41]

someone said that the game cant handle too many lights at the moment but it needs to be fixed asap

^^ i don't found where we have 1/2 lights. That's all, you or other say's but i don't found where Dev's explain why.

[progamer 14]

So does the sun reflect off the ocean yet?

[GranolaBar 10]

So does the sun reflect off the ocean yet?

Sun reflect on the ocean yes, but ocean is actually just a texture, as the texture of the ground