Star and sun behaviour incorrect on lunar scenarios?

[tpw 2315]

Hi Dram et al

I periodically fire up TOM to see what progress has been made. I was playing around with the Moon manned scenario (which is really great by the way), and notice a strange behaviour. If I look away from the sun, I can see a few stars in the sky. As my gaze moves towards the sun, more and more stars become visible. When I'm fully looking at the sun it's surrounded by bright stars. Now, I've never been to the moon but I would imagine that when looking at the sun its intense brightness would drown out the light from stars, and conversely when looking away from the sun the stars would appear brighter and more numerous.

Sorry to nitpick, but I know you guys are striving for some degree of accuracy with this game/simulation. I can't wait to see where you go with it over the next few months.

[dram 14]

Hi tpw,

Indeed that is what happens. It is due to the sun glare being an additive texture when rendering, which means it has the effect of "brightening" whatever is beneath. This is more of an unavoidable technicality arising from the way things are rendered, so unfortunately not much can be done about it.

I have an idea or two that may be able to fix it somewhat, but I'll leave that to the tweaking phase.

[dragon01 903]

Still not in tweaking phase? :) Somehow I doubt that you'll manage a release in the first quarter of 2015. Not that I mind, it's better to take your time than to rush it.

[tpw 2315]

Thanks for the explanation Dram. I guess we can add it to the list of things I'll have to look forward to being tweaked (eg missing head shadows!).