Visual Upgrade – Feedback

[ruPal 143]

If ONLY THAT group of people have problem, maybe they can give devs some idea how to fix this "issue" by not screwing up the game, and make more issues for others, that are enjoying visuals?

Hm, one more holy war needed?

[joostsidy 682]

Most of my missions I play in broad daylight because I like the virtual sunlight on my face. Unfortunately in this (and other) lighting many white or light objects / gear / rifles / dashboards are way too bright.

 

I decided to create another mission at dawn and was unpleasantly surprised! The harsh brightness affects the sky / clouds as well! Lots of detail is gone and it looks like a fractal generator image is occupying the sky dome. :.-(

 

http://imgur.com/a/IOeqR

[CaptainAzimuth 714]

No, BI has a fetish making all things shiny and btw AK-12 will be nerfed in the next stable update :P

But the AK-12 isn't THAT shiny. It's got some shiny parts, but it's actually pretty balanced in my opinion. The MX-Black is the real overly shiny weapon. However, if anything need's fixing, it's the Iron-sights on the Spar-16. It's like going from Crysis when the gun is lowered, but suddenly it's Minecraft when looking through them.

[roberthammer 582]

But the AK-12 isn't THAT shiny. It's got some shiny parts, but it's actually pretty balanced in my opinion

Not that shiny you say ...

 https://i.ytimg.com/vi/XiOt-zyMzz8/maxresdefault.jpg  :rolleyes:

[Beagle 684]

The main thign with the "visual upgrade" is, it downgraded the whole look of the game outside of APEX since the textures, be it units or landscape or shadows, don't match the lightign anymore.

Simpel example...in 1.58 when you entered a house, the inside and everything inside was substantially darker. That's gone now. I I goes I don't have to mention that camos dont work anymore since everything is to bright. It seem the "upgrade" was tailored only to fit the new APEX stuff.

[domokun 515]

Maybe I'm dumb but I don't understand why users can't switch between the 2, .e.g. Options/Video/Lighting engine/Apex or Splendid

Also it'd be great if map makers could choose the default lighting engine for their map.

I agree that Tanao looks awesome with Apex lighting because the high-humidity reinforces that high-contrast look.

But that same glossy look feels wrong in dry and dusty regions, like Altis and Takistan.

Choice is good.

[ruPal 143]

Here is a "black crush" problem.
Screenshot (bad quality, check video in original quality): http://i.imgur.com/rmNy2ye.jpg
Video: https://mega.nz/#!zcsnnTzD!yz_J4cor6leUkActHS_SAuTJju9Fwvph_6K9Hy6OhGU

[Variable 322]

If ONLY THAT group of people have problem, maybe they can give devs some idea how to fix this "issue" by not screwing up the game, and make more issues for others, that are enjoying visuals?

Vasily, it's not a zero-sum game. If you watch ruPal's video and other examples along this thread, you'll see for yourself that there actually IS a problem, that is visible also during daytime. In night it becomes much more emphasised. If this is fixed it will not make the night simply brighter, it will keep the darkness level while keeping other colours visible, but not glowing like it is now, allowing to distinguish between different types of shades.

[x3kj 1247]

It seem the "upgrade" was tailored only to fit the new APEX stuff.

No, the other way round. Apex was tailored to fit the new lighting. I repeat what i said earlier: There is no guideway to choose specularity and gloss values in RV Engine (compared to engines with PBR where there are clear rules to follow for each and every material). Since default Altis lighting was awefully bad at displaying any form of specularity/glossiness it didnt occur to artists that their values are unbalanced. And since the colors where distorted as well, no one noticed the disbalance of, for example, camo vs background colors either.

Here's an example how default lighting distorted colors - Comparison (pre lighting update) between Altis and VR lighting.

It was awefull, it was poop. And thats why i would not even touch the old lighting with a long stick if i had a chance to.

[Grumpy Old Man 3540]

No, the other way round. Apex was tailored to fit the new lighting. I repeat what i said earlier: There is no guideway to choose specularity and gloss values in RV Engine (compared to engines with PBR where there are clear rules to follow for each and every material). Since default Altis lighting was awefully bad at displaying any form of specularity/glossiness it didnt occur to artists that their values are unbalanced. And since the colors where distorted as well, no one noticed the disbalance of, for example, camo vs background colors either.

Here's an example how default lighting distorted colors - Comparison (pre lighting update) between Altis and VR lighting.

It was awefull, it was poop. And thats why i would not even touch the old lighting with a long stick if i had a chance to.

Is that one of those WWII tanks where they replaced the barrel with 12cm naval guns? :blink:

Please PM me a link to that mod.

 

Cheers

[Private Evans 498]

Looks like Warhammer 40k tanks :)

[ruPal 143]

First one: https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/189808-visual-upgrade-%E2%80%93-feedback/page-61#entry3091922
One more APEX visual update issue:

0:03 - smoke dissapears just after spawn (same smoke grenade on 0:30 smoke is fine)
0:35 - smoke disappears (after zoom in/out it shows up)
0:57 - one smoke particle in the right upper corner dissapears with zoom in/out.

The same situation with any effect (with billboard particles). Sometimes it is OK, sometimes they just dissapears after spawn or in zoom in/zoom out.
 

[en3x 209]

No mods loaded correcT?

[ruPal 143]

No mods loaded correcT?

Yes, but with mods the same situation. Because of bigger particle sizes it is easier to see with mods (blastcore or smth).

[ruPal 143]

Addition to issue below (modded version here): https://youtu.be/zreopuiAGrM
Dark smoke particles disappear and partially return after zoom in.

[das attorney 857]

Please PM me a link to that mod.

 

In the spirit of WH40K it costs $30 and will be written out of the army list the next time they do a revision  ;)

[Grumpy Old Man 3540]

Never noticed this before so maybe it's new:

 

 

On Tanoa with 0 overcast:

player setdir 2.86143;
player setposATL [9109.85,9406.64,0.00375366];
setdate [2035,6,6,12,21];

 

This seems to be way too bright, as if there's a huge spotlight illuminating the buildings.

 

Cheers

[joostsidy 682]

Never noticed this before so maybe it's new:

 

 

On Tanoa with 0 overcast:

player setdir 2.86143;
player setposATL [9109.85,9406.64,0.00375366];
setdate [2035,6,6,12,21];

This seems to be way too bright, as if there's a huge spotlight illuminating the buildings.

 

Cheers

 

Arma has an 'eye adaption' effect if you're 'inside'. Inside meaning: a building, a vehicle, a forest etc. This effect renders the environment close by as normal, as if your eyes were adapted to that. Environment further away will be overly bright.

 

In your example, I would expect that if you move out of these trees, the brightness of the environment in the distance will decrease as your virtual eyes adapt.

 

I think this is actually a very nice effect, although it has some flaws. If you are in a helicopter, the outside is too bright and hard to see. The effect there should also be diminished or absent, since you are focused on outside and light levels are about equal for inside and outside.

 

Even worse are the light strike vehicles. Sitting inside these vehicles is very relative, since you are basically sitting in the open. However this visual effect is still present, making things harder to see and looking unrealistic.

[joostsidy 682]

After playing for about an hour on Tanoa sometimes the view gets hazy/foggy. The fog start/forecast setting is set on 0. It doesn't always happen.

 

http://imgur.com/a/hHeM9

 

I'm curious if others have experienced this as well.

[PYL 2]

I don't know if it's relevant to the Visual Upgrade but since it's a similar problem I would like to share it: what if BIS replaced completely stencil shadows, which are bad looking and draw a lot of resources, with soft shadows which are closer to reality, more beautiful and less stressful for the CPU since they're generated by the video card?

[joostsidy 682]

I don't know if it's relevant to the Visual Upgrade but since it's a similar problem I would like to share it: what if BIS replaced completely stencil shadows, which are bad looking and draw a lot of resources, with soft shadows which are closer to reality, more beautiful and less stressful for the CPU since they're generated by the video card?

This one is indeed a little off-topic. Shadows have been looking bad for years and have been discussed a lot. It's probably more difficult to improve than it looks at first glance. If it was a 'quick win' BI would have done it already.

[Vasily.B 529]

I got little question - why PIP was working smooth on RC and on stable they are lagging again? I mean RHS vehicles (yeah i know - modded content) It was working fine on RC.

About Fog i see little bug, easy to fix. When you control fog in editor, you see its height above sea, and the bars are working in opposite direction, beacuse when i set it 5 M above ground, there is no fog, when 5 M under the (sea level) it appear. I was checking it very near the water line, so water level was almost the same as ground.

[weaponsfree 46]

After playing for about an hour on Tanoa sometimes the view gets hazy/foggy. The fog start/forecast setting is set on 0. It doesn't always happen.

 

http://imgur.com/a/hHeM9

 

I'm curious if others have experienced this as well.

 

I got this as well. I posted about it, but got no response. So may not be widespread :

 

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/193425-tanoa-view-distance-or-fog-bug/

 

This may be offtopic though.

[joostsidy 682]

I got this as well. I posted about it, but got no response. So may not be widespread :

 

https://forums.bistudio.com/topic/193425-tanoa-view-distance-or-fog-bug/

 

This may be offtopic though.

 

I have only experienced this on Tanoa and have a feeling that it might have something to do with 'virtual eye' adaption. That things 'outside' are extra bright and hazy. It might be that this haziness freezes, instead of dissappearing when you move out of a forest or house.

 

So I have the feeling that it is related to the Visual upgrade.

[lsd 147]

I use setFog/bis_fnc_setFog in scripts and sometimes end up with the attached in multiplayer (large band of 'fog' along the horizon).

 

http://imgur.com/a/Hfthq

0 setFog [0.2,0,0];
forceWeatherChange;
3600 setFog 0;

This used to occur only on addon islands, but since 1.64 I've been noticing it in vanilla - I don't believe it is driver/video specific as all players in MP complain about the same issue.

 

I cannot replicate the issue in single-player and it does not occur consistently in multiplayer - making it difficult to reproduce. Is this linked to the visual update?