Arma's lighting.

[jackass888 0]

why doesnt arma have normal lightning every other light than the sun has no shadows and looks like a cube. Is it really impossible that the engine could have shadows? Shadows would make night time missions a lot more realistic.

[whisper 0]

Well, for me the blinding effect of the sun is rendered very good in ArmA. Having the sun in your DOES blind you, the more the sun is centered, the more you're blinded. Like what I witness in ArmA.

There are some transitions that are a bit too sudden, but overall, in daylight, it's quite good. Definitely not "sucks donkey balls" written in bold and big caracters, with a nifty "it's a fact" written after, like it would give more weight to an argument

I don't know which game you're playing, but on my machine in ArmA there is no middle ground between the sun glare being there and not being there. It's like you look at the sun, it's there, you move you viewpoint 1mm and it instantly disappears with the whole scene abruptly darkening, like flicking a light switch. It does this irrespective of the HDR precision setting (ie. at the highest or lowest).

Looks very unnatural and stupid.

Definitely not. Yes, when the sun is in your point of view, suddenly you get a sun glare, but

1) check IRL, get the sun in your view, but not center, then put a cap (or simply your hand) that blocks the sun, and you get exactly the same effect. In fact, that's why caps exist Why do people put their hand above their eyes to see better? It's not because they look directly into the sun, it's because even only having the sun in the field of view is enough to make you see bad.

2) the more you center the sun on screen, the stronger the glare (in game, I mean).

3) yes, transitions are too abrupt, I wrote it

[Sgt_Eversmann 1]

why doesnt arma have normal lightning every other light than the sun has no shadows and looks like a cube. Is it really impossible that the engine could have shadows? Shadows would make night time missions a lot more realistic.

Dyslexy in the Combat Photography Topic (hope it is ok if I post this here)

Quote[/b] ] This was one of the more subtle changes in 1.05, and the results are quite impressive. At night, shadows are now based off of the moon's position, whereas previously there were no shadows at night and everything thus ended up looking very flat.

Here's a before/after example.

BEFORE:

http://dslyecxi.com/screens....all.jpg

Full Resolution

AFTER:

http://dslyecxi.com/screens....all.jpg

Full Resolution

http://dslyecxi.com/screens....all.jpg

Full Resolution

http://dslyecxi.com/screens....all.jpg

Full Resolution

http://dslyecxi.com/screens....all.jpg

Full Resolution

http://dslyecxi.com/screens....all.jpg

Full Resolution

[blackdog~ 0]

And the result is that you cant see SHIT at night... I don't care if it's realistic or not, it fucks up the gameplay to hell...

[Heatseeker 0]

Yeah, moon lighting and night shadows look very good, but if there is no moon everything is pitch black, night time lighting should be improved.

You might wanna remove the img tags from your quote to prevent the mods guetting pissed.

<span style='color:red'>Now check this!</span>

Pic taken at 18:00 hours!

The shadders look ok and so does the lighting, sun is setting so everything looks darker than usual.

Pic taken at 19:00 hours!

One hour later everything looks wrong, sun is set but everything is now brighter (notice the ai even turned on the BRDM's headlights), the shadders arent working and Arma looks like OPF at 15:00 hours.. this happens during day/night transitions and is easy to recreate.

Note: Both pics taken at the same date (sept 7th) with the same settings (shadders high, shadows normal), Arma version 1.5, both pics scaled down to 800x600 res and converted to jpeg only.

I hope it gets noticed by BIS and considered fixing in a future patch.

[Sgt_Eversmann 1]

I let the IMG tags there because I took that post from another topic

thats infact a bug heatseeker.

[Heatseeker 0]

I let the IMG tags there because I took that post from another topic

thats infact a bug heatseeker.

But it is not permited, just replace the img with url tags and its ok .

The hdr during the day works ok (a little switch alike though) but when the sun is lower (sunset) it shouldnt blind us so much and it shouldnt be noticeable at night (i dont think moon light is strong enough to blind you thru NVG's).

Im going to update the first post in hope that BIS will notice that bug i posted previously.

[BlackScorpion 0]

Depends on the NVGs, I suppose. Haven't actively worn one, as we were only allowed to test them (Wild Big light intensifiers), but atleast they warned us about even looking up at the stars (well it was a clear night, add 10,000x the light... ). Dunno if they do that in actual FDF training, still got few years before I can go there. Can't remember if there was any "loss of vision" after that, though; I think they're designed to preserve as much as night vision as possible (the green color).

Oh, and few weeks ago, the moon was bright enough to nearly blind me (took few secs for eyes to even adjust for it, and see details) for a while. Bet I could've (nearly) read a book there (saw my shadow in the snow with no lights nearby), and it was a totally cloudless, cold night.

[max power 21]

Yes, that would be exactly how magic hour looks, especially on slightly over exposed film.

Notice no shadows:

http://richardmcguire.com/photos/journey/magichour.jpg

http://www.photos-of-the-year.com/image....med.jpg

http://www.originalvision.com/Nicarag....boy.jpg

[whisper 0]

Well, excuse my scepticism, but this "magic hour" sounds more like a bug than something done on purpose by BI

[max power 21]

It may be a bug, but it happens at the correct time of day and looks correct.

[swtx 42]

I for one believe that HDR is not necessary in ARMA. It should be an option to those of us who play the game, much like the grass is 1.05.

[dmitri 0]

Boohoo. I like it.

[JFK 0]

Boohoo. I like it.

Me too. Its not (yet) perfect, but its a really nice feature. Same with grass. After 1.05 i can absolutly live with the solution.

Sometimes HDR flickers too much, when watching directly on a wood or so. But i think BIS will fix that sooner or later.

Keep on good work, game is awesome!!!

Cya

[MehMan 0]

Yes, that would be exactly how magic hour looks, especially on slightly over exposed film.

Notice no shadows:

http://richardmcguire.com/photos/journey/magichour.jpg

http://www.photos-of-the-year.com/image....med.jpg

http://www.originalvision.com/Nicarag....boy.jpg

Yeah, but you see a spot shadow, at least some shading. Not no shadows.

[max power 21]

Sorry man, it looks as correct as any other graphics render. It's probably in there on purpose and that's the way the world works.

[Scrub 0]

There is a point when the sun just goes behind the horizon, when the conditions are right (clouds over the observer, but not blocking the sun) where the lighting is flat, totally diffuse. Much like the washed out image you have there. I found that increasing the HDR to 16 from 8 (it's in a tech topic here somewhere) The transitions are much better, quite smooth and subtle, not so extreme in variation. Night is still a BIIG issue though. Blind as a bat in a hummer or cobra. These act like 1st gen NVGs - the flash/glare attenuation does not function. I do recommend upping the altering the proper file to increase the HDR resolution to 16 bit though.

[dirtylarrygb 0]

There is a point when the sun just goes behind the horizon, when the conditions are right (clouds over the observer, but not blocking the sun) where the lighting is flat, totally diffuse. Much like the washed out image you have there. I found that increasing the HDR to 16 from 8 (it's in a tech topic here somewhere) The transitions are much better, quite smooth and subtle, not so extreme in variation. Night is still a BIIG issue though. Blind as a bat in a hummer or cobra. These act like 1st gen NVGs - the flash/glare attenuation does not function. I do recommend upping the altering the proper file to increase the HDR resolution to 16 bit though.

Personally after much testing today at different GFX levels. I would say HDR in ARMA like many Xbox 360 games (Gotham racing is a good example). Digitally produces the effects of a digital camera iris opening and closing when subjected to light changes more accuratly than say the human eye.

But then the real time sunflare, in 3rd person view portrays a optical film lense not the human eye. Is there an invisable film maker behind us all?

So for utter realism, HDR is a game enhancer, looking into the sun on high GFX settings is a bad idea, which is a bit like real life. Does any game portray these effects more accuratly? Not as far as I know.

The idea of sunglasses is a good one

Joint Op's, also has a big sun bloom effect if you looked into the sun, which gave an advantage to anyone smart enough if they used the sun behind there back in combat. Fighter Pilots have been doing this since WW1.

I agree night time is abit of a pain, but it's more realistic than say Battlefield 2:Special Forces or Delta Force. The HDR effects at certain GFX settings are better than others.

So HDR in ARMA, although not 100% accurate to the human eye, is better than any PC game we have seen before and add's generally to the realism of the game. To be honest there are not many games were you have to factor in the light before an attack.

Every single windshield in ARMA is so dirty, perhaps I should write a mod called "water in a bucket" so you could clean the view ports on a M1 tank before you enter battle.

If your PC can hack it HDR 16 setting is way better.

Are eclipse's possible btw?

[Heatseeker 0]

Bump? I just feel that this is an important aspect of the game that needs to be looked into some more.

I have never used nvg's but at night and most often they dont make much of a diference except brightning up the sky.

The ground remains pitch black, i think the OPF nvg's with dxdll post processing were better? Flying or pretty much all interaction with the game at night is almost impossible, especially if there is no moon.

I have noticed too that unlike Nogova's Sahrani light pole lamps cant be shot.

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

Working with the NVGs is pretty difficult. LIght sources darken your vision rather than flare it. Pretty strange.