BIS, what have you done to lighting?

[metalcraze 290]

It was so perfect, so atmospheric, it was like fighting during the proper night

Screenshots made on one PC

ArmA2

OA

And here is some Chernarus in OA on another PC:

http://s005.radikal.ru/i210/1007/1f/2a0d00af6c6f.jpg 210 kb

What is this? Why is it night all around, but ground looks like it's a day? My eyes, they hurt!

Edited July 2, 2010 by W0lle
Image > 100 kb

[Hedo 10]

Looks like the "black and white" filter got removed at night. I agree that it looks strange.

There's a ticket about it on dev-heaven: http://dev-heaven.net/issues/11564

I also made these comparison pics: ArmA2 OA

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

The OA pic looks much better imho. Looks more like a proper night, and the fact you can see the stars like that (beautiful, atleast to me) shows that the citizens of Chernogorsk actually turn their lights off at night.

Also, things don't automatically turn grey at night. If your eyes are picking up enough light from man made sources, the stars, and the moon, you can see pretty good.

Try playing at a larger view distance, it will look more natural, and i assume that's what they used when they made it.

[bwc153 10]

Vanilla ARMA2 looks a lot better at night... Not to mention its more realistic.

The part of your eyes that sees things clearly, works good in light, and sees in color.

The part of your eyes that sees thing blurry, works ok at both light and night, and does not see in color (your Brain fills in the color often based on memory... If my memory serves me correctly.... Oh the irony :P)

[Scrub 0]

Yep, you're speaking of the Rods and Cones in the Retina. Rods are low(er) light sensitive, black and white only, and Rods are color differentiating, but need more light to work.

[metsapeikkoo 10]

Hmm, I kinda thought that OA looked bit better than ArmA2.

[tyler4171 10]

OA has much more realistic night lighting to me, also when you compared those screens were your Lighting and Gamma the same? As well as the time, day, month, and year (i dont think year matters). Thos have variable effects on the lighting.

[vini_lessa 10]

I prefer the original ARMA 2 lighting.

[CarlGustaffa 4]

Well, naturally I just have to be different than everyone else - always against the stream, lol :D I looove the new light system. As for colors at night, most of us probably know that the color receptors in our eyes diminishes with available light - hence the muted night colors that was used in Arma2. First impression was like "holy shit, the colors are awesome". Then into "hey, isn't that just a tad overdone"?

You want it back? I read in another thread something about how environment color and environment fx (or something) modules provides just that. But now in a much broader sense. Colors by default seems to remain at full saturation, but these new modules tones it down to a variety of factors, such as snow during winter or dust storms in the summer, and probably different kind of muting depending on dusk or dawn (in Arma2 these were defined by island config, and only governed by sun azimuth instead of also morning or evening).

And rest assured, being a module it's just a matter of time before we start seeing new effects for various color temperatures. How about a deep red sunset? Now, hopefully these are done controlling some lighting stuff instead of postprocess color filter, but I guess anything would do.

So try these new colors and effect modules and see if it improves the situation. Muting (downscaling) from fully saturated colors are always better than trying to upscale from premuted colors. Always downscale data, never upscale data, as you loose the accuracy.

[D00mbuggy 10]

Well, naturally I just have to be different than everyone else - always against the stream, lol :D I looove the new light system. As for colors at night, most of us probably know that the color receptors in our eyes diminishes with available light - hence the muted night colors that was used in Arma2. First impression was like "holy shit, the colors are awesome". Then into "hey, isn't that just a tad overdone"?

You want it back? I read in another thread something about how environment color and environment fx (or something) modules provides just that. But now in a much broader sense. Colors by default seems to remain at full saturation, but these new modules tones it down to a variety of factors, such as snow during winter or dust storms in the summer, and probably different kind of muting depending on dusk or dawn (in Arma2 these were defined by island config, and only governed by sun azimuth instead of also morning or evening).

And rest assured, being a module it's just a matter of time before we start seeing new effects for various color temperatures. How about a deep red sunset? Now, hopefully these are done controlling some lighting stuff instead of postprocess color filter, but I guess anything would do.

So try these new colors and effect modules and see if it improves the situation. Muting (downscaling) from fully saturated colors are always better than trying to upscale from premuted colors. Always downscale data, never upscale data, as you loose the accuracy.

The lighting is not overdone, go outside at night time, sure you see something but I can tell you that it is MUCH harder to distinguish color.

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

Anybody think of this? The lighting in OA is different to better mimic the lighting in a desert where light can carry further than in a forested area. ArmA2 is suited more to a forested area. Eastern Europe is way darker than the middle-east during both day and night.

I know the individual lights such as flashlights, headlamps, fires, and streetlights look WAY better in OA compared to ArmA2 so I won't say the lighting in ArmA2 is better at all.

What bothers me the most about those comparison pics and OA in general: The LOD is waaay shorter than in ArmA2. Look at the Hercules. It's closer in the OA pic and the engines/fuel pod are two-dimensional compared to ArmA2's three-dimensional LOD at a further distance.

[-)rStrangelove 0]

I think the B/W filter is a shader thing and shaders were reworked in OA, so no wonder why it looks slightly different. And the LODs - i guess everything was tuned to max performance this time.

[twisted 128]

i prefer oa. seems much better and not just in handling night time.

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

i prefer oa. seems much better and not just in handling night time.

Agreed, my good sir.

[Zipper5 74]

I don't know about you guys but I personally can't see that well at night. Granted I do like that there's no longer that black and white filter but it at least needs the brightness toned down.

[JuggernautOfWar 1]

If you go into Takistan with the same lighting settings it appears much more realistic.

[BrassEm 0]

ArmaII - Lows too dark.

OA - Colour saturation too high.

If a halfway level could be found then it would work.

[LJF 0]

With any kind of moon light (even full moon) it is virtually impossible to see colour, you'll have shades of grey. Of course, this isn't true if there are other light sources around like searchlights or camp fires or headlights, but that isn't the point. Original is far better, though the best was ArmA1 in my opinion.

Another thing A2 doesn't simulate is the other effects low light have on the eye, like that movement is harder to pick up and things become less distinct (shapes tend to be softer). It's not just blurring either so I have no idea how you'd do that in a game.

Edited July 2, 2010 by LJF

[EDcase 87]

Oh dear, from those images ARMA2 looks way better and OA looks like some old crap fps shooter :(

Edited July 2, 2010 by EDcase

[mrcash2009 0]

All I can see from those two pictures is a minor tweak on gamma and brightness to counter the extra in OA ... its so minor form those two pictures it just looks like brightness is up more and gamma slightly that A2 pic. More brightness and countered with lower gamma gives you that saturated glow look.

Its not like you cant counter this setting with Gcard control panel or in game settings really. Make dark to black more and light to bright less.

[sniper pilot 36]

Wow those pictures are a real turn off... I couldn't get my graphics looking that bad even if I tried :eek:

[EDcase 87]

mrcash2009: So you will change your monitor or game settings every time you change from day to night missions.....?!?!?!

[Gera_CCT 12]

I like OA Lightining, no cones lights and the green of the grass stay a little green even at night, not dark or black like pic 1.

[maddogx 13]

Graphics at night look better with the "Movie night" module. :)

[mrcash2009 0]

mrcash2009: So you will change your monitor or game settings every time you change from day to night missions.....?!?!?!

I was mainly speaking in terms of what im seeing with those 2 comparisons. in A2 I have have a setting that hits a sweet spot.

Do people calibrate there gamma setting for the monitor first and then software test it? What im seeing with my monitor (calibrated via photoshop and play A2) isnt such a massive difference compared to the reactions here. Im waiting to see something really spring out at me and its not much from this end.

I must stress i dont have OA "yet" .. but as Im looking at those comparisons im speaking as I find.