Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Citabria on April 14, 2007, 08:01:27 AM
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first let me appologize for my previously immediately locked outburst of artists frustration. I would like to convey my point of view as best I can however so...
heres me trying not to flip out and conveying my consternation at drastic terrain changes in the latest version that have left the majority of player made skins in the game looking way to light and washed out.
This is not a matter of monitor brightness or contrast. It is a matter if interaction between existing plane artwork and the new terrain which is visible regardless of individual monitor discrepancies. therefore can be controlled only at the source: the aircraft and terrain tile textures themselves.
looking on the bright side at least I made a few p40e's to the origional AH2 dark tile brightness and contrast and they look ok. however if this terrain persists as the new standard I will have to redo every skin I have submitted because the contrast and sifference between the skins and the terrain is to much for me to tolerate if this is indeed the prefered threshold for the arena's contrast color saturation and brightness.
waffle said it himself its all relative. the skins need to be calibrated to a standard background which thus far has been the old arena tile textures themselves.
this new terrain is well detailed and well made but it is of a different style that is nostalgic of warbirds 2.0. the chaos of realism is removed and there is now order and conformity in the textures. (I love the 3d modeling my only beef is with the textures and brightness and color saturation and contrast)
I just don't know what to strive for now. I have been going so hard striving for realism with a bit of saving private ryan band of brothers coloring flare to the skins I have made recently but now I am just lost
I don't even know what looks good any more. now everything looks too washed out or to saturated.
the green is so green that it overpoweres everything and the dark is so dark well i dunno
please help I need sleep.
the terrain could be altered to match the brightness color and contrast threshold of the previous versions textures. if this could be done I would be thrilled with the new terrain
new version... the once shadowy and dark cockpits look pretty bright thought they are unchanged.
(http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/misc/aces_high/003_terr.jpg)
old version... with the bright terrain of AH2 that had been revised several times form the origional darknes that plagued it.
(http://www.hitechcreations.com/screenshots/page1/p47cockpit.jpg)
old version... the sun is shining bright on the wing of this p51 and on the ground below
(http://p38fester.sitesled.com/louiv%20wing%20cockpit%20view.jpg)
new version... the ground is dark the wing of this p51 still glows creating an unrealistic discrepancy
(http://p38fester.sitesled.com/dark2.jpg)
new version.... its just sitting there cut and pasted the plane is not part of the environment it dosnt fit
(http://p38fester.sitesled.com/dark1.jpg)
old version... its there flying in the air you can see its part of the scene the sun is shining on the plane and on the land and sky behind it. all together it pull sitself off as one complete picture
(http://p38fester.sitesled.com/louiv%20back%20right%20side.jpg)
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It was true for the previous version, obvious at dusk and dawn, and it's even more obvious in this one - AH's single (or twin, whatever) light source environment is too dark for anything other than an empty and flat terrain anytime other than at high noon/moon.
Reducing the ambient lighting some more like this really is puzzling.
It was great as it was. I second adjusting it back to match 2.09's lightness.
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Odd part thing Fester, is that in the last 2 examples, I find the NEW version looks far BETTER...
For example, the wing. The way the light plays across it in the New version, the wing looks more rounded and "full" with more detail popping out at me.. The old lighting the wing looked very flat.
The full P51 screen, I find the New one to look great if it were an overcast day, and has a luminosity much closer to the ground (which is to be expected). Where it looks in the old version a bit bright, and glares so badly in areas no detail stands out, and is a large bright spot on a pall, desaturated background.
In general I do agree the new is a bit dark, but I think the old was a bit light and cartoony. (as a frame of reference, I currently fly with AH's gamma set to 1.1 instead of the default 1.0).
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Have you calibrated your display?
AH light rendering doesnt really allow for both dark darks and bright brights. If it has to be a compromise, then the bright is what should be chosen. Otherwise, anything other than high noon (with many players adjusting their gamma to see better than borderline legal blindness) will just not work, because of the flat lighting that AH uses.
You couldn't have the amount of light scattering into details like those seen in that P51 skin also giving such a dark tone to the terrain below.
The town objects also stand out from the terrain, to a lesser degree.
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Nothing to do with adjusting your display.
As Fester says something seems to have changed with the lighting.
Maybe it's just a side effect of the darker terrain.
Although I have noticed than from long distances GV's seems to glow against the terrain, so I'm guessing on the lighting.
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I like the Tasmanian Citabria better.
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Replied in bug forum, because I read it there first. It is most likely a bug (and if not it's a damned poor "feature"!), so that fits best.
Posting about it 4 times makes it hard to collect all the responses in one threat.