Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Waffle on November 12, 2015, 11:43:05 AM

Title: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Waffle on November 12, 2015, 11:43:05 AM
We're considering  making an adjustment to the perceived lighting. Right now, the majority of our textures / objects are not reflecting the levels of brightness they would receive in full sunlight. Below is an example of the brightness changes needed, which we believe portrays a more accurate representation of the suns lighting.

We did a quick lighting shader tweak to give us approximate levels, but ultimately, this will have to be done on the texture side, where it can be done more precisely per object / texture
 
Let me know what you think.

(http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/waffle/lighting.gif)


Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Randy1 on November 12, 2015, 11:49:01 AM
Much, much better.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: NatCigg on November 12, 2015, 11:49:45 AM
yes, yes better.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Bizman on November 12, 2015, 11:56:13 AM
Ooh! BIG improvement!  :x
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: FLS on November 12, 2015, 12:05:18 PM
Very nice.  :aok
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Kanth on November 12, 2015, 12:24:57 PM
Very nice!
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: SPKmes on November 12, 2015, 12:43:31 PM
Tankers gonna be hating hahaha
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: 100Coogn on November 12, 2015, 12:47:06 PM
Very nice Waffle.   :cheers:

Coogan
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: 68falcon on November 12, 2015, 12:47:49 PM
 :aok
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Rondar on November 12, 2015, 01:22:33 PM
While I haven't downloaded the new beta, I hope you guys tone down the sun just a wee bit.  :cool:   Heh heh  I'd like to walk in your offices with a 500,000 candlepower flashlight and have ya look at it while we visit  :t
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Snork on November 12, 2015, 01:27:34 PM
The new one wins by a mile. I may even see vehicles from the air!
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: waystin2 on November 12, 2015, 01:31:51 PM
New is much better for these tired eyes! :aok
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Chilli on November 12, 2015, 01:36:35 PM
Yes, much better, like night and day  :aok

Rondar,

I have been following alpha testing and believe me, things like the blinding retina scorching sun is MUCH better.  I believe HiTech said it was reduced in size to reflect actual scale.  Take another look at the comparisons and notice the clarity with the more natural sunlight effect.  You can read the stamp on the cross beam that was barely visible before.  Also, with these changes, you should be able to adjust your gamma to an even cooler temperature than before, and still read gauges.

I do agree that current AH2 can give you too bright conditions, basically good to have your input, but wanted you to know that alpha has seen some changes that you would most likely enjoy in terms of lighting.

Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Waffle on November 12, 2015, 01:42:12 PM
(http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/waffle/light2.gif)
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: FLS on November 12, 2015, 01:52:57 PM
New trees .  :D
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Easyscor on November 12, 2015, 02:05:39 PM
I like it.

I did notice that the trees in the background of the first two shots didn't change lighting, will those change as well? It looked like they would based on Waffle's final shot.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: 715 on November 12, 2015, 02:49:11 PM
Vehicles and planes: I like NEW over OLD.

Trees and bushes: I like OLD over NEW.  (NEW gives washed out shiny appearance; flora doesn't often look like that.)

I like those new trees, especially the giraffe trimmed one.  That from the new Mediterranean texture set?
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: popeye on November 12, 2015, 02:55:20 PM
The "new" looks washed out to me.  (Might be my monitor setting?)

Maybe half-way between old and new.   Otherwise I prefer old.

kong

Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: ImADot on November 12, 2015, 02:57:48 PM
Hells yeah, new shader and lighting FTW.  :banana:
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: earl1937 on November 12, 2015, 03:19:35 PM
We're considering  making an adjustment to the perceived lighting. Right now, the majority of our textures / objects are not reflecting the levels of brightness they would receive in full sunlight. Below is an example of the brightness changes needed, which we believe portrays a more accurate representation of the suns lighting.

We did a quick lighting shader tweak to give us approximate levels, but ultimately, this will have to be done on the texture side, where it can be done more precisely per object / texture
 
Let me know what you think.

(http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/waffle/lighting.gif)
:airplane: no question about it! On my computer the new is better than the old!
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Getback on November 12, 2015, 03:35:34 PM
Where's the like button. Only kidding, very nice!
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Oddball-CAF on November 12, 2015, 04:12:43 PM
Looks great to me from the screenshots. I'm for anything which brightens up the look of AH.
The old washed-out looking colors / pallete and "hazy" look at any kind of distance has gotten
a bit old.
  It's interesting you brought this up. I play a wargame series called "Combat Mission"
(www.battlefront.com) and one of the guys in the forum came up with a "mod" which
tinkers with the colors/lighting/brightnest/contrast of "Combat Mission Red Thunder"
and "Combat Mission Black Sea".
  You might get some ideas from this thread:

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/120795-fxshine-shader/ (http://community.battlefront.com/topic/120795-fxshine-shader/)

Best regards, Odd
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Ack-Ack on November 12, 2015, 05:01:37 PM

  It's interesting you brought this up. I play a wargame series called "Combat Mission"
(www.battlefront.com) and one of the guys in the forum came up with a "mod" which
tinkers with the colors/lighting/brightnest/contrast of "Combat Mission Red Thunder"
and "Combat Mission Black Sea".
  You might get some ideas from this thread:

http://community.battlefront.com/topic/120795-fxshine-shader/ (http://community.battlefront.com/topic/120795-fxshine-shader/)

Best regards, Odd

Injectors like FXShine, SweetFX, and Reshade can be used with AH. I've been using SweetFX/Reshade combo with AH for awhile now as have other players to help improve the plain vanilla graphics. 
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: bustr on November 12, 2015, 05:03:02 PM
NEW

You can actually see through the gunsight glass.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: EagleDNY on November 12, 2015, 06:49:59 PM
New - most definitely.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Oldman731 on November 12, 2015, 08:58:56 PM
  It's interesting you brought this up. I play a wargame series called "Combat Mission"
(www.battlefront.com)


Hey!  So do I!

oops, guess that's better handled in O Club.

- oldman
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: USRanger on November 12, 2015, 09:11:30 PM
I like the new lighting, but think the new ground textures are very bland.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Wmaker on November 13, 2015, 12:59:06 AM
One of the biggest problems I've always had in AH graphics has been the world looks too dark overall. I've been torn on why that is.

That looks a huge improvement, more natural/akin to real world!
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Greebo on November 13, 2015, 04:02:23 AM
From what I can see I prefer the new lighting to the old. Could we get a before/after external screenshot of a plane, perhaps a bare metal one with a spec map?
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Gman on November 13, 2015, 07:21:53 AM
New hands down.  I initially didn't think much of the alpha, but hadn't looked at it since the day it was made available to the forum members.  Seeing this, and some of Greebo's new skins, I'm impressed with how much things are improving, truly great work by the team and volunteers working hard on it.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Bruv119 on November 13, 2015, 12:36:18 PM
Like the look of New on both accounts.   :aok
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Krusty on November 13, 2015, 03:39:26 PM
The "new" looks washed out to me.  (Might be my monitor setting?)

Maybe half-way between old and new.   Otherwise I prefer old.

kong

Agreed. Back down by half and that should do it.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Wraith_TMS on November 13, 2015, 04:24:32 PM
... Let me know what you think...


The NEW settings are best, by far!
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Delirium on November 13, 2015, 08:16:53 PM
Does the 'new' change the way the sun reflects on cockpit armor? In particular on the P38G?
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: lerxst on November 13, 2015, 09:00:43 PM
if your making a change like this to the lighting in general,can the skins be adjusted also so they dont stick out so much??
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Naughty on November 13, 2015, 09:58:05 PM


  "new" gives a washed out faded appearance, a lot of the details seem to be lost. don't like.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: BaldEagl on November 14, 2015, 12:34:31 AM
I like the old in all cases.

All those white tree trunks in the background must be birch trees?
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: caldera on November 14, 2015, 06:06:57 AM
Another vote to split the difference between old and new.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: save on November 14, 2015, 08:37:50 AM
Agreed, it looks like it's set to highest possible dynamic range you can find on a camera.

The "new" looks washed out to me.  (Might be my monitor setting?)

Maybe half-way between old and new.   Otherwise I prefer old.

kong
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: pallero on November 14, 2015, 08:41:43 AM
The "old" is much more realistic.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: bustr on November 14, 2015, 01:50:23 PM
Waffle,

Is it possible to do a short film clip showing before and after with time set to cycle dawn to dusk in about 60 seconds? Same two subjects and positions, just the sun cycling through to show a better over all effect directly related to the time of day. I'm not sure how many responding to your post have the current alpha installed and spend time in it.

The alpha has been a bit dark since the post lighting effects were introduced. There are times at 12:00 the alpha mask on the gunsight glass is just too dark for reality. Then the post lighting effects make it worse. I can improve it but, then I've increased gamma to the point everything else is obviously gamma saturated. The New image in the Hurri cockpit shows a lighter alpha effect along with being able to see details better.

What time of day was the sun relative to the New light effects in the Hurri cockpit? Was it at an angle to fully illuminate the cockpit from above and slightly back of the head rest? So to my request for a 60 second dawn to dusk moving the sun of the before and after.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: The Fugitive on November 14, 2015, 04:28:18 PM
Waffle,

Is it possible to do a short film clip showing before and after with time set to cycle dawn to dusk in about 60 seconds? Same two subjects and positions, just the sun cycling through to show a better over all effect directly related to the time of day. I'm not sure how many responding to your post have the current alpha installed and spend time in it.

The alpha has been a bit dark since the post lighting effects were introduced. There are times at 12:00 the alpha mask on the gunsight glass is just too dark for reality. Then the post lighting effects make it worse. I can improve it but, then I've increased gamma to the point everything else is obviously gamma saturated. The New image in the Hurri cockpit shows a lighter alpha effect along with being able to see details better.

What time of day was the sun relative to the New light effects in the Hurri cockpit? Was it at an angle to fully illuminate the cockpit from above and slightly back of the head rest? So to my request for a 60 second dawn to dusk moving the sun of the before and after.

Personally Id rather see the short film from the cockpit doing a flat tune for a full circle as well as one from the top of the tank rotating in a full circle. I think this would show the lighting better in a "players point of view" than from a GM spot. After all we play from a players view, not the GM view. Seeing how the light and shadows move across the gauges and surfaces of the plane and GV is what would help me make a better informed decision.
Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: Bino on November 14, 2015, 04:47:26 PM
I, too, prefer the NEW.

Thanks!   :salute

Title: Re: Lighting Adjustment
Post by: TDeacon on November 15, 2015, 07:11:35 PM
I start with the thought that eyestrain is bad.

In the past, under certain lighting conditions, the sky was too much brighter than the ground.  If I reduced gamma to eliminate the glare of the sky, I couldn't see stuff on the ground.  So If this lessens that contrast, then this is good.  If not, then ...