Night - not dark enough?

DviddLeff · 2012-03-09, 05:26 PM

Watching the video for the umpteenth time and finally noticed that night isn't really dark, everything just turns blue.

While the lighting is great, night is not going to make that much of a tactical difference; visibility is not hindered at all as you can still see just as well and just as far as during the day.

If anything fighting at night is going to be easier due to muzzle flashes and tracers being more obvious.

I for one would like night to decrease the view distance and make it harder to see what is out there so that lights, night vision and flares become really important.

Zulthus · 2012-03-09, 05:28 PM

I agree... really dark nights where headlights and NVGs are necessary sounds great.

Bags · 2012-03-09, 05:28 PM

While it looked amazing for like dusk, I think it should get a bit darker.

Higby mentioned that the battleground became completely different at night, but I don't see a need for night vision / thermal / etc that he said we'd need.

EVILPIG · 2012-03-09, 05:31 PM

Don't forget that this is a raw build. Alpha. It was a demo. They probably haven't made all the lights and optics yet.

NewSith · 2012-03-09, 05:32 PM

Idea lab contains such thread already.

Skitrel · 2012-03-09, 05:34 PM

It was MORE than dark enough. Gamers don't go outside enough. I've been out on the moors here in Britain at night on a clear night, you can see absolutely perfectly, everything is illuminated by the stars and moon. On an overcast night though, pitch black.

Weather is in game, clouds will also cast shadows as Higby as mentioned before. The darkness in the video was perfect for a clear night though, which it was.

**CyclesMcHurtz** · 2012-03-09, 05:37 PM

If you look at the night time parts, you'll see the moon was up.

DayOne · 2012-03-09, 05:38 PM

Agreed. Though the shadows look pretty dark, especially at sunset/rise behind the tree, night time should have an impact on gameplay.

Also I heard that headlights might be a cert, I think Higby mentioned this on the reddit interview. Please don't do that SOE. Headlight should be standard.

Originally Posted by CyclesMcHurtz

If you look at the night time parts, you'll see the moon was up.

Does this mean there will be lunar phases? So this is full moon brightness?

That sounds cool.

Bags · 2012-03-09, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by CyclesMcHurtz

If you look at the night time parts, you'll see the moon was up.

oh my.

oh my indeed

**Malorn** · 2012-03-09, 05:45 PM

I liked how night was darker and more monocrhome, but still reasonably visible from moonlight.

The key change at night time is the loss of color and contrast.

Brightness is not that big of a deal. In fact if they did lower brightness all that would mean is that people crank up their monitor brightness or adjust via the graphics driver software. That would just be tedious and become standard operating procedure.

So to me the key thing is that color fades and since there are fewer light sources shadows become bigger and deeper, and contrast between objects fades. Brightness still needs to be fairly high so we can actually see. Not being able to see at all at night without visual aids would just be frustrating.

Eyes adjust to lower light. Sit outside in the countryside with moonlight overhead and you can actually see a lot of stuff. And perhaps Auraxis has a big moon

Headlights and flashlights and thermal vision take away the deep shadows and bring color back into the picture. That makes things easier to see and illuminates what might otherwise be hidden.

So I like the way it looked. I was happy to see I could enjoy night time without changing my monitor settings to ridiculously bright.

Synapses · 2012-03-09, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by CyclesMcHurtz

If you look at the night time parts, you'll see the moon was up.

And there is our word that there is going to be moonless nights. Night vision here we come.

MonsterBone · 2012-03-09, 06:06 PM

It was MORE than dark enough. People will just turn up their brightness and contrast on their video cards if they cant see.

They need to get rid of the blue and make it look like their is a FULL moon where you can see quite well....

General M · 2012-03-09, 06:09 PM

ooooh I can just see people planning raids on certain nights when there's no moon or completely overcast.....

Death2All · 2012-03-09, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by General M

ooooh I can just see people planning raids on certain nights when there's no moon or completely overcast.....

Originally Posted by CyclesMcHurtz

If you look at the night time parts, you'll see the moon was up.

Fenrys · 2012-03-09, 06:28 PM

How long is an Auraxian moon cycle?

14 days would be cool. The first Saturday night would be a new moon, and the next Saturday night would be a full moon.