Weapon light brightness/intensity fluctuates, as seen by other players in multiplayer (2.0.8)
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Description

Light sources that are generated by weapon attachments have a different perceived brightness in multiplayer situations. The player whose weapon is hosting the light (first player) sees the light precisely as it is displayed in singleplayer situations. Players who are not the host of the light (third players, for convention's sake) will see the light change brightness according to certain conditions.

Assume conditions to be a cloudless night with a new moon, but the specific darkness of the night does not seem to have an impact.

When the weapon light is turned on, to a third player it appears very brightly, at first. After about a second the light will dim down (over about another second), so that both first and third players will experience the same brightness from the light.

If the first player is pointing their weapon at a nearby object, the light has adjusted itself as described above. If the first player is not pointing their weapon at a nearby object, but rather a distant one (such as a hillside or the sky), the adjustment will not occur.

If the first player is pointing their weapon at a nearby object, and the light has adjusted as described above, and then points their weapon at a distant object (such as a hillside or the sky), the light as perceived by a third player will become brighter until it is as bright as when it was first turned on. This can be readily seen if there is still a nearby object within the cone of the light. Returning the weapon to pointing at a nearby object will make the light return to an appropriate brightness.

Finally, if the first player points their weapon at a nearby object and doesn't move, then the light, as seen by a third player, will "pulse" slightly brighter every 3 seconds, before returning back to being dim.

These effects can be seen demonstrated in the following to videos:
https://youtu.be/WXn47ELduMs (58 seconds, demonstrates changes in brightness for an intensity value (effectively) of 200)
https://youtu.be/aHdndcOenf8 (67 seconds, demonstrates changes in brightness for an intensity value of 90)

Details

Severity: Minor
Resolution: Open
Reproducibility: Always
Operating System: Windows 10 x64
Category: Multiplayer

Steps To Reproduce

Set up a multiplayer game on a dedicated server.
Log in multiple players
Give one player a weapon with a flashlight attached
Have this player turn on the light while aiming at a nearby object
Observe the light effect as seen from the other players' perspectives
Have the player with the light aim it at the sky while still having a nearby object in the cone of light
Observe the light effect as seen from the other players' perspectives

Additional Information

This bug was first brought to my attention as a bug in a mod which I am making. This mod adds IR illuminators (essentially IR flashlights) to the laser aiming devices that come with the game, or that were added by other mods. When the flashlight in question is "irLight=1" and being viewed under nightvision, the fact that it turns on at "full value" (which appears to be greater than the actual config value, see the second video) can be blinding to other players, and very detrimental to gameplay. Especially if there are a lot of players using lasers with illuminators all at once.

Event Timeline

GhostJB created this task.May 5 2022, 3:34 AM

GhostJB renamed this task from Weapon light brightness/intensity fluctuates, as seen by other players in multiplayer to Weapon light brightness/intensity fluctuates, as seen by other players in multiplayer (2.0.8).May 5 2022, 4:08 AM

Having trouble understanding what desired outcome is.
Instead of being bright and then adjusting down.
It should already be adjusted down when it turns on? So that it isn't "too bright" for a short time?

Or is it just that it seems to calculate brightness at the light impact point, instead of at the weapon?
In that case just adding a max distance limit to it might be sufficient?

Apologies for not clearly stating what I expected or wanted to happen. I got so wrapped up in describing the problem.

What should be happening, I think, is that the light should turn on at the correct brightness level and stay there. Stated otherwise, both the player who is holding the light and players who are viewing the player and their light should see the same levels of brightness at all times that it is on. The momentary "too bright" is the undesired behavior, currently.

It does seem that both lights were calculating their brightness based on the distance to the impact point. I'm not sure why they would, though. As well, both of the lights used in the attached videos had hardLimitStart and hardLimitEnd values defined in the configs. The two hardLimitEnd values were different, but the greater of the two was still less than 100.

Weapon light brightness/intensity fluctuates, as seen by other players in multiplayer (2.0.8)New, NormalPublicActions

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Weapon light brightness/intensity fluctuates, as seen by other players in multiplayer (2.0.8)
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