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Lighting of scene changes when Sun out of viewport
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Description

*UPDATED WITH SCREENSHOTS*

If you look into the direction of the sun, with the sun still in the viewport, you'll see the scene in front of you being lightened accordingly.

But if you look down to the ground or zoom in, so that the sun is out of the viewport, you'll notice that the according lighting disappears together with the sun and the scene gets darker immidiately.

That should not be the case, the lighting of a scene should depend on the available light sources, independent on wether the player sees them or not.

*Notice*: Some people in the comments say, that it's not the lighting that changes, but rather an overlay effect due to sunflare. Even though they might be right, i still think it's rather disturbing, than improving immersion, because the change in brightness of the environment is to significant. I never experienced this in real life and apparently it led me to the conclusion, that this is a bug, opening this ticket. so it might could be called a "misfeature", as someone in the comments stated.
{F19936} {F19937}

Details

Legacy ID
3827352097
Severity
None
Resolution
Fixed
Reproducibility
Always
Category
Engine
Steps To Reproduce

1.Look in the direction of the sun and notice the lighting.

2.Now DO NOT change your position, just look down to the ground or zoom in, so that the sun dissapears at the top of your screen and is no longer visible.

3.Notice how the lighting of the scene suddenly gets darker, as if the lighting had disappeared together with the sun.

NOTE: (I have everything set to "ultra" and post processing to "normal")

Event Timeline

z-boson edited Steps To Reproduce. (Show Details)Jun 16 2013, 3:59 PM
z-boson edited Additional Information. (Show Details)
z-boson set Category to Engine.
z-boson set Reproducibility to Always.
z-boson set Severity to None.
z-boson set Resolution to Fixed.
z-boson set Legacy ID to 3827352097.May 7 2016, 2:37 PM

It is simulating your pupils contracting when you look at the sun, so when you look away it will be darker momentarily until your pupils dilate back to the correct size to let in more light.

Like coming in from a sunny day and the room seems dark for a while until your eyes adapt.

ARMA 2 simulated this brilliantly :-)

@FeralCircus
it was good, just a bit choppy. the light would change every second, very choppy. at least that is how it is on the free demo. Idk about the full game

I believe this is related to HDR (high dynamic range).

It's similar as if you look towards the sun by naked eye and and then turn away from it, the pupils in your eyes extend/contract and the visual experience changes...sorta.

z-boson added a subscriber: z-boson.May 7 2016, 2:37 PM

@ FeralCircus
ah damn, i was afraid someone would come up with this.

I DON'T THINK THAT'S WHAT IT IS.

Let me explain again:

As soon as the sun is out of screen (viewport), the light emitted from the sun disappears. It is like the game thinks "okay, if the player doesn't see the sun anymore, there is no sun, thus there is no light"). Of course, not all light disappears, but the change in lighting is significant.

Also, if it was simulating your pupils, your eyes would adapt after a while, which they do not. The scene just gets darker immidiateley. You can do this over and over again very fast, and the effect is exactly the same, in real life your eyes don't adapt that fast.

The point is, in real life, the lighting is not depended on wether the lightsource is looked at or not, if i look away from the sun, of course there are no blinding effects etc, but the light emitted onto the world is the same, which, at the moment in arma, it is not.

bez added a comment.Jun 16 2013, 10:25 PM

I think FeralCircus is correct, though I didn't check it myself yet.
Also what HDR do you use? Standard or low? I highly recommend using the Standard.
I don't think it's making such of a performance hit anyway.
when I have time to fire up the game I will look at it for sure.

To be honest, I didn't see anything weird about it,
but could be I just didn't pay enough attention to it.

Heruon added a subscriber: Heruon.May 7 2016, 2:37 PM

Try doing it at sunset. It gives the scene a red tint while looking at the sun, but if you can't see the sun the red tint goes away. It's not HDR simulating pupils

I just checked again, and it's not the lighting of the entire scene that changes, but it's the blending effect of the sun.

It's a kind of a diffuse lens flare, which should simulate how you are blended by the sun in your view.

Not a bug IMO.

no, it's definitely not only the sunflare. Look how the lighting on the ground and rocks etc also changes.

It's an overlay effect, the *lighting* doesn't actually change.

As said by Fireball, it's just lens flare.

if so, it doesn't give me the impression of it. i find it rather irritating and apparently it leads people to think, that something is wrong with the game. in real life i don't wonder about something like this. so if it is really lensflare, it should be modified in a way, that people recognize it as such. i opened an issue on this bug tracker because of it, don't think that's the goal...

Could not reproduce. The shadows are still theere, the light is still affecting the scene. Only the glare disapears how it should be since youre not looking directly at the sun.

Check your graphical settings. Lower graphical settings skip some of the lighting features for performance.

as i wrote:

NOTE: (I have everything set to "ultra" and post processing to "normal")

As I stated, it's not a bug per se, but it might be a mis-feature, specially connected to different graphical settings or twilight.

@Fireball

mis-feature seems a pretty good description for this.

Maxyz added a subscriber: Maxyz.May 7 2016, 2:37 PM
Maxyz added a comment.Jun 19 2013, 5:12 PM

What amazes me most, z-boson, is your inability to take screenshots - how is this possible?

i wish i knew myself. i just get a black picture, whenever i try to alt+print and then insert into paint. same thing if i try to configure taking screenshots in arma with a different key combination. the screenshot is always just black.

You can take screenshots with f12 in steam. Its an inbuilt feature. Or download fraps.

thx, will try that.

thx, taking screenshots worked, so i added some.

I believe the sun and its flare were changed recently, is it better now?

@Fireball
Yes the sun is much better now and it reacts and looks awesome!
Excellent work & thank you :-)

Mass closing resolved issues not updated since November.