During the Alpha stage of ARMA 3's development, the lens flare of lights in the environment and from vehicles looked staggeringly pretty.
The original lens flare used is still 'advertised' on the ARMA 3 main website by one of the screenshots:

http://arma3.com/assets/img/screenshots/large/arma3_screenshot_22.jpg

There are more examples of the ALPHA lens flare here:

http://muslimgamer.com/chest/2012/05/Lighting_2.jpg

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/577859044773755502/9E9337A2694E3F2536778367E3438F96FEA78D5C/

http://i.imgur.com/PmAjVcr.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EVgonNcl.jpg

http://www.tangodown.nl/data/arma3/release8206/night_headlights1.jpg

Even if you do not agree that these lighting effects are to your taste, they should still be a configurable option in the video options. Somewhere along the line, they were removed and I believe are still in the game files, but I do not have the knowledge to retrieve such information unfortunately.

This is the Steam change log where the lens flare was removed from the game: http://store.steampowered.com/news/10701/

I understand the devs are extremely busy with other, far more important priorities right now- but it would be very nice to at least hear a reason from one of the devs on this feedback tracker (i.e. the effects caused low frame rates/ caused clipping/ other issues etc.) or possibly they could tell me a way I could re-enable the light effects through modding. Any kind of interaction from the ARMA 3 developers would be greatly appreciated.

I know things change in ALPHAs, and it's entirely up to the devs preference what gets in and what doesn't, but as far as the PC platform goes- the possibilities are almost endless. People with different calibre gaming rigs could turn off or turn up this very small lighting effect to their own personal liking. It could be disabled or toned down in multiplayer so it doesn't give an unfair disadvantage to those who may be 'blinded' by the lens flare.

I've looked at lots of my own screenshots and some YouTube videos made from the early days of the ARMA 3 Alpha, and as far as I can see, clipping and any kind of negative performance impacts don't seem to be present due to the lighting effects.

So, as a matter of leaving this option as personal preference to the player, and as a cinematic-making ARMA player, I would be more than happy to see this as a video options setting.

Failing that, I will try and gain help from the community on how I can manually re-enable this lighting feature, and possibly consider making a modification supporting it.