Night is "too dark."
 

Am I the only one that thinks this?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the way TD changed "night" seems to be like a black veil that affects EVERYTHING (including instruments). As if they took a black image and adjusted its opacity ramp. Or, to simulate a darker world be wearing a layer or two of black satin over your eyes.

It seems to be a "gimmick" rather than good implementation.

The proper modelling of how the human eye would adjust to "dark" seemed to be represented better in 4.09m and before. I don't mean to say it was "perfect" just "better."

The other thing that compounds this is that light sources don't generate a lot of ambient light. They seem to be "point light" sources only. So, light objects don't truly "illuminate".

I dunno. Just an observation (if I could see one).

By the way, please no responses suggesting I "up my gamma ramp" in my graphics control setting. It's calibrated appropriately.

I also think that simply defeats the purpose and deflects away from the problem.

I also have "blackout" blinds in the man lair, so my room, at high noon, is DARK!

what monitor do you have?

Ignoring the graphics workarounds, which are probably due to game limitations, "too dark" is relative. Most of us live in areas where there is a moderate to severe "light pollution" at night, so we don't have an intuitive understanding of just how dark the night sky can be.

In Northern Europe, in winter, flying over water or bare ground, with 100% overcast overhead, you will have almost no visibility, to the point that you might not even be able to see your hand in front of your face.

Flying over snow or desert on an overcast night, you'll get a bit of light scatter from the ground, but it will still be very dark. You probably won't be able to see more than a meter or so, and definitely need to use IFR when flying.

Flying over open water or wilderness areas on a moonless but clear night, you'll have no illumination from the ground, but the starlight above will "silhouette" aircraft above the skyline and will give you a bit of help in figuring out where the horizon is. Actual visibility on the ground might be just a few meters, however. Again, you probably need IFR.

Flying over snow or desert on a clear moonless night, you might be able to tell where the ground is if you get close, and you'll have the stars above to silhouette things, but visibility still won't be more than a few meters. (Airmen flying over the desert at night sometimes mistook the desert for ocean, with disastrous results.)

In summer at the extreme latitudes, the sun will never be that far below the horizon, so there will always be a bit of "sunset" on the appropriate horizon. In such cases, you might be able to use VFR at night under a clear sky, but visibility of anything other than light sources will still be limited to less than a kilometer.

The same goes for flying under a full moon under a very clear sky, particularly if the ground is snowy. They called the full moon a "bomber's moon" for a reason.

Settled areas won't give that much light, either. 70 years ago, most portions of the world didn't have electricity, and since the world population was just 1/4 to 1/5 of what it is today, most cities and towns were much smaller. Furthermore, lights weren't as cheap and efficient as they are in the 21st century, so even in wealthy, settled areas lighting was sparser and dimmer by modern standards.

For example, check out color pictures of New York's Time Square in the 1940s vs. a recent picture. Back then, you'd struggle to read a newspaper, even under all the neon lights. Today, you could easily read fine print.

Additionally, when flying in a war zone, most countries observed blackouts (the exception being the Germans in 1944-45, who figured that blackouts didn't do much good, and just interfered with fighter interception and emergency services on the ground). Areas near the front lines would be abandoned or blacked out to avoid being targets from ground fire.

The exception is that burning cities will provide bright light, particularly if there is overcast to give an "sky glow" effect. Bomber crews regularly remarked on how bright the fires were, and the Luftwaffe was able to successfully carry out "wilde sau" (interception by fighters not equipped with radar) operations under such conditions. Bombers could be silhouetted between the ground and overcast due to the glare.

Let me ask this a different way.

TD. How did you change how night is rendered now?

It seems to me you've placed a semi-transparent black image over everything and it is a distraction.

It seems like graphically speaking, things look better in 4.09m and earlier.
Now it seems like I'm wearing a black scarf over my eyes.

Lighting was improved since 4.09, period. In my opinion the nights are way too bright. Unless you are under cloud cover you can always spot planes from miles away. I liked the possibility of completely black nights in 4.10. I think they should be like they were in 4.10 again.

Same day, same place, different game versions
4.10:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/j447fw...september.jpg#
4.13:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/yc18h5...september.jpg#

for me 4.10 looks way more like a night.

I guess it's just opinion.
If black is your goal, then great.
I find it useless.

I think it's just a bit over-done is all. It's an instant disconnect for me, or editing the mission to make it 4 hours earlier. (Or, if EARLY EARLY morning, 4 hours later).

So, we'll agree to disagree. Period.

Perhaps it would be best to allow users to adjust how dark they want the night sky to be as a difficulty option.

Obviously, for on-line, darkness settings would be controlled by the server admin.

you can adjust the brightness by changing the date. 4.10 had the option for very dark nights and very bright ones, as it should be.

Very dark isn't useless at all, there is a mod called "command and control" which simulates radar operators and ground controls, it's super cool not to see a thing but to still find the enemies.

by the way, i made a video of a succesfull night mission in 4.12
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYFkLdaMLwo

Ok. Alpha explained some of the new changes (well, not new... but you know) that the night sky brings.

So... I'll just change the dates of missions I can't see.

I feel better about it, but I still think "dark" is still a teensy bit too dark (with respect to modelling eyesight in a video game).

Also, will play around and adjust my nvidia card.