Opinions, moon/cloud lighting SS's...

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

Actually, that makes sense. I don't know how many books I've read where the crews of various warships (Japanese and American) gave accounts of how dark it was during a battle. Often, it was described as being so dark, the individual couldn't see their own hand in front of their face, let alone locate the opposing ships. Sometimes the only evidence of a ship's presence was it's wake as it stirred up the phosphorescent waters.

We've forgotten what darkness looks like in our over-lighted cities and suburbs. We're all hepped up on light to prevent crime, when total darkness is the best crime preventative and detection system known to man. If you can't see your hand an inch in front of your face you're not taking anything unless you're a blind person and are used to that.

And if you still want to steal something you have to take a source of light with you. The smallest point of light in complete darkness just screams out, "Somethings going on over here! You might want to check it out!" It's only in places where there is altogether too much light and we light the way for the thieves that crime can run rampant. And we show 'em where the good stuff is by lighting it up better. Smart us!

Yes, out to sea, or in the Australian outback where there just is no light on a moonless night is scary dark. I talked to astronomers who traveled to Ayers Rock to watch an eclipse and they swore that the Milky Way, something that most city folks have never seen, casts a shadow there! The Milky Way, the band of amorphous light brightest in the Sagittarius area is a collection of stars, all of them much more than a thousand light-years away. I told them they must be joking. They convinced me that they were not.

We complain that we can't see well enough to target decently at night. You should read the real action reports! Welcome to the war.

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Ruh roh, I had to talk to a mariner. And he nixed the whole idea. You see, we live in a light polluted environment. Clouds look white at night because they are brightly lit FROM BELOW.

At sea, there is no light from below. Clouds are not white, they are BLACK. The only way you know they are there is that they block the light from the stars. Black clouds plus black night equals black sky. When the moon shows through, it is a concentrated halo. The entire cloud does not light.

I'm afraid that TMO is by far the best representation of the night sky at sea. Your shots are realistic for urban areas of land only.

Sorry.

Been in hospital for over a week....Anyway, I've done a lot of deep sea fishing 100's of miles out, the moon does light the clouds up very much, as well as the ocean .Havent been able to play with it, maybe next week

not near land...course no way to get a perfect in game look, but still should have
clouds and more extended lighting, but close to the moon, with clouds much darker away from it

[Rockin Robbins]

Sounds like you're on the right track. So, unlike leovampire, you couldn't get any work done in the hospital? Seems like he did his best work there!

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

You should read the real action reports! Welcome to the war.

(chuckle) I have. Well, some of them. Enough to know that it could get dark enough for a surface attack (Japanese or German). Though I have a number of WWII documentaries about submarine warfare on DVD, I just haven't had the desire to purchase and read any books on the subject. I myself, find that a little curious, or odd. Especially since I've read an enormous number of books over the years on WWII in general, with special emphasis on the PTO. My only conclusion is that it's somehow connected to my father's WWII aircraft carrier days, where he served in the Pacific.

@MWolfe:
I think you're on the right track too. IMHO, I think you should make the night time colors much less pronounced. Given the game engine mechanics, you might just find the right balance there, between a natural night time lack of color, and total blackout.

[Armistead]

[QUOTE=Rockin Robbins;1900639]Sounds like you're on the right track. So, unlike leovampire, you couldn't get any work done in the hospital? Seems like he did his best work there![/QUOTE

Heck, can't even have a cellphone in there, much less a pc...

I think I can get it close, have to adjust cloud color. When the moon gets high it really lights the ocean up. Basically I found all the sun settngs work for the moon, just most mods don't adjust sun settings at night, leave them at 0, so playing with those, you can get many different looks, course I want dark clouds away from moon which is easy, but you change one color you have to tweak all the other colors to match....I was shocked how much it effected visuals, full moon AI spotting ships at 5-6nms, not sure what would be the correct range, heck, my AI cant hardly spot the the enemy at 6nms during the day.
Anyone want to play with it just set the sun to sky intensity values up during the night and lighten sun colors, halo, reflection in env files and adjust reflection in scene dat....then fine tune all the colors...i dont know when i will get home to play with it, not soon

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by Armistead

...you'll find the sun to sky value prolly set to 0, crank it up to .80 or so. All the sun colors are set to black at night, such as halo, sunlight, etc....I was trying med. greys. Also need to adjust other colors to get the tone you prefer, blacker or bluer look. I cant get to my work for prolly weeks.

What the heck is "prolly"?

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

What the heck is "prolly"?

Cute-speak for "probably".

[Armistead]

Originally Posted by WernherVonTrapp

What the heck is "prolly"?

it's text girl slang for probably......what can i say

edit, time i posted SS beat me to the punch

[WernherVonTrapp]

Originally Posted by Armistead

it's text girl slang for probably......what can i say

edit, time i posted SS beat me to the punch

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Cute-speak for "probably".

Oops, sorry. For some reason, I didn't see the correlation.

[Armistead]

Back working on it, humor me why I keep playing with it, easier to compare them against the others here and get opinion. Trying to find a balance between the first two looks. Still need to darken wake a tad, maybe a tad too much glare, maybe too much light...





Clouds more blurred here...





Get about this same look going away from the moon, clouds lit up more around moon, still fairly dark opposite horizon.

[Tempest555]

FWIW back in 1989 I was flying back to Oahu late at night-moon was out you could see the Big Island of Hawaii way off in the distance (and an orange pin prick of light of lava flowing in the water.) Never forget that-and the ocean sparkled to. It was just like your screen captures.
Then somebody was asking me about President Kennedy and the PT 109 and what you see in the movies is true. I said one thing that is dead wrong about that movie is you can see everyone on deck before the collision. Which you have to because its a movie. What you have to imagine is that that was a moonless night and the only light was probably the glow of the cockpit instruments and peoples watch dials and a phosphorescent wake of a ship coming out of nowhere suddenly. I went deep sea fishing off San Diego-at 1:00 60 miles out{no moon-no stars [clouds?} it was like being in an ink well and yes I was worried being run down by a ship since our vessel was 35 ft long.

When the USS CORVINA was sunk by I-I76 it was Gibbous Moon (which is like in your screen capture)-Japanese were decks awash in open ocean (and I think I uncovered why) when they saw CORVINA-but CORVINA evidently never spotted them-or acted like she did'nt.

[Armistead]

Playing some more, not much, some different looks, moon brighter, not as much glare, lil darker env. The big issue I have to figure out is what visual range should be at night as lighting has a lot of effect. I never much like the visual range of the subs AI anyway, I can see much further, but with what I have here the crew can see 5nms away on a moon light, but I can see that far anyway. Course as is with no moon it's so dark you/crew can hardly see anything, but maybe that's as it should be. Moon may need to be smaller....?



different clouds, more blurred, thicker, so less light.






Maybe more realistic



TMO is fairly dark, but away from the moon I'm as dark, if not darker.

[Tempest555]

Well one item I don't think you can put in the mod-Japanese optics were superior to American optics at night

I will use, just exchange them with JSGME. Late autumn clear, early spring, such as the October..

[TorpX]

Looks good, Armistead.

My only suggestion would be to make the water spray coming off the sub smaller or less visible. Subs always seem to be lit up like an illuminated fountain. Looks very pleasant, though.