HMMMM a question

[clayp]

I'm sure this has been asked and probably answered but why does it look so awful at night? Is there a fix for it?..If not,why not???....:rotfl: :rotfl:

[Soundman]

Well....are you using a mod. That would be the first question, but I have used both PE and I'm currently using Enviromental 5.0. I gotta say I don't tend to agree with you in general, as both never looked bad to me. I will say that the first time I used clears mod, I noticed it was darker, but felt it was much more realistic. It is night you know, it's supposed to be dark ! Especially when no moon is present. I remember some of the earlier incarnations of installs I used long ago, I always felt night time was too light and not very realistic. I guess it's up to the eye of the beholder.

[Rockin Robbins]

Actually at night 200 miles from any light, offshore with no moon, it's dark. You might discover you've never seen dark in your life, if you are a normal American, even from the country.

Did you know that clouds at night are not light colored, but jet black? They are the absence of stars, that's all there is to see. Your hand can only be seen by the same method. Your hand is the same color as the cloud: black, the absence of stars. The horizon does not exist, as it is a black line between the black ocean and the black sky. The only way you can infer the horizon is that somewhere out there the stars stop and pure black starts. It is difficult to determine exactly where that is.

You cannot see your feet. The Milky Way is like a glowing belt across the sky. All the stars look equally bright to your oversaturated eyeballs and you are seeing twice or three times as many stars as you've ever seen in your life. You can't find the Big Dipper or Orion, the Northern Cross or Southern Cross. Pegasus is drowned in unimaginable background clutter that has removed every landmark from the sky.

If you look behind you, likely your wake glows so brightly that it actually hurts your eyes. Your bow wake could have some glow as well, bright enough to blind you to half the stars in the sky. You would avoid looking at the phosphorescent glow to preserve your night vision. You try to memorize all the stars that are on the horizon so that if one of them is eclipsed by a ship, you'll notice its disappearance. That's the only way you'll recognize a contact. It could be the only way you avoid a collision if the water has no phosphorescent plankton in your area.

I am not clear whether you don't like the night in the game because you think it's too light or too dark. But I'd rather it be too light in the game because there aren't enough stars and deep space objects to give you the reality of what you would see at sea on a moonless night. Especially the Milky Way can reveal contacts. We have no Milky Way in the game.

So night is an unsolvable problem in SH4. Whatever it looks like it is very wrong. So why worry about it?

[clayp]

Ok guys its not the darkness or anything like that..When I look up from the water streight ahead of the boat or up to the sky it looks like everything is running and dripping down almost like lace curtains flowing in the breeze and different colors... Its almost like looking under water..The picture is just awful..It is superb during the day...

[Soundman]

Ok guys its not the darkness or anything like that..When I look up from the water streight ahead of the boat or up to the sky it looks like everything is running and dripping down almost like lace curtains flowing in the breeze and different colors... Its almost like looking under water..The picture is just awful..It is superb during the day...

Well Clay, that is odd. Not sure what may cause that one. The only thing I can suggest at this point would be to remove mods (if you are using them) by process of elimination to see if that is the problem.

[banjo]

Oh that. That's just Northern Lights. ; )

[Soundman]

Oh that. That's just Northern Lights. ; )

Damn Banjo, is that true or are you just xxxx'n me/us? I've never come accross that. Your just full of good tidbits today. :know:

[tomoose]

Clay;
I think you're referring to a "streaking" effect in the sky?? If so, I have that same problem, kinda like someone messed up with the paintbrush while painting the sky (and it does kind of "waver" ala the Northern Lights). I notice it sometimes depending on the time of day and the weather conditions. I believe it's just a combination of the graphics and the graphics card.

I'm using an AMD 64 3200, 2.5G RAM and Nvidia 7800 AGP.

In short, I don't believe there's a solution. If I remember I'll try to catch a screenshot and post to indicate what I'm talking about.

[Soundman]

I'm running an Nvidia GE Force 8600 and have not seen that. Do you guys have updated drivers? Maybe someone can chime in here, as this issue may have been disscussed in another thread.

[banjo]

Naw, just kidding. I've not seen what he described. I had severe streaking once but it was my video card dying.

[breadcatcher101]

I play stock and I see foo fighters at night--least that's what I call them. Blinking lights that travel much as a firefly would, fuzzy but very visible. Often very far off.

[clayp]

Clay;
I think you're referring to a "streaking" effect in the sky?? If so, I have that same problem, kinda like someone messed up with the paintbrush while painting the sky (and it does kind of "waver" ala the Northern Lights). I notice it sometimes depending on the time of day and the weather conditions. I believe it's just a combination of the graphics and the graphics card.

I'm using an AMD 64 3200, 2.5G RAM and Nvidia 7800 AGP.

In short, I don't believe there's a solution. If I remember I'll try to catch a screenshot and post to indicate what I'm talking about.

Thats exactly what I'm talking about sir....:up: Here is my system specs..

Core 2 Duo X6800 Extreame @3.37
EVGA nForce 680i MB
OCZ 2Gig 15-5-5-5 memory kit DDR2 OCZ2N1066SR2GK 2 x 2 gig kits
(4 gigs total)
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultra BFGE88768UE
Western Digital 160gig sata II 16mb
Creative X-Fi XtremeGamer SB0730VP
Cooler master CM Stacker 830 Silver
OCZ Gamer extreme PS 1010wat OCZ1010GXSSLI
Samsung Optical (DVD/CDRW)
Windows XP Pro 32bit SP2
SamSung SyncMaster 24" LCD@1920X1220
Couger Hotas
Cambridge4.1 speakers