Here's what I would like...

[Highbury]

I was in the Navy as well. The light off of a full moon is certainly impressive, you can read by it. It certainly makes it very easy to see ships, but being in peacetime they are all lit by law.. I never came across a convoy trying to slip past us under cover of darkness with all lights out.... have you?

[prowler3]

Originally Posted by Highbury

I was in the Navy as well. The light off of a full moon is certainly impressive, you can read by it. It certainly makes it very easy to see ships, but being in peacetime they are all lit by law.. I never came across a convoy trying to slip past us under cover of darkness with all lights out.... have you?

You presume that the only reason I saw ships, in the night, during my USN tour was because of their running lights. I was in the Red Sea and the Gulf when Khadaafi thought he was a bit (LOL!) more powerful than he really was. I can assert, again, that we could see small gunboats and various other ships...not just their running lights, but their outlines...enough to identify them. The important point to make is that I could SEE the outline of the ship...not just some running lights. The other point (or the same) is that, we ran "darkened ship" in some of the afformentioned areas, and we still could see the oilers or carriers we needed to refuel off of, from a very long way off...conditions permitting, of course. That's the caveat...conditions permitting. It seems with SH3 + GWX that we have no "conditions" other than pure black night...no matter what the REAL conditions are? When I run accross a convoy, in a full moon condition, I should be able to thank the Gods and hammer away at them! War is a combination of intent, planning...and just a bit of luck. I used to plan some of my attacks for nighttime...if a large moon was coming. I then discovered that SH3/GWX doesn't care about historic lunar cycles and GWX doesn't care about ambient light.

You want real...allow for ambient light conditions and lunar cycles. SH3 already does it for the Sun and season...why not the moon and sky? Trying to line up a merchie at night, when I can see a full moon above me but not see squat on the horizon...is not right. Sorry...but it ain't.
That, my friends, is REALITY.

I'm tired of the darkness for darkness's sake. It seems the "reality dogs" have taken over, not actually KNOWING reality, and demanded changes that have no bearing on truth. I can only hope that the next version of SH and GWX will recognize the simple truth...you CAN see ships against the horizon, in the middle of the night, if you have a clear sky. It's really that simple.

Vic

[difool2]

You know how to use your Gamma setting, right? I agree with you, which is why I turned the Gamma up to something reasonable.

Your #2 item reminded me of the in-game clock (the one on the wall of I think the captain's bunk)-I thought the grey bands reflected local sunrise and sunset, but they didn't, but they should.

[ETR3(SS)]

Prowler is right, you can make out a darkened ship at night if conditions permit. And not to hijack the thread but, Highbury you were in too? And Prowler? What did you guys do, aka rates?

[Highbury]

Originally Posted by prowler3

I'm tired of the darkness for darkness's sake. It seems the "reality dogs" have taken over, not actually KNOWING reality, and demanded changes that have no bearing on truth. I can only hope that the next version of SH and GWX will recognize the simple truth...you CAN see ships against the horizon, in the middle of the night, if you have a clear sky. It's really that simple.

I still don't even know what you mean by this. When did the developers lower the brightness based on "reality dogs" feedback? Turn up your brightness, contrast or both. I have no trouble visually seeing any ship that the game engine is rendering between my ship and the horizon.

You have some good points in the first post, I just don't get this one.

@ETR3, I wasn't in the USN. I was a PO2 NACOP (now called a SonarOp I believe) in the Canadian Navy.

[ETR3(SS)]

Originally Posted by Highbury

@ETR3, I wasn't in the USN. I was a PO2 NACOP (now called a SonarOp I believe) in the Canadian Navy.

Meh, still a fellow sailor, even if Canadian.

[B.N.R.T.]

Prowler, perhaps it was your monitor which screwed things up. When using GWX there was a real difference between open skies at night (i.e. stars and moon) where I could see my crew and overcast skies where I couldn't see a hand in front of my eyes.

Good point though, anyway.

[sharkbit]

I've heard (and recently experienced) that your video card might have something to do with the darkness of the nights.

My old rig had a ATI card and the nights were dark as a well digger's arse. I could make out shadows at longer ranges and then finally some details when the ships were close and I was ready to shoot. I tweeked brightness and contrast and it was workable.

My new rig has a NVIDIA card and the nights are a ton lighter. I can start making out details considerably earlier. Now it almost seems too bright at night.

[SteamWake]

Originally Posted by Highbury

I never came across a convoy trying to slip past us under cover of darkness with all lights out.... have you?

Well not a 'convoy' but it involved small fast boats painted very dark colors which were very very hard to see, even in moonlight.

Thats about all I can say

[MRV]

my graphics wishlist:

First let me say that I'm deeply impressed by the looks of the water and interior of the sub seen on the screenshots. Although the interior quality is not much difference to SH4...it is a huge improvement to have the whole sub with you and not only command center, bridge and radio room. ;-)

About the lighting: I really hope that this time SH takes advantage of all the visual technologies that provided defferent lighting effects in other games (reaching from ArmA's night all seen in blue-grey to the "eye adapting to darkness" effect in Far Cry 2) all this fits perfectly in a subsim!

The burning ships on the horizon we see on screenshots look pretty much the same like in SH4 (at this state of dev...). What I would visually wish for here would be fire adapting to the ship it is on (e.g. flames bursting out of windows) and explosions and fire creating a light source (remember that tanker in Das Boot) as well as depth charges flashing on detonation.

[prowler3]

I was a BT2...Boiler Technician...so that should date me pretty well .
What I was getting at is that all I've ever seen is calls for things to be darker, by others, and usually because of the false belief that this was "reality". I was left with the impression that the GWX team had darkened the environment...maybe I misread that.

The problem I have with adjusting the monitor is that, to make a difference, it seems to wash out the colors? I'm still playing with the new LCD but I have it set so that all my games and other stuff looks good...I hate to have to tweak a bunch for one program and then untweak after I'm done? It's an nVidia card so maybe a saved pre-set for SH is the answer.

[ETR3(SS)]

Originally Posted by prowler3

I was a BT2...Boiler Technician...so that should date me pretty well .
What I was getting at is that all I've ever seen is calls for things to be darker, by others, and usually because of the false belief that this was "reality". I was left with the impression that the GWX team had darkened the environment...maybe I misread that.

The problem I have with adjusting the monitor is that, to make a difference, it seems to wash out the colors? I'm still playing with the new LCD but I have it set so that all my games and other stuff looks good...I hate to have to tweak a bunch for one program and then untweak after I'm done? It's an nVidia card so maybe a saved pre-set for SH is the answer.

Nothing wrong with being an "old salt" even if ya are a skimmer. Glad to have ya here. I understand your issue with the gamma though too. I have the same problem with a few games not just SH4, but the result is always the same, the colors "fade" with the increased gamma.

[Hartmann]

Originally Posted by MRV

my graphics wishlist:

First let me say that I'm deeply impressed by the looks of the water and interior of the sub seen on the screenshots. Although the interior quality is not much difference to SH4...it is a huge improvement to have the whole sub with you and not only command center, bridge and radio room. ;-)

About the lighting: I really hope that this time SH takes advantage of all the visual technologies that provided defferent lighting effects in other games (reaching from ArmA's night all seen in blue-grey to the "eye adapting to darkness" effect in Far Cry 2) all this fits perfectly in a subsim!

The burning ships on the horizon we see on screenshots look pretty much the same like in SH4 (at this state of dev...). What I would visually wish for here would be fire adapting to the ship it is on (e.g. flames bursting out of windows) and explosions and fire creating a light source (remember that tanker in Das Boot) as well as depth charges flashing on detonation.

Yes , for example HDR is a very interesting thing, for example stay with red light at night inside, and when you go to the bridge the ambient could be very dark until the eyes adapts . or going out at daylight from the inside of the boat.

Also could be implemented realistic flooding and fire in compartments.