New Moon Sucks

[onelifecrisis]

Jim, I think this is yet another complaint about the OLCE2 moon and (lack of) moonlight/reflection. Nothing new.

[snwcrsh]

Haha, no it's not. I didn't even have a chance to notice it as I have seen no moon yet!

No Reflections!? OMG!! (just kidding, though. As I said, didn't know its not there. Probably I'll find the why and whines in the OLCE thread, have to read it up after I made fresh popcorn).

And kylania, I play with GWX2.1+OLCE2+OLCGUI1.2.6

Not with 100% realism though, there is some comfort I want to keep...

[onelifecrisis]

Oh, I get ya! Sorry, my mad. The title "new moon sucks" was a bit misleading... especially as so many others have complained about it.

[snwcrsh]

During my absence I missed that, too

but after you started that angle now, would it be too much to as for a quick explanation? realism? technical reasons?

don't worry, ill read the complete OLCE thread yet, I'll probably find the whole story there.

[onelifecrisis]

@snwcrsh
Alright, here's the explanation...

SH3 can't properly do moonlight. What I mean is there is no directional light source attached to the moon. Stock SH3 and GWX both use a sort of "fake moonlight" which I didn't use in OLCE2 because:
(a) The fake moonlight doesn't come from the moon, it comes from under the ocean i.e. everything is lit from underneath; the WO, for example, looks like someone is shining a light under his chin. IMO it looks bad.
(b) The fake moonlight is "always on" whether the moon is out or not. If you assume that the moon is not out 50% of the time and there is cloud cover 50% of the time then that leaves 25% of the time, overall, where the moon is visible. Then factor into the equation the fact that the brightness of a half-moon is only 10% of the brightness of a full moon, IRL, and you're left with roughly one in ten nights, on average, where the moon is out and not obscured by clouds and full enough to provide illumination. Since the fake moonlight in SH3 can only be "always on" or "always off" I opted to have it always off, so that OLCE2 has the correct light levels for 9 out of every 10 nights. On the other 1 out of 10 nights, admittedly, it looks wrong.

As for the reflection, SH3 can do a basic sort of moon reflection but it's nothing like a real moon reflection. It's done differently to the sun reflection. It's just a flat, round, mirror image of the moon (distorted a bit by the water surface). In stock (and GWX) this looks okay-ish but in OLCE2 it looks very bad because I've reduced the size of the moon to the size it is IRL, and also because my reflections work differently.

I should put this in post #1 of my thread, it gets asked quite frequently. :hmm:


@Jim
I'M PERMANENTLY ON DEFCON ZERO!

[snwcrsh]

Wow, thanks for the very comprehensive answer, OLC.

Ironically I just read all posts containing the word "moon" in the OLCE thread. But this answer is much better than the sum of what I found out there.

I never paid that much attention to the wrongness of the moonlight. Guess I just liked it because there just is not much else to see at night (except for burning ships :p).

Your points make total sense though and I'm quite positive that I will want to go without the reflections from now on (because, now that I know the *awful* truth, the romantic moonlight will never be the same again!)

I don't know if it's possible at all (I am not a modder at all, I only mess with files :>) but maybe someday someone can provide a more realistic moonlight reflection.

cheers,

[Anvart]

Originally Posted by onelifecrisis

...
SH3 can't properly do moonlight. What I mean is there is no directional light source attached to the moon. Stock SH3 and GWX both use a sort of "fake moonlight" which I didn't use in OLCE2 because...

Yes, I think, that GWX-team have not anything new ...
I still in the middle of 2006 have made something similar ... Has created direct light object (MoonLight), has attached it to Moon object, has adjusted position MoonLight object, has attached to it InteriorLight controller and has adjusted light (color) for night and day ... has published screenshots, but i did not publish mod on the same reasons which you have described ...

P.S.
... And it was not worse than in SH4 now ... :rotfl:

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by Anvart

Yes, I think, that GWX-team have not anything new ...
I still in the middle of 2006 have made something similar ... Has created direct light object (MoonLight), has attached it to Moon object, has adjusted position MoonLight object, has attached to it InteriorLight controller and has adjusted light (color) for night and day ... has published screenshots, but i did not publish mod on the same reasons which you have described ...

Great work! At least, much better than I could do. Shame you can't turn it on/off (e.g. when the moon is not there) but it's still impressive.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by onelifecrisis

Oh, I get ya! Sorry, my mad. The title "new moon sucks" was a bit misleading... especially as so many others have complained about it.

Okay, everyone relax, back to DEFCON 5

No!! Wait!! Did someone mention 'GWX'....back to DEFCON 1

[Brag]

What's a moon?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Brag

What's a moon?

[Brag]

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Oh you moonie-moonie

[codmander]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

:rotfl:

[danoh]

Originally Posted by onelifecrisis

The title "new moon sucks" was a bit misleading... especially as so many others have complained about it.

Actually it is not misleading at all. New Moon means no Moon, the start of the lunar month when the moon is between the Earth and the sun and is virtually invisible to the naked eye here on Earth. Since there is nothing to see the night view is quite boring.

Regardless of how poorly the game recreates moonlight, some of my favorite SHIII views are at night when the moon is up.