City Lights Mod

[Blooze]

Greetings,

I have created a mod that IMO makes the city lights look more realistic and I would like some opinions. Is it just me that thinks the default settings are too bright and too yellow? It has always seemed unrealistic to see bright city lights at dusk and dawn as well. Before and after screens attached.

Click HERE for JSGME folder. It is necessary to see this in flight to see the full effect.

 

 

Edited May 2, 2015 by Blooze

[rrohde]

Looking good! I agree with the default being a tad too yellow -- your mod seems to improve that.

[flanker1]

looking very good, nice improvement!

[txmtb]

:thumbup: Looks nice!

[Boss86005]

Nice work.

[golani79]

I think it depends on where the City / Village / etc. is located and on the density of the buildings.

I definitely know of Cities or Villages which are using such yellow lights - so they exist.

 

Personally I think your mod is a bit too dark and white looking.

 

For example Tbilisi and Batumi

http://www.city-photos.org/_photo/3247244.jpg

 

http://www.batumi.ge/en/images/poster6.jpg

[NeilWillis]

Excellent stuff.

[Blooze]

I think it depends on where the City / Village / etc. is located and on the density of the buildings.

I definitely know of Cities or Villages which are using such yellow lights - so they exist.

 

Personally I think your mod is a bit too dark and white looking.

 

For example Tbilisi and Batumi

http://www.city-photos.org/_photo/3247244.jpg

 

http://www.batumi.ge/en/images/poster6.jpg

 

Thanks for your comments and I agree that I may have gone too far. I may make another attempt in the near future. Hopefully EDGE will arrive soon and we can move on to new lighting for everything.

[shagrat]

If you fly over populated areas with road lanterns that have an orange/yellow tint or a lot of room lights show through the windows it is quite yellowish...

Also a lot of advertisements, building extoriors lighted, traffic lights show a lot of color 'dots'

Overall it pretty much looks more colorful than one might expect.

 

Yet I like the comcept of the mod. The lights look much smoother and less 'in your face' so if you tweak a bit you might get a pretty decent result.

Some may prefer the white/dim version anyway.

I personally consider any effort to enhance the current environment until EDGE a positive and useful thing. So thanks for the work and keep at it.

[Falcon_S]

...

Personally I think your mod is a bit too dark and white looking...

 

Agree. Too little light.

[Gorilla]

Wow Blooze. This looks really, really nice.

Thank you sir for sharing.

[Fri13]

Basic lighting rules:

No matter of distance the subject looks lighted with same power.

 

It's the inverse square law.

 

Color temperature is warmish orange to yellow or has a green tint on street lights.

Street lights usually are yellow as it sharpen the objects by making them more contrasty and in homes it makes home feel warm instead cold. Like sunlight or fireplace.

 

Human eye sees light as white when in it, but far it can be noticed to be warmer/greener.

Especially if the different color temperatures are mixed together side by side.

[Blooze]

I had considered tweaking the mod based on feedback but then realized that regardless of what I did there would be some that approved and some that didn't. There are other obvious variables like different video cards, monitors and settings that always affects how each one sees this stuff as well. I will leave it as is and hope that it will be of some value. There is really no way to evaluate it fully from the screens and really needs to be seen in flight. Thanks for the comments.

Cheers

[rcjonessnp175]

Great job! With dcs 2.0 I'll probably be flying only at night as the improved lighting and shaders will be epic.

[JayPee]

Blooze, could you give me quick run down on which parameters set the general colour of the lights and which ones set the intensity.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I think i've already figured out how it works.

Edited February 3, 2015 by JayPee

[Blooze]

Blooze, could you give me quick run down on which parameters set the general colour of the lights and which ones set the intensity.

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I think i've already figured out how it works.

 

I have been using Photoshop to tweak the dds image files. If you have found a way to accomplish the same task by changing lua files I would appreciate knowing that. It's probably a much easier way to accomplish the same results.

[kazereal]

Instead of applying "white light" consider way to increase brightness of lit areas.

 

The color of surface after light is reflected from it would be more important than just the tone of light itself (which is often more yellowish than pure white).

 

Also considering lighting on surfaces like snow as well, just changing the color of light to white would not improve realism. Moon light should appears bluish while fires and such have much more yellowish tone.

[aaron886]

I think it depends on where the City / Village / etc. is located and on the density of the buildings.

I definitely know of Cities or Villages which are using such yellow lights - so they exist.

 

Personally I think your mod is a bit too dark and white looking.

 

For example Tbilisi and Batumi

http://www.city-photos.org/_photo/3247244.jpg

 

http://www.batumi.ge/en/images/poster6.jpg

 

Camera. Long exposure. Almost no night pictures are really admissible as evidence in this case. Points made regarding regional light colors are valid, however. In any case, only the densest lighting tends to throw noticeable areas of light and dark on the ground... In my experience, usually what you see from the air is just the light itself.

[SDsc0rch]

yeah, if you've ever flown on an airline, "mostly" all you see are the lights themselves

 

there are areas where large swaths of the surface are illuminated though..

[golani79]

Yeah, you are right and I´m well aware that those are long time exposure shots but I´ve posted them more because of the color and not the brightness.

 

Regarding the brightness I think that villages and other smaller places would be rather dark and that you would mostly see "lonely" spots of light - but in cities there are usually many many lights and places really lit up. I´m pretty sure that you would see those from the air as well.

 

Despite of exposure time here you can see a rather good example - darker places with a few spots of light and well lit areas like the main road.

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/62/5e/c5/night-time-view-of-village.jpg

 

Overall it depends on the place itself.

Edited February 5, 2015 by golani79

[shagrat]

The difficulty is, no photo will correctly capture what you see with your eyes.

It all boils down to "experience" and good visual memory. On approach, 300ft above ground you see the reflected light quite well. At 10k ft you only see spots of light sources like a spiderweb where cities are... the color tends to be more yellowish than white.

But to say how yellow or give a photo and say "it looks like this" doesn't really help.

[golani79]

But to say how yellow or give a photo and say "it looks like this" doesn't really help.

 

The pictures should just be taken as an example / reference and not as "This is how it looks!" ... :doh:

Edited February 5, 2015 by golani79

[shagrat]

Yep, exactly... as I said it is very difficult. No offense meant...

[Blooze]

If DCS World had vehicular traffic modeled with lights on at night in the quantity equivalent to what exists in reality, it would more accurately depict a difference between large urban areas and small towns and have a significant impact overall. But then, if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle. As far as realism is concerned, until EDGE is released this is like trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Edited February 5, 2015 by Blooze

[JayPee]

until EDGE is released this is like trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Appreciate the attempt!

 

Would you mind sharing the PS files with the layers in it so others can easily modify it to their own taste, instead of starting from scratch?