better, non-occluded rendering of runway light sprites

[twistking]

Hello,

i saw the new screenshots from the viggen red-flag-campaign and was really amazed by the graphics. I assume they are from an early 2.5 built, because the night lighting seems to be even a bit better than 2.2.

 

However, with the improved lighting one certain, longstanding issue, stood out more than before, namely the occluded rendering of runway lights.

Check this otherwise fantastic screenshot:

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/upload/iblock/660/Viggen-22.jpg

 

The sprite is rendered at the position of the physical light, but the lower half gets occluded by the ground.

This is an issue that is quite common also in other games/graphics engines, so maybe it is harder to fix, than i would imagine.

I wanted to bring this up though, because maybe it is just an oversight and indeed an easy fix, that would really improve night lighting even further!

Keep up the good work!

[Fri13]

The problem with sprites is that you need to choose a position of "stack" where it will show up between the point where it should be, and point where the camera is (the player view).

 

You can example fix that making it so that the ground can't obscure the sprite and you would see it in fully in that moment.

 

BUT, then you would as well see it anytime you are under the airfield terrain or there is a terrain between you and the runway (a hill).

 

There really ain't so easy thing to fix it, as you would need to simulate a light ray pattern to projected to camera direction, instead having a "disk" (sprite is just a 2D image).

[OttoPus]

Something in this direction ( no sims compare intended, of course! ) would be nice in the future

EFoOMaA5OgE

[Precog]

Wow.. that looks amazing. I agree with the OP... Night lighting could do with some attention.

[Fri13]

Something in this direction ( no sims compare intended, of course! )

 

But as you notice in the video, even there the sprites has the same problem, gets clipped by the terrain.

 

The fix could be that every light surrounding, lets say 5x5m area gets different terrain element, what then can be coded so that the sprite can be lit through it. That way no matter what angle you are, the sprite wouldn't cut, but neither would the sprite show through the terrain if you are behind mountain or so.

 

But to get that special square/circle area around each light pole is possible to be impossible.

[Torso]

+10000

 

I have made threads, added to existing like this..etc. The current ground lighting as well as just general physical lights effects/appearance needs a complete overhaul. That screenshot shows the terrible cotton ball halo lights they continue to use. They look even worse in VR and scale terribly in addition to their other issues.

 

I pray one day they will take a look and try to improve this. The 'other' sim example shown is light years(no pun intended) beyond DCS's night lighting. They(ED/DCS) need to add dithering as well, the terrible banding in the sky does not help at all either.

 

Sorry for rant, night lighting in DCS is my trigger. It makes night flying unusable for me presently and since I went to VR.

 

Imagine how amazing SoH's Dubai or even the current maps available cities like Vegas would look at night if they had 'current gen' lighting tech in the game. Heck even the new carriers and water craft/oil rigs..etc. would look amazing as well if employed.

Edited January 7, 2018 by Torso

[Mars Exulte]

Yeah, that Xplane video is nothing special. I noticed immediately the lead in lights ahead of the runway are running through front lawns and parking lots. Pretty sure that's not how that goes lol They're just like the DCS lights, just a lot more of them, being in a city and a major airport. I take that back, they seem have a lot more "glowy effect" around them, but functionally, they aren't that different.