reported External Lights Bloom

[fmedges]

External nav light bloom is back after the update today.

[VFA41_Lion]

Also the Hornet has a permanent red light on at night when viewed far back enough.

[Wizard_03]

Also the Hornet has a permanent red light on at night when viewed far back enough.

 

That’s another old bug too that’s back. :(

[Ziptie]

+1

 

Open Beta xxxxxxxxxxxxx949 (newest version released 11/18/2020)

 

 

Cheers,

 

Ziptie

[CoBlue]

It's back again after latest OB update.

[Andartu]

Yeah.. noticed the exaggerated glow again too. And the the glow also still clips through the wings. Also the -Position Lights Dimmer Control Knob- still has no function aside from ON or OFF. Just one "click" (mousewheel) from full OFF turns the position lights to full brightness.

[Ziptie]

It's never actually "left."  It seemed to have been dimmed a bit with on of the patches, but quickly was back to full bloom shortly after (see what I did there.....).

 

 

Cheers,

 

Ziptie

[BIGNEWY]

Lights are pretty bright in real life

[BIGNEWY]

Please add track replays, I am happy to take a look again. 

[Lithion]

I think this will bloom more when picked up by cameras on photos, though certain weather conditions (rain/fog/sand) should give the light something to 'bloom' against.

[Tholozor]

 

It's pretty close (DCS screenshot taken with the Formation knob at half of max). Main issue I see is the glow sprite that pops up on the position lights when the lights are on, they don't have any kind of variance to them, they are simply on or off, and clip through geometry. Track attached.

FA-18_EXT_LTS_test.trk

[BIGNEWY]

Clipping through the wings is already reported. 

 

But I am not seeing any issue with the lights themselves. I will ask other testers opinions. 

 

thanks

[Tholozor]

Interesting, what do the position lights look like for you with the knob just barely past the OFF position? Perhaps that's something that's been fixed internally.

Edited January 19, 2021 by Tholozor

[Andartu]

1 hour ago, Tholozor said:

 

 

It's pretty close (DCS screenshot taken with the Formation knob at half of max). Main issue I see is the glow sprite that pops up on the position lights when the lights are on, they don't have any kind of variance to them, they are simply on or off, and clip through geometry. Track attached.

Exactly what I said. Only thing is, nobody complained about the formation lights. Only the Position lights are the problem.

 

1 hour ago, BIGNEWY said:

Clipping through the wings is already reported. 

 

But I am not seeing any issue with the lights themselves. I will ask other testers opinions. 

 

thanks

The clipping through the wings is a thing since.. well.. ever. And what Tholozor said: What about the brightness regulation for the position lights? It works well for the formation lights and all internal lights though.

[Ziptie]

It's not what they look like up close, in my opinion.

 

 

It's when the aircraft is 10nm away and looks like the Griswald's house in Christmas Vacation.  Giant glowing orb.  That's all.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Ziptie

[Harker]

No one is arguing about the lights' actual brightness. The problem is the horrible, fake bloom effect. The lights are perfectly fine without the fake bloom and they even have a proper bloom effect if viewed from correct angles or directly straight. The fake bloom effect is present everywhere, it clips through stuff, it shows when the actual light source itself is not visible (and thus no bloom at all should be showing) and it's a shame, because it has no reason for existing. It should be a relatively easy fix, considering there are only things to remove (and maybe increase the illumination radius of the navigation lights).

Below some pics with clear weather (no fog or anything).

 

1. Hornet on the runway from max zoom out, nav lights knob is barely above zero.

2. Nav light bloom, with knob barely above zero. Very little actual light (correct), but full fake bloom. You can see the bloom clip through the wings and fuselage and see the bloom on the wingtips, although you can't see the wingtip lights.

 

3. Nav lights, with knob to full. The real bloom effect is actually there and working nicely, plus they illuminate around them quite well. No need for fake bloom.

4. Tail light bloom, with knob barely above zero. Visible bloom although you can't see the actual tail light.

5. Landing light fake bloom effect, clipping through the AOA indexer assembly. The light source itself is not visible (so bloom shouldn't exist) The landing light naturally blooms very nicely when viewed from the front, the fake bloom is not needed.

13 hours ago, BIGNEWY said:

Lights are pretty bright in real life

I agree, the actual brightness of the navigation lights is fine. If the fake bloom effects goes away, they could even stand to become brighter and have their illumination radius increased, so they can illuminate the world around them a little bit.

Edited January 20, 2021 by Harker

[Nealius]

On 1/19/2021 at 8:07 PM, BIGNEWY said:

Lights are pretty bright in real life

 

That picture is over-exposed, very slow shutter speed, possibly high ISO given the noise, and you also have to account for the camera lens itself causing the bloom. The human eye would not see the lights this way. 

 

If you want our experience to reflect what's in photographs, then give us blurred ground grew from moving while the shutter is still open too 

Edited January 21, 2021 by Nealius

[VFA41_Lion]

 

 

External nav lights definitely don't bloom that painfully in real life.
Nose gear landing light on the other hand, could use a tune up...

[Nealius]

That exposure looks about right, though my only first-hand reference is seeing airliner pos/landing lights 

[Lithion]

On 1/20/2021 at 1:45 AM, Harker said:

Visible bloom although you can't see the actual tail light.

+1 thanks for the thorough screenshotting, this is exactly what's wrong.

[Nealius]

"Correct as is."

 

Does ED do all their research off of bad photographs? Have their artists been to an airport at night at all? 

Edited January 24, 2021 by Nealius

[BIGNEWY]

There is some personal opinion in all of our comments. You may not like the bloom on the lights, others will. 

 

I will bring it up with the team again. 

[razo+r]

As someone who has seen Hornet at day and dry night, I can assure you, that the bloom is way too overdone.

 

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by razo+r

[Northstar98]

On 1/20/2021 at 12:45 AM, Harker said:

No one is arguing about the lights' actual brightness. The problem is the horrible, fake bloom effect. The lights are perfectly fine without the fake bloom and they even have a proper bloom effect if viewed from correct angles or directly straight. The fake bloom effect is present everywhere, it clips through stuff, it shows when the actual light source itself is not visible (and thus no bloom at all should be showing) and it's a shame, because it has no reason for existing. It should be a relatively easy fix, considering there are only things to remove (and maybe increase the illumination radius of the navigation lights).

Below some pics with clear weather (no fog or anything).

 

1. Hornet on the runway from max zoom out, nav lights knob is barely above zero.

2. Nav light bloom, with knob barely above zero. Very little actual light (correct), but full fake bloom. You can see the bloom clip through the wings and fuselage and see the bloom on the wingtips, although you can't see the wingtip lights.

 

3. Nav lights, with knob to full. The real bloom effect is actually there and working nicely, plus they illuminate around them quite well. No need for fake bloom.

4. Tail light bloom, with knob barely above zero. Visible bloom although you can't see the actual tail light.

5. Landing light fake bloom effect, clipping through the AOA indexer assembly. The light source itself is not visible (so bloom shouldn't exist) The landing light naturally blooms very nicely when viewed from the front, the fake bloom is not needed.

I agree, the actual brightness of the navigation lights is fine. If the fake bloom effects goes away, they could even stand to become brighter and have their illumination radius increased, so they can illuminate the world around them a little bit.

 

Absolutely all of this.

[Harker]

1 hour ago, BIGNEWY said:

There is some personal opinion in all of our comments. You may not like the bloom on the lights, others will. 

 

I will bring it up with the team again. 

Again, the main argument is about the fake bloom effect, not how much the lights actually bloom. It's 2021 and fake bloom orbs have no place here, especially since the engine can correctly produce a real bloom effect. The best way to deal with this is to remove the fake bloom completely, while slightly increasing the illumination radius and applying angular constraints (cones) for illumination. There are some examples among other modules, both from ED and third parties, that handle this much better than the Hornet does.