[VR] Bugged light/exposure eye adaption

[-Sky-]

There is a bug that has been in DCS for a while, if you go to outside view and back in, it overexposes the light outside and you almost cant see anything out.

It shouldnt be happening when switching views, it especially happens between F10 map and back into cockpit view. happens in certain modules more than others.

The biggest issue with it is the time it takes until "eye adaption" sorts out the difference of light, that part is bugged, it stays on for 10-20 seconds full bright, then suddenly very quickly goes back to normal. I believe it can be very easily recreated if you try yourself, i'm using the Meta Quest 3 VR with the KA-50, it happens to me especially in Persian Gulf and Syria, don't know the times i believe it doesn't matter. The map might not matter too, happens to me in Caucasus.

Can this be looked at pleeeeeeaaaase

 

Thanks

[-Sky-]

btw i don't know if this problem is only for VR or not, if it is only for VR, might wanna move the thread to VR bugs

[Hariskut]

I have the same issue, and my friends who fly with me have also experienced it. In most cases, it's overexposure; the screen suddenly gets very bright and returns to normal after a while. But in a few cases, it's underexposure. For example, when I got into the JF17 cockpit yesterday, the screen was severely underexposed, and it took about half a minute to return to normal.
I'm using Pimax Crystal.

Edited June 27, 2024 by Hariskut

[Grodin]

Been an issue for as long as i can remember. Something to do with the auto exposure, everything being very dark for like 10 seconds when changing missions or views.

[broderbund67]

Auto exposure is so bad in VR, it often make the landscape washed out in some cockpits. I hope there would be an option to completely disable it.

[twistking]

14 hours ago, broderbund67 said:

Auto exposure is so bad in VR, it often make the landscape washed out in some cockpits. I hope there would be an option to completely disable it.

If you disabled auto exposure you could see nothing most of the time. Everything would be either much too dark or much too bright with only very specific situations in which light levels would be just right.

Edited February 27 by twistking

[GWdope]

10 hours ago, twistking said:

If you disabled auto exposure you could see nothing most of the time. Everything would be either much too dark or much too bright with only very specific situations in which light levels would be just right.

I don't think so, this feature was introduced in 2.8 and it looked fine before that. There really needs to be a way to turn this off or ED needs to tune it better. In VR headsets without QLED it looks terrible while flying at night.  

[draconus]

4 hours ago, GWdope said:

There really needs to be a way to turn this off

No, it works fine and is very needed function. Eyes also adapt IRL.

4 hours ago, GWdope said:

In VR headsets without QLED it looks terrible while flying at night.

You mean the color bands or what?

[broderbund67]

On 2/27/2025 at 1:35 PM, twistking said:

If you disabled auto exposure you could see nothing most of the time. Everything would be either much too dark or much too bright with only very specific situations in which light levels would be just right.

This was not present before, you didn't have this light change. You can actually see the landscape go from overexposed to normal when you use VR zoom and less of the cockpit fills the screen. When you fly planes with very dark cockpit it is even worse.

I think they are metering the light accross the whole screen and auto-adjusting the outside brightess but it is not working. It is also not realistic to the human eye dynamic range.

[twistking]

25 minutes ago, broderbund67 said:

This was not present before, you didn't have this light change. You can actually see the landscape go from overexposed to normal when you use VR zoom and less of the cockpit fills the screen. When you fly planes with very dark cockpit it is even worse.

I think they are metering the light accross the whole screen and auto-adjusting the outside brightess but it is not working. It is also not realistic to the human eye dynamic range.

I'm not saying that things did not change for the worse, but that there must have been auto-exposure before. The only alternative would have been manual exposure and i don't remember having to constantly press buttons to adjust lighting...

[GWdope]

On 2/28/2025 at 2:38 AM, draconus said:

No, it works fine and is very needed function. Eyes also adapt IRL.

You mean the color bands or what?

No, when, at night, it adjusts to bright lights like Strobes or a turned up HUD it lightens up the screen which washes out the blacks on VR headsets like a Quest3 which looks terrible and makes it hard to see. During daytime it looks fine and is helpful.  

[draconus]

16 hours ago, GWdope said:

No, when, at night, it adjusts to bright lights like Strobes or a turned up HUD it lightens up the screen which washes out the blacks on VR headsets like a Quest3 which looks terrible and makes it hard to see.

Just flew a night mission with Q3 - can't say I noticed anything like that. Can you show a screenshot or a short track of the effect?

Btw, I wish they implemented eye's sesitivity so after seeing a strobe you'd have to take a long time to see better in the dark.

[Victor3]

I have the same thing happen when transitioning from F10 back to the cockpit at night. The Apache is one of the worst. It's almost like there's a bright searchlight outside the windscreen. It's very disorienting if it happens while flying at low level. Next time it happens I'll grab a screenshot.