The curious case of DCS lighting - and the need for helmet visors.

[Dragon1-1]

FYI, it's very much possible to get eye fatigue (which manifests as "sore eyes") from looking at a virtual sun, particularly in VR, but also with a screen. Generally, when things are hard to see, the brain makes an effort to make things out regardless. Doing that for long enough can cause various symptoms, such as sore eyes or a headache. I could go on as to why it's like this, but I think most people will understand that the easier it is to make out details in the image (which a visor would help with), the less exhausting it is to look at.

And yes, I have a master's in biophysics, just in case anyone wonders.

EDIT: Since the jerk seems to have had his post removed, I amended this post to make it clear I wasn't being mean to the person now above me for no reason.

Edited December 19, 2024 by Dragon1-1

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

On 12/19/2024 at 5:42 PM, ShuRugal said:

The problem with an out-of-game solution is that it's using a sledgehammer to kill a hornet.  The limitations of using an out-of-game solution include:

1. "one size fits all" limitations. 
   1. If I am flying during the day and need the filter on, and then fly a mission at night, i must leave the game to change the filter settings.
   2. If i am flying a dawn or dusk mission, i might need the filter when facing one way, then not need it when facing another.  i sure as hell am not restarting the mission or alt-tabbing every time i TURN
2. While i may be technically competent to set something like this up, many, i would even say most, users are not.  "just write yourself a custom middelware to apply a LUT filter!" is a ridiculous suggestion, even ignoring point 1.
3. Future updates will likely break my external solution, requiring me to re-tune or even reconfigure it entirely with any update that touch game lighting
4. ED themselves have strongly advised against using the tools which can provide such external filtering.  there are known performance issues that they cause in DCS.

 

"crude and unsustainable" is the phrase i would use to describe "use an external software to do it".  ED adding a "toggle pilot helmet sun filter" function is the opposite of crude and unsustainable. 

As far as the folks suggesting "just wear sunglasses under your VR headset" - that is an absolutely absurd idea.  My regular glasses barely fit in my VR headset as it is, i certainly cannot add sunglasses in there as well.  Even if i could, this suggestion has the same "one size fits all" problems as applying an external software filter, with the added problem of "take my VR headset off every time the lighting conditions change".

This is exactly what I was getting at as well, when I said it would have to be something that's bindable to DCS to a quick toggle on your HOTAS- or it's useless for all of the reasons you describe.
Aka the most elegant solution is for ED *and* 3rd parties (looking at you, Heatblur) to implement a sun visor into their modules - and preferably available at launch.