How do I make night time really dark?

[samtheeagle]

I've searched and searched and searched, but to no avail. Maybe I'm just using the wrong search terms?

 

Anyway, I've experimented and found some likely looking settings in the ENVIRONMENTSYSTEM.INI file... I've tried lowering the [Night] values, and it does seem to have made things darker, but it certainly isn't pitch black by any means.

 

Is it possible to make night time totally dark or am I on a hopeless quest here?

 

Maybe it's the moonlight lighting things up? Is that modelled? Perhaps I should try making it overcast and fly below the cloud level... Hmmmm.

 

Cheers.

[Lexx_Luthor]

You can get total blackness with 0,0,0 sky colour.

 

However, are you using a LCD monitor or something like that?

[samtheeagle]

Hmmm, I already tried 0,0,0 on several colour values in the night section, but it didn't give total blackness... I guess I screwed something up?

 

And yes, I am using a TFT screen.

 

I've done some more googling, and it seems that there is a section in the ini for the moon, and one of the values suggests that it does emit light, so I'll try dropping that down some. At the moment I can see everything perfectly well even in the dead of night. I much prefer the EECH kind of approach, where night == pitch black. Much more of a challenge and immersive (granted that offers night vision) :D

 

Thanks for your reply btw...

Edited May 16, 2008 by samtheeagle

[MAKO69]

Try inclement weather at night, that brings visibility down to nil.

[csb]

Have you tried the AmbientColor in the night paragraph.

 

I think that is where objects & terrain get there light source from....I think.

[MAKO69]

good idea

Have you tried the AmbientColor in the night paragraph.

 

I think that is where objects & terrain get there light source from....I think.

[samtheeagle]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys : ) I think I've got it about as dark as it's going to go now! It's certainly dark enough that I've come close to stuffing it into the dirt a few times : p

 

To do this I extracted the ENVIRONMENTSYSTEM.INI from the FlightData.cat, and made changes to the following sections:

 

[Night]

SunHeight=-0.170

SunBrightness=0.00

SunLightLevel=0.00

SunRadiance=0.0

TwilightLensFlare=0.0

SunColor=0.0000,0.000,0.000

AmbientColor=0.04,0.03,0.05

SkyColor=0.01,0.01,0.01

HorizonColor=0.0,0.0,0.0

FogColor=0.0,0.0,0.0

SunSpecularColor=0.0000,0.000,0.000

 

[Moon]

MoonMaterial=MoonMaterial

MoonSize=13.0

MoonMaxLightLevel=0.0

MoonLightColor=0.980,0.933,0.478

OvercastAmbientModifier=1.0

OvercastDirectModifier=0.8

MoonTextureFormat=Moon%03d.tga

NumMoonPhase=29

NewMoonDate=09/22/1968

 

I believe it was zeroing out the MoonMaxLightLevel value that really made things get dark : ) It is still possible to see the ground with these settings, but it's rather murky on the other side of the canopy now...