SF2E: How dark should night be?

[HockeyCoach]

Was playing around last night in Single missions with various aircraft. I was experimenting with various time of day settings and noticed that night was not really very dark at all. I tried "dawn" and it didn't look much different from high noon. Is there a setting I need to tweak for this? I'm thinking something is not quite right.

[stingray77]

In my SF2V I experienced same... All relatively "un-dark" - but that way you can still see/watch your plane externally at night, though (maybe THAT was the rationale behind it).

 

When selecting a mission at dusk, you can well see the light fade away; the mission just starts before sunset...

[+elephant]

Try the SF1 downloads section.

There are there some environmental mods that will change your game a lot and they work fine with SF2.

Find what suits you best.

[jomni]

you want pitch black?

well I agree that it needs to be darker.

[Spinners]

I'm thinking something is not quite right.

 

What, as in it's broke?

 

I think it's a bit of 'artistic licence' to preserve gameplay. Personally I think it's fine as it is and I certainly wouldn't want it to be pitch black.

 

If you want it darker the only way I can think of doing it would be to create some dimmer moon tga's or just copy the smaller 'crescent' moons and overwrite the larger 'half' and 'full' moons.

 

Good luck with that.

[xclusiv8]

Would it not be impossible to dogfight at night. Modern jet pilots have nightvision but we dont have that ingame.

[+ST0RM]

In the early days of SFP1, the night was too dark and TK was asked to lighten it a bit. You couldn't see any terrain or much of anything else for bombing, etc. The current is a decent compromise, IMO.

 

-S

[+EricJ]

And as pointed out, no NVG capability coded so it's at best a compromise.

[Squiffy]

But there is a lot of flexibility in the environmental settings. Back up your original files and head off to the KB to see what you can do. Some of it boils down to rendering style too, as you can see in the landing lights and so forth. I haven't flown much at night but I'm looking forward to it in the 117 and 15E. You can color the air with the inclement effect too. Try horizon fade, and start clear setting also. Probably works in other weather settings. There's more to read in the KB.

[jomni]

The F-117 had an interesting night vision workaround by using forward pointing TV camera.

But it's still awkward looking at the small screen.

[luckyluca]

I feel night lighting is way too bright too (I'm on SF2x merged).

 

Did you find any interesting mod / settings to use?

 

I had a quick look at the SFP1 download section unsuccessfully :(

 

Thanks

Luca

[SFP1Ace]

I recall that in SF1 series fiddling with Skycolor and/or Ambientcolor, Horizoncolor, Fogcolor values in environmentsystem.ini would usally do the trick.

 

[Night]

SunHeight=-0.170

SunBrightness=0.00

SunLightLevel=0.00

SunRadiance=0.0

TwilightLensFlare=0.0

//SunColor=0.0000,0.000,0.000

//AmbientColor=0.100,0.080,0.120

//SkyColor=0.062,0.080,0.164

//HorizonColor=0.120,0.140,0.238

//FogColor=0.024,0.016,0.062

//SunSpecularColor=0.0000,0.000,0.000

SunColor=1.0,1.0,1.0

AmbientColor=0.167,0.171,0.240 <----- Try adjusting these values

SkyColor=0.051,0.058,0.102 <-----

HorizonColor=0.106,0.122,0.155 <-----

FogColor=0.106,0.122,0.155 <-----

SunSpecularColor=0.000,0.000,0.000

HDRSunColor=0.0000,0.000,0.000

LightSrcModifier=4.0

[+Dave]

Well after messing around with the ini settings, this is me in my F-15E dive bombing a target at 0100 hrs over Europe......

 

 

 

 

 

[SFP1Ace]

Dave, turn your cockpit lighting on, dammit!

[+Dave]

Dave, turn your cockpit lighting on, dammit!

 

it is on!!!

[+Wrench]

well, then open your eyes! We can't see anything!!!

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+MigBuster]

[+Dave]

well, then open your eyes! We can't see anything!!!

 

wrench

kevin stein

 

 

AH s**t, I knew it was something simpler.

 

[Lexx_Luthor]

haha Dave. But, that's what it really looks like, sometimes. Now if you lose instrument lights....too bad we can't set instrument failure probability in this game. Su-27 FLAKER 1.0 from 1995 offered a long list of mech and electronic failure, but not guages if I recall (HUD failure, yes). That added a new dimension to the game.

 

----

 

Coach, you can do much stuff with the file Environmentsystem.ini. Czech out the Thudwire thread below for an introduction to some of the settings in Enviro. This is the first thing I looked into when I got The StrikeFighters years back (2005 lol )...and its for early SF1 but some things are still the same. Don't bump that thread though...its really old stuff.

 

 

Tips for sunset/twilight Environment settings ~> http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=1447

[luckyluca]

probably somewhere in between dave :)

 

L

 

p.s.

I've dropped a suggestion in the thirdwire forums to add a cockpit lights key but it seems TK doesn't feel the need for it.. I just thought it would be a small step forward torwards realism ;-)

[+Wrench]

have you tried typing in

 

idbeholdl

 

and see if that worked??

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+Fubar512]

Night, with moonlight:

 

Night.wmv

 

Moonless nights under the settings I'm using are positively Stygian.

[+PureBlue]

Fubar, that looks pretty good to me.

Could you share your enviro settings please?

[+Fubar512]

Fubar, that looks pretty good to me.

Could you share your enviro settings please?

 

[Night]

SunHeight=-0.170

SunBrightness=0.00

SunLightLevel=0.0

SunRadiance=0.0

TwilightLensFlare=0.0

SunColor=0.0,0.0,0.0

AmbientColor=0.00936,0.00702,0.02379

SkyColor=0.00936,0.00702,0.02379

HorizonColor=0.106,0.122,0.155

FogColor=0.106,0.122,0.155

SunSpecularColor=0.000,0.000,0.000

HDRSunColor=0.0000,0.000,0.000

LightSrcModifier=4.0

[+FastCargo]

I challenge you to fly through the ANW with these settings at TF altitudes.

 

 

FC