Night lighting

[John1966]

Bit puzzled by this (new to me) feature.

Actual night (with the artificial brightness) seems darker than it used to be (I've been away). Is that right or my imagination?

So you sort of have to use the artificial brightness (when it didn't seem a problem before). Turn it on and you get a very pleasant "moonlight" effect that looks pretty cool. Still seems night but you can see enough and it's atmospheric.

Then after a few turns, it suddenly lurches into a sort of 'orrible artificial day that looks nothing like night at all. Easy to forget it's night, in fact.

And you can't get it back as it was. Turn off the brightness and it's pitch black. Turn it back on and your back to the artificial looking light. Can't get the moonlight back.

Is this all deliberate? Am I missing something?

[BornGinger]

The worst thing is that your pixeltruppen aren't able to see even a tank which is a few meters away and suddenly appears in front of them. Although a dark night can be really dark, the moon and other sources of light cause it to still be quite easy to see what is around you. The only time I experienced a darkness which prevented me from seeimg my hand right in front of me was in a bedroom with really good blinds which blocked any light from coming in. I have never experienced that kind of darkness on the country side in any country I've visited.

[Combatintman]

34 minutes ago, BornGinger said:

The worst thing is that your pixeltruppen aren't able to see even a tank which is a few meters away and suddenly appears in front of them. Although a dark night can be really dark, the moon and other sources of light cause it to still be quite easy to see what is around you. The only time I experienced a darkness which prevented me from seeimg my hand right in front of me was in a bedroom with really good blinds which blocked any light from coming in. I have never experienced that kind of darkness on the country side in any country I've visited.

I've seen it in the Middle East - me and my mate walked around the same berm about five times, pausing to get our bearings when lightning flashed during 1991 unpleasantness with Iraq.  It took us at least half an hour to get from where we came from to the correct berm not more than 200m away.

[akd]

2 hours ago, BornGinger said:

The worst thing is that your pixeltruppen aren't able to see even a tank which is a few meters away and suddenly appears in front of them. Although a dark night can be really dark, the moon and other sources of light cause it to still be quite easy to see what is around you. The only time I experienced a darkness which prevented me from seeimg my hand right in front of me was in a bedroom with really good blinds which blocked any light from coming in. I have never experienced that kind of darkness on the country side in any country I've visited.

No moon, overcast night without city lights reflecting off cloud layer.  Pretty damn dark.

[Splinty]

1 hour ago, Combatintman said:

I've seen it in the Middle East - me and my mate walked around the same berm about five times, pausing to get our bearings when lightning flashed during 1991 unpleasantness with Iraq.  It took us at least half an hour to get from where we came from to the correct berm not more than 200m away.

I've had a similar experience. During the first night of the 91 ground war it was pouring rain on a moonless night, even with the night vision devices we had it was pitch black. The only light we had was the flashes of our own artillery as they did fire missions off and on all through the night.

[Erwin]

3 hours ago, BornGinger said:

The worst thing is that your pixeltruppen aren't able to see even a tank which is a few meters away and suddenly appears in front of them.

Obviously, one should be able to hear the tank.  This is the problem with ambushes when the inf unit is on the other side of a wall from a tank and the inf won't react to anything it can't see regardless of noise.

[MikeyD]

The degree of night darkness in the game has to do with two factor, one having to do with the game and one having to do with your setup.

1) A dark moonless overcast night is very much darker than a night with a full moon overhead. You can literally use a lunar calendar (for the relevant year) to track which are bright nights and which are dark nights. I've done testing on brightness at night. On a full moon night tanks are exchanging fire from across the map, on a moonless night in bad weather they couldn't see each other 80m away.

2) I struggled with night fighting and it turned out to be my monitor  brightness setting. I was unable to see stuff other players had no problem seeing, Turn up the brightness a touch - I can see map details!

[Howler]

1 hour ago, Erwin said:

Obviously, one should be able to hear the tank.  This is the problem with ambushes when the inf unit is on the other side of a wall from a tank and the inf won't react to anything it can't see regardless of noise.

Yes, then we'd complain that they spring an ambush without a solid target. Friendly fire much?

[John1966]

But why does the lighting effect change a few turns after turning it on? It's a very sudden and definite thing.

[MikeyD]

If its near dusk or dawn the artificial bright night kicks in (or turn off) at a certain point. So the game sees the time as DUSK... DUSK... NIGHT! and the bright night is turned on.

[John1966]

This is where it's already pretty dark and theoretically getting darker. About 10pm in the summer. I thought it might be to do with the time though.

[iMolestCats]

We would have ops be canceled for not enough lum but you're right when the lum is good you can see fairly easily.

[Bulletpoint]

On 9/5/2020 at 8:10 PM, John1966 said:

This is where it's already pretty dark and theoretically getting darker. About 10pm in the summer. I thought it might be to do with the time though.

It's because the game only engages the artificial lighting once the sun goes down. Even if you have it toggled on before then.

[John1966]

5 hours ago, Bulletpoint said:

It's because the game only engages the artificial lighting once the sun goes down. Even if you have it toggled on before then.

But it was dark at the start of the scenario. I get that it doesn't work until it's dark. Just puzzled why it gets very bright after about three turns.

[Bulletpoint]

25 minutes ago, John1966 said:

But it was dark at the start of the scenario. I get that it doesn't work until it's dark. Just puzzled why it gets very bright after about three turns.

I guess it was just dusk at the start of the scenario. So darker than in daytime, but not dark enough that the night mode kicks in. Then after some turns, it gets dark enough, and the night mode toggles on, making everything very bright.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Bulletpoint

[MikeyD]

I recall back in CMSF1 days I was putting together a dusk scenario. As the game progressed it would get darker and darker, then it suddenly got brighter again! I was perplexed by this until someone pointed out I had inadvertently timed the scenario to correspond with moonrise. Yes, the moon cresting the hills just after sunset made the map brighter again.

[John1966]

2 hours ago, MikeyD said:

I recall back in CMSF1 days I was putting together a dusk scenario. As the game progressed it would get darker and darker, then it suddenly got brighter again! I was perplexed by this until someone pointed out I had inadvertently timed the scenario to correspond with moonrise. Yes, the moon cresting the hills just after sunset made the map brighter again.

Blimey. Not sure it's that I'm seeing. Not unless moonrise happens quicker than I think.