[Scooby_Doo]

I personally like 100 best.  Most of my stuff i think i put it at 120.  Maybe it's my lcd and/or video card and/or eyes.

[karajorma]

I thought the default value was something like 128...

That will teach me to make assumptions instead of looking at the code. It is indeed 128.

[Herra Tohtori]

Yeah, well, it is obvious that the default is 100% in the poll... the absolute value can be something else altogether, like 128 in this case.

So, 1% = 128/100 = 1.28

And for example, ambient factor value 18.3 would in fact be

18.3 / 1.28 = 14,296875 %


Ambient value of 100 would, correspondingly, be 78.128 %

There's a difference between relative value (in the poll) and absolute value (to be fed into program).

[WMCoolmon]

I think the entire question is silly and ambient light should be settable in FRED.

Having it as a CLI destroys the opportunity for varied lighting in missions.

Everyone is going to have their monitor settings set differently, it is the job of the video settings to make the image look uniform amongst players. The point of in-game light sources is to change the feeling of the mission.

Unless you're working from a standardized test that lets people set their monitor settings to a uniform level, the poll ends up being largely based on opinion and ignoring the real problem of differing monitor settings and monitor environments.

[Tolwyn]

I think the entire question is silly and ambient light should be settable in FRED.

Yes, it should

As a designer I would like to have full control over general appearance of the game

[Dark Hunter]

I like actually being able to see what I'm shooting at, so %120 for me. I actually played at a much higher level (%170) for a long time, but I have since stopped doing that, as I saw that it really looked terrible. 

[NGTM-1R]

I think the entire question is silly and ambient light should be settable in FRED.

As I observed before, if that happens I end up playing in the friggin' dark all the time.

[Tolwyn]

I do not think so or the WC community will linch me

They are always complaining, that pictures done with ambient factor 85 are too dark

[NGTM-1R]

Yes, but that's you. And then there's everyone else making a campaign or TC.

[taylor]

There's a difference between relative value (in the poll) and absolute value (to be fed into program)

Here is how it's calculated for OpenGL:

Code: [Select]

amb_user = (float)((Cmdline_ambient_factor * 2) - 255) / 255.0f;

// set the ambient light
GL_light_ambient[0] += amb_user;
GL_light_ambient[1] += amb_user;
GL_light_ambient[2] += amb_user;The default GL_light_ambient[] values being 0.8, 0.8, 0.8, unless it's set to something else by the mission.

So by that, an ambient factor setting of 127.5 will do nothing (ie, 100%).  A setting of anything below 127.5 will scale the ambient light level down.  A setting above 127.5 will scale the ambient light level up.

I think the entire question is silly and ambient light should be settable in FRED.

Having it as a CLI destroys the opportunity for varied lighting in missions.

Ambient light IS settable in FRED.  The cmdline option just sets the user perference as to the scale of that light.  And that should NOT be a FRED option, under any circumstances.

The user specified ambient factor is required to deal more appropriately with video card differences, monitor/environment settings, other cmdline options, models/maps in use, and general user preference.  You can't FRED around that stuff and it's just silly to think otherwise.

[ShivanSpS]

for me the best ambient_factor is 20, i agree about the space should be dark, but 18 is a little too much, some ships  are completly black, in 20 at least tou can see comething thanx to the lights that ships have

[Kaboodles]

I am currently playing at ambient_factor 0

[taylor]

Also remember that there is the -no_emissive_light cmdline option you can use if you want to make it really dark.  This option removes all base light, so a model will only show up where it has light applied to it.  Just be aware that this option can make a model 100% black if there isn't enough light shining on it.