[Bobboau]

ok, there have been a lot of people talking back and forth about this, so I just wanted to know what the majority of people wanted, ambient light set to the normal FS2 level or turned completely off by defalt,

there is a comand line for changeing it, but I want to find out how to inconveinience the smallest number of people posable

[kasperl]

FS2 default, everything should look and feel like normal FS2, remember?

and you might want to make a FRED multiplier, if it isn't already there..

[Bobboau]

yes well it looks better if you turn it off

[TopAce]

Turn it off by default. Faster, more stable.
More stable?

[Setekh]

It depends on our earlier approach: leave FS2 vanilla untouched and offer an enhanced version, or abandon FS2 vanilla and go all out. If possible I'd go for the first, but it is more work. We have to answer this question before we answer the one above, I think.

[ryuune75]

Originally posted by Bobboau
ok, there have been a lot of people talking back and forth about this, so I just wanted to know what the majority of people wanted, ambient light set to the normal FS2 level or turned completely off by defalt,

there is a comand line for changeing it, but I want to find out how to inconveinience the smallest number of people posable

Well, can you (or someone) show how it looks like with ambient light turned off? I never bothered changing this, so i don't really know how it looks like, and maybe i'm not the only one.

[Nico]

Originally posted by kasperl
FS2 default, everything should look and feel like normal FS2,

Ah, we want it to look outdated?

Off, off, off.
Or put a slider in the options, something like the brightness slider, but for ambiant light.

[Setekh]

Something like this.



Without glowmaps and environment mapping, a lot darker.

[kasperl]

Originally posted by Nico


Ah, we want it to look outdated?

Off, off, off.
Or put a slider in the options, something like the brightness slider, but for ambiant light.

uhm, Nico, the official SCP rule is simple: don't change what ain't broke, and every option that somewhat makes the standard campaign look or act different, optional with default of.

not my decision btw.

[Setekh]

Originally posted by Nico
Or put a slider in the options, something like the brightness slider, but for ambiant light.

Ideally, though, I think it should be decided per mission. Some systems have less lighting, it should be darker. Some systems have binaries, they should be brighter, etc. But it is a buttload of more work.

[kasperl]

FRED multiplier plus command line/slider.

that seems to be what everybody wants, really.

[Fineus]

Should the FRED per-mission multiplier override the command line/slider option? It's not much good putting a slider inthere if the mission overrides it and specifies a different level - or visa versa - since you'd think you're getting something that you're not.

I'm actaully all for abandoning the original FS2 as far as settings go. It's easier for people to see the work done if - out of the box - the SC modifications work as soon as you run the EXE. No fussing around with command lines and such, just fire up and forget.

[Taristin]

Off.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Setekh
Something like this.



Without glowmaps and environment mapping, a lot darker.

Except that the subobject shading is completely FUBAR-ed, so any large subobjects look awful under non-ambient lighting...........

[Grug]

I'm not sure about off, but certainly having it tuned down a bit wouldn't hurt?

[ryuune75]

Originally posted by Setekh
Without glowmaps and environment mapping, a lot darker.

mmm, maybe it's me but i don't see how this could be better than the standard lighting, it's just darker and more difficult to see.
I tryed myself using a lower ambient light setting and everything just looked darker, not better.

I don't still get the point of all this. Is this only about having nicer glowmaps?

[ChronoReverse]

Originally posted by kasperl


uhm, Nico, the official SCP rule is simple: don't change what ain't broke, and every option that somewhat makes the standard campaign look or act different, optional with default of.

not my decision btw.

It's only changes cannot make the standard campaign play differently or unplayable.

Otherwise every single change made cannot be used since they make the campaign look different.



Having played through the main campaign twice and Derelict once with ambient lighting off, I vote for "off".

The darkness takes a little getting used to, but you can't always see what's going on since specular is on.




Actually, I'd prefer the default to be "low" ambient light.  This way people who aren't used to it can still see the outlines.

[Flipside]

I would say standard by default.

This really needs to be set on a per mission basis, good lighting can make just about everything look better I get that problem with Subsystems too.

[ChronoReverse]

It would indeed be much better if it could be adjusted per mission.  Any mission located near a large celestial body such as a planet would give a lot more ambient light than if you were simply in space.

[CP5670]

There is a setting called Ambient Light Level that has been in the mission files since the original 1.2, but I don't think it does anything at the moment and there are no freds that let you edit it directly. Is this the mission setting you people are talking about?

Anyway, the best solution is obviously to include both command line and mission-based settings, since that would satisfy everyone. I personally would like something between the two extremes though (I thought the original setting was too bright and the newer one was too dark). The only question is whether to make them absolute numbers and/or multipliers on existing values.