Lighting in tunnels in 1.40

[AlexBr967]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this. In the latest 1.40 update, a change was made to how lighting works in tunnels. Before 1.40 tunnels were lit by the artificial lights all day. After 1.40, tunnels are only lit by artificial lights during the night. During the day, the tunnels are always lit by the sunlight even if the tunnel is very long or has sharp turns. Personally, I think this is unrealistic and that it should be that longer tunnels are lit by artificial lights after a certain distance so it doesn't look like the tunnel is being lit by nothing. I would like to know people's thoughts on this and whether this was an oversight, an impossibility due to the game engine or intentional?

edit: here is a screenshot of the issue taken in a modded tunnel but the issue is consistent in SCS tunnels
https://ibb.co/GQHnfrh

[parasaurolophus67]

SCS is aware of the problems on tunnels. They will fix them in future updates

[AlexBr967]

Okay, thank you for the insight. I did not know this. Glad it is being fixed

[Some newbie driver]

Just to be clear. It's NOT a "fix", it's not a bug, it's not something broken or faulty in the code that it's going to be solved in a minor update.

Current lights in tunnels is working as always has worked: Wrong because it was an illusion create to try to mimic lights in tunnels. It happens that this illusion trick served when all the lighting system was pretty basic. Now that most parts of the lighting system had been vastly improved, the parts that still had not been touched are more noticeably wrong. Among them, the part that it's responsible the tunnels look like they do (among other things).

What I mean with that is the change they had to do in the code is BIG, it's another mileage like 1.40 was, or DX11, or FMOD... It's not something that going to happen soon. Specially considering that, as the overall lighting is way better than before, now there are lots of other more urgent things to improve than to finish that part. When one has lights on an 8 level (to say somewhat) and other things (included graphic things) on a 3 or 4 level... one don't loose time changing again the lights to take them to 8,5 because the overall sensation will still be bad due the things that are in really bad shape.

Regards

[Pengu]

Just my 2 cents to the new light system:

I can't see any outstanding improvement with that new system, quite the opposite.

For example: It's right, that so far the truck's flare were too bright during daylight, but with 1.40 I can't even see light flares on cars in front of me when I use headlight flasher 30 meters behind during daylight! That's really stupid!

And that traffic lights slightly fade in and out is very far from realism since almost all traffic lights meanwhile are LED equipped!

Anyway, that is why I still drive with 1.39. And as long as that won't change, I stay on 1.39, even if I therefore unfortunately have to do without Iberia.

Pengu

[plykkegaard]

Just to be clear. It's NOT a "fix", it's not a bug, it's not something broken or faulty in the code that it's going to be solved in a minor update.

Bottom line: Ligting in tunnels appears really bad and broken in some places other places you have lamps / lights which appear switched on, this bearable

Compared to Real World scenarios
Are misplaced or missing signage a problem?
Are grass on the road surface a problem?
Are missing lights in tunnels a problem?

[EDIT] in case you forgot or haven't seen it

Watch on YouTube

[Pengu]

Right! I never saw a tunnel w/o lighting! It is reguleated that tunnels > 25 m have to be illuminated due to safety. Logically, it doesn't matter if it is day or night! Do they turn off the lights in the tunnel of a mine during daylight...?

[plykkegaard]

I saw some in Norway driving to Bergen, it is 25-30 years ago
IIRC they were rather short, longer than 25 m though

[Some newbie driver]

Bottom line: Ligting in tunnels appears really bad and broken in some places other places you have lamps / lights which appear switched on, this bearable

I know how it looks that tunnel, and again, it's not a fix, nothing is "broken".

The difference between 1.40 and previous versions; and we had been told in detail, is that the old light intensity values were
- A: completely random picked to achieve the look they want in every place independently of the others.
- B: mapped over a 8 bits per channel (RGB) space.

That meant that between the intensity of the dimmest light in the game and the Sun at 12AM could only be 256 different light intensity values (for white). That was completely unrealistic because the Sun is MILLIONS of times brighter than any artificial light we are going to find in the game; so the scale was wrong and caused lots of fake lighting situations.

What they did in 1.40? Every source light brightness is set in a linear scale (floating point value between 0 and 1; where 0 is pitch black and 1 is Sun ad full bright). That means that now, any lamp in the game (tunnels included) is millions of times less bright than direct sunlight.

What happens in tunnels then? That the 3D engine can't depict closed spaces where light doesn't enter. Prism 3D engine can only cast shadows (is NOT the same). So, inside tunnels there's no direct sunlight (because the arch of the tunnel cast a shadow); but there's ambient light as if we were in open ground. And that ambient light is still tens of thousands of times brighter than any lamp; so any lamp brightness will be invisible (like truck headlights are invisible during day now).

Tunnels are working exactly as wrong as worked before (the fact the tunnel just cast a shadow, the essential limit of the 3D engine has always been there). But before 1.40, SCS devs could make the lamp 254 brightness value and the Sun 255 and done, bam!, the lamps were clearly visible. Now they could do the same of course, but they want not. Because it's a botch, it's a patch wrong done that could cause problems in other places. They had re-checked the whole map to be sure every single light source has the values it should have IRL; so the whole game lighting system will be coherent. To start to put fake values here and there now is to go against the very fundamental goal of the 1.40 update. They wouldn't had made the 1.40 update at all if they would had wanted to start to fake lights throughout the whole map again just after its release.

So all the lamps have the brightness values they MUST have, their realistic values. And what SCS has still to do is to change their 3D engines so there would be almost no ambient light inside closed spaces like tunnels, as it happens IRL. And that's not a FIX, that's another big thing that the 3D engine lacks and has to be added (like was DX11, SSAO or 1.40 changes; like we still await for AA).

So, stay in the 1.39 those who want. But take a comfortable seat because the tunnels aren't going to change soon.

Regards

[plykkegaard]

Let's call it unforeseen consequences
Btw a few tunnels do have their artificial light switched on, maybe later models?

I am almost tempted to check what promods has done about the problem I am quite sure they'll try to create a decent illusion as you do have in many even mordern games