Game Engine: Nighttime Environmental Ambience

[Hyncharas]

I only bring this up because the PS2 Facebook page today asked for feedback. The question was about what people think their best environmental feature has been...

Now unfortunately much of the more recent concept art can only be found on Google if you know where to look, but the thing that strikes me most compared to the game is, when it's dark, the environment doesn't feel as alive as it does in the daytime. If you've been on Amerish, for example, it becomes a pitch black wilderness for the most part! A number of those concepts, however, show some of the foliage and even the crystalline structures illuminate in absence of the sun, due to a temperature differential.

Whilst I'm not suggesting the studio takes a page out of Avatar; completely flooding the landscape, it would be great if they performed a lighting study for each continent to examine what areas could be improved with "fireflies" and other effects at night. I would also be interested in illumination either side of roads, so players can see actual routes across a continent.