We shall fight in the dark.

[Gandhi]

I'm thinking something like this:

1) Draw all static geometry (trees, walls, ground etc)
2) Run a postprocessing shader that desaturates all colors by some amount
3) Draw all player and vehicle geometry
4) Run a postprocessing shader that desaturates quite a bit less to keep color recognition
5) Draw all weapon effects to a separate framebuffer
6) Run a standard Bloom postprocessing shader on that to give weapons some glow
7) Put it all together and push it to the screen

This has the effect of putting a much bigger emphasis on weapons fire at night time, while the desaturation mimics how our eyes work in low light. Ideally weapons fire would behave like small light sources, but I have no idea if the engine could handle that.

It would turn into a totally different game at night. Aircraft would become much more stealthy, you'd probably hear a vehicle before you see it and a big battle would be one hell of a light show. Infantry could be pretty stealthy too if they hold their fire until they're in position. Different challenges. I think that's more fun than "Oh look it's night, better turn on my night vision goggles".

Just a quick and dirty mockup to give you an idea of how this would look. It would probably be quite a bit darker ingame, and obviously you'd have to do something about people just turning up their gamma settings.

[nathanebht]

Originally Posted by basti

There are plenty of ways to let you see without the need for green crap vision. :-)

A combo low light plus infra-red vision? Really don't like the green screen idea too.

[xcel]

*ehem* Are you guys forgetting radar? That kind of make night stalking obsolete. Plus the devs are never going to design the game to that point of darkness...they just won't, for so many reasons....

It's quite idealistic...

[p0intman]

i want night vision.

[CutterJohn]

Originally Posted by basti

There are plenty of ways to let you see without the need for green crap vision. :-)

Obviously. Several hundred years in the future I imagine that green crap vision will be a childs toy in the bottom of a box of cereal, and the 'night vision' used by soldiers an augmented reality derived from multiple frequencies of sensor, and likely used during the day as well.

Still, the green grain-o-vision is a very standard trope, so its to be expected if night vision is used at all.

[2coolforu]

The day/night cycle was partly in Planetside, if you went really far away from the action to one of the little Islands off the coast of Forseral it would get pretty dark around 0300 Auraxis time, but it was more like an overcast day on Earth than a full-blown night.

Night time will add a nice dynamic for stealth though, might actually be able to properly sneak in to an enemy facility, also Terran galaxies will be like stealth-planes at night time with their matte black colour

[BlazingSun]

I am the terror that flaps in the night. I am the termite that devours your floorboards. I am the surprise in your cereal box. I am the batteries that are not included. I am the onion that stings in your eye. I am a special news bulletin that interrupts your favorite show....

[Lunarchild]

Originally Posted by basti

There are plenty of ways to let you see without the need for green crap vision. :-)

EQ2's Ultravision?



It actually did help to see in the dark, though I'd still prefer flashlights and more artificial light sources.

[Infektion]

Originally Posted by Hamma

Early PlanetSide had more of a day night cycle and for some reason it was removed. One of my funnest fights ever in PlanetSide was in Beta when the cycle was still in. Fighting in the dark was an awesome experience I am happy to see we can have that back in PS2.

I remember that... I also remember signing up for fileplanet just to get into the beta. LOL!!!

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

So how exactly do you fight in an environment like that?

Silhouettes. I also imagine there'd be somewhat of a snowball effect...two enemies bump into each other, they both light up firing at each other, some soldiers fire at them, other soldiers fire at those soldiers etc.

Originally Posted by CutterJohn

There would have to be night vision. And then we're back to the game looking like this:

I'd hope they could some up with something better than the green screen of grain if they felt they had to put in "night vision". Hell, they already made something better than that with darklight.

Still, I'd argue that the idea of night that dark isn't to fight as normal. It's a time for mobilization, insertion, flanking, guerrilla warfare, clandestine ops etc. Though I suppose certain classes could gain access to thermal scopes or something.

[Bags]

Originally Posted by Vancha

Though I suppose certain classes could gain access to thermal scopes or something.

Then people would only play those classes at night.

Upon rethinking it I don't think total darkness would work so great, as cool as it may be.

[Volw]

Do you realise how much work would it be to add thermal textures to everything in game?

[basti]

Originally Posted by Bags

Then people would only play those classes at night.

Upon rethinking it I don't think total darkness would work so great, as cool as it may be.

It depens how they set it up. Making total darkness cool requires light sources. While you propably wont have 1000 dynamic lights, faking most of it and just have a few real light sources would make stuff look cool while not killing your FPS.

Total darkness is quite cool from time to time, especialy with lights. But it needs to be fitting for the gameplay. With the little information we have, we dont know if the gameplay supports that at all, of if it would just be madness (imagine bumping into a enemy soilder just because you didnt see him ^^).


In any way, i hope for nights, no matter how dark they really are. Wait and see, or turn on the lights to see.

[Vancha]

Originally Posted by Volw

Do you realise how much work would it be to add thermal textures to everything in game?

Originally Posted by Vancha

Though I suppose certain classes could gain access to thermal scopes or something.

The point was that you'd need to look through a scope as opposed to having it active all the time.

Originally Posted by Bags

Then people would only play those classes at night

Correction: People would only play those classes at night in areas with no light sources. Who knows if a class or two might have a "light"* on them, or how far that thermal/NV equivalent would reach?

* - Nothing that impacted performance too much, obviously. Perhaps a faux-light rather than a proper one if it'd be too big an ask.

[Gandhi]

Originally Posted by Volw

Do you realise how much work would it be to add thermal textures to everything in game?

Vertex colors , since all you'd need are simple color gradients.

http://mrdoob.github.com/three.js/ex...ry_colors.html