Headlights Don't Reflect

  • Thread starter Thread starter Si-UK
  • 21 comments
  • 1,884 views
Si-UK

Si-UK

Messages
382
United Kingdom
London
Messages
Si-UK
Headlights don't reflect off bodywork of cars. When you turn the beam on and off you can clearly see this reflected off barriers and sign posts but not off the car(s) directly in front of you! How could such a basic detail be overlooked?
 
Si-UK
Headlights don't reflect off bodywork of cars. When you turn the beam on and off you can clearly see this reflected off barriers and sign posts but not off the car(s) directly in front of you! How could such a basic detail be overlooked?
Click to expand...
Also, most don't even reflect off of the ground.... A critical error that has somehow gone unnoticed...
 
I was sure they did, I'm absolutely convinced that my lights refelected from the car in front during a race at Le Mans.

Just went and ran the Supercar race there... and no reflections. Just to be sure I used Premium to Premium, but no reflections during the race or in the replay.
 
Si-UK
Headlights don't reflect off bodywork of cars. When you turn the beam on and off you can clearly see this reflected off barriers and sign posts but not off the car(s) directly in front of you! How could such a basic detail be overlooked?
Click to expand...

When you say it's a basic detail it makes it sound so simple. I don't think you realize how difficult it would be to get lights reflecting off of car body work realistically in real time. Not to mention the best methods for doing it would take more power than the PS3 has under the hood.
 
I dread to think how many terms are in the lighting equation as it is, not to have to add dynamic, floating, potentially multiple terms for some weird contraption (that appears to be rendered using the depth-buffer, plus a few nice decal projections for extra "detail") that also happens to be moving around...

Wait for PS4 when they can turn the lighting up to "crazy", and such "features" will just "fall out" of the method used.
 
un4givn85
lets not forget that the ai's lights dont actually do anything on the track
Click to expand...

My hunch is that it's to take a load off the PS3. PD said that they were pushing the PS3 to its limits and it's likely that the headlights of the AI is one of the instances that would of overdone it.
 
Welsh-Fury
My hunch is that it's to take a load off the PS3. PD said that they were pushing the PS3 to its limits and it's likely that the headlights of the AI is one of the instances that would of overdone it.
Click to expand...

i dont doubt that
i just thought it was relevant to the topic
 
As per my knowledge, a night race at Le mans shows the back of AI cars reflecting light. Can't remember if all nigt races share this feature.

In the daytime or dusk races, the light from the headlight passes right through them.
 
A "critical error". That's being a bit dramatic. I'm sure it has to do with the hardware of the PS3. But honestly, it does not impact your driving experience in a significant way. Sure it would be nice to have, but not more important than many other features that could be implemented/improved.
 
noseknows36
A "critical error". That's being a bit dramatic. I'm sure it has to do with the hardware of the PS3. But honestly, it does not impact your driving experience in a significant way. Sure it would be nice to have, but not more important than many other features that could be implemented/improved.
Click to expand...
No... How many headlights do you know of that project only to the sides of the road, when clearly their IRL could ternary has the best lights of the business?

That's how it's "critical" as it's so large of a flaw that everyone knows of, it inflates the issue that much. It pissed me off with the 908 in Gt5, now they pissed me off with my favorite car ever made (R18) and it will always make me a bit stingy at the thought of it all.. Seriously? I don't think I can recollect a game with such a flaw that is an integral part of a car, and the car in particular...
 
It is very much a hardware issue - for true dynamic reflections (as in, most reflections in games from the past generations were pre-scripted, and didn't incorporate many, if any assets. Either that method, or a "mirror" was actually a spot of texture running a second in-game camera, like the mirrors in GT5 - which also took a lot of power to run, and were often low-quality reflections.), "Ray tracing" is needed. It calculates the all of the surrounding features, and builds it's texture off of that. It's completely open-ended, and it eats a lot of rams.


This new generation is MASSIVELY expanding on dynamic features - this new lighting technique, damage and deformation, weather patterns, fluid simulations, all sorts of things that weren't possible before, and not many people are realizing this, unfortunately.
 
Swagger897
No... How many headlights do you know of that project only to the sides of the road, when clearly their IRL could ternary has the best lights of the business?

That's how it's "critical" as it's so large of a flaw that everyone knows of, it inflates the issue that much. It pissed me off with the 908 in Gt5, now they pissed me off with my favorite car ever made (R18) and it will always make me a bit stingy at the thought of it all.. Seriously? I don't think I can recollect a game with such a flaw that is an integral part of a car, and the car in particular...
Click to expand...

Don't know if You noticed how prominent this error was in GT5 & to some extent still in GT6?

When driving through Le Mans, flashing on the headlights would show the reflection on either side of the track on the barriers but not much on the road straight ahead. I used to wonder what's the point if the road ahead ain't brightly lit but the barriers are?

Rather just spread the light on the road & forget about the barriers.
 
Uday9479
Don't know if You noticed how prominent this error was in GT5 & to some extent still in GT6?

When driving through Le Mans, flashing on the headlights would show the reflection on either side of the track on the barriers but not much on the road straight ahead. I used to wonder what's the point if the road ahead ain't brightly lit but the barriers are?

Rather just spread the light on the road & forget about the barriers.
Click to expand...

The intensity of the light is depending on:

1. Distance from light source (blue "intensity fade curve" in the figure below). The intensity is divided by 4 every time the distance is doubled. If the intensity is 20 units at 50 meters, it will be 5 units at 100 meters.

2. The angle between the observer and the diffuse reflecting surface (white "sparks" in the figure below. The length of each line represents the intensity of the reflected light in that direction). The intensity is the highest at 90 degrees from the surface.

headlight intensity 2.jpg


The diagram above shows that a vertical object 150 meters in front of the car will reflect light of roughly the same intensity to the driver as the road 50 meters in front of the car. Of course, the angle between the driver and the road is depending on how high above the ground the driver is. In a tall car, or a semi-truck even, the angle is greater than if you were driving a Ford GT40 or an LMP. So with the same lights, the driver of the truck can expect to see the road a lot better than the driver of the LMP car. Vertical objects in front of the car will be roughly the same for both drivers.

The best view of the road you'll have if you're flying above the car in a helicopter, because the intensity of the light is the most in a vertical direction from the road.

When it comes to barriers on the side of the road, as long as you're not driving very close to the barriers, the angle between the driver and the barrier will be greater than the angle between the driver and the road, and thus a certain amount of light reflecting off the barriers should appear more intense to the driver than the same amount of light reflecting off the road.

(Edit: What I'm trying to say is that when it comes to the barriers, the angle between them and the driver will be the same as the angle between the driver and the road a couple of meters in front of the car. So for barriers that are 50 meters away, you'll have the same angle as the road that's, say, 5 meters in front of the car. That's why the barrier 50 meters away from you will reflect more light than the road that's 50 meters away from you.)

Also, when the distance increases, the angle between the driver and the surface of the road decreases, so the intensity of light drops both because of the distance and because of the smaller angle.
 
Last edited:
Uday9479
Don't know if You noticed how prominent this error was in GT5 & to some extent still in GT6?

When driving through Le Mans, flashing on the headlights would show the reflection on either side of the track on the barriers but not much on the road straight ahead. I used to wonder what's the point if the road ahead ain't brightly lit but the barriers are?

Rather just spread the light on the road & forget about the barriers.
Click to expand...
That's really the main point to my question, butd like to still include both. Brightness of the road should be brought up to par with the rest of the reflective area
 
There's already frame drops in certain conditions, so the hardware is clearly being pushed to the limit.
I can manage without light reflecting off of other cars, heck, I'd even want some graphic features to be lowered slightly so that a steady 60fps can be maintained.
 
I think it is odd that anyone would say that the headlights do not reflect off the other cars. Sure they may not reflect as much as they should but remember if they do not reflect at all then you would not see the other car at all. It would just be a dark spot on the track if it were not reflecting the light back to you.
 
HBR-Roadhog
I think it is odd that anyone would say that the headlights do not reflect off the other cars. Sure they may not reflect as much as they should but remember if they do not reflect at all then you would not see the other car at all. It would just be a dark spot on the track if it were not reflecting the light back to you.
Click to expand...
They don't reflect nowhere near as much as they should. When you use a beam there should be a direct focal point of light in the direction it is aimed at. There is no sense of this when driving at night in GT6. They should forget trying to accurately portray the whole star system and get the basic things right first. If you're going to have a night time environment then details like this become very important. Sure, you can still drive the car but the whole experience they're trying to create is somewhat lost. If processing power is an issue they should stick to day time environments and add other elements such as improved sounds, engine failures with fire or smoke, oil spills, debris on track resulting in tyre blowouts maybe....etc etc This dynamic level of detail may require next gen hardware but the effects with the headlights is definitely lacking so much so it almost looks like a detail overlooked. As I said its clearly reflected off barriers and signposts but not on cars.
 
Gt6 has this!!!! It just depends on what time if day/night it is. Same as it is in Gt5.... But yeah it makes no sense.
 

Latest Posts

Back