Most games dont have headlights that light up anything. Many times its just a translucent white texture on the ground that gives the false appearance of lighting. The only games Ive played where the lights light up anything is the newer Need for Speed games, but they use very small textures.
ON game that has great headlights is colin McRae Rally 2. Just try driving on a night stage with bad electronics, first your lights will flicker and if you hit a major bump you wont be able to see s**t. You just have to follow your co-drivers instructions very carefully. The dammage on that game was sooo cool you could mash up your gears and the car would get stuck in gear or constanly pop out of gear, or even lose the use of certain gears. And this is on the PSX!
I like to occasionally look behind me and see what the headlights look like when they are on. Of course that is on tracks where headlights are turned on. Some cars look so mean and intimidating though :burnout:
its wonderfull. sooo many addons. you'll be downloading for years its like GT3 on the PC, but not as good in a few areas, and yet much better in others. i posted some pics of the game. Search for Sports Car GT (thread title)
It takes a lot of power to get real time lighting effects, and while the PS2 can do it, it would take away from the overall quality of the graphics. The Xbox and Gamecube have Transform And lighting Engines though, so we should see good headlights at some point in the future.
I agree with W_conneely though, different tints would really affect gameplay, but would make for nice replays and add to the 2 player experience.
the actual lighting from cars is crappy but some lights look bad-a$$. The best of all, I think, Viper GTS-R Concept. Worst: don't know yet. Most r mediocre. Tinted lights would b tight.
Auto Modellista will have real time lighting effects go d/l the vid from gspot, it shows it off, and its quite nice (especially for a cel shaded racer).