Night racing woes!

  • Thread starter VrapPlus
  • 152 comments
  • 14,148 views
Swagger897
Found my old post:

So after a looooooooooot of testing with different cars, and watching videos from youtube posted after Dec. 7 (just to assume that it was updated) it seems as if PD did longitudinal lights correctly, but the latitude of the lights are way off. Most of the lights I've seen, especially at Nurb, are clear in the tree tops, and barely lighting the road.

They are so close from closing this issue, but yet so far away..

Edit: I hatched an idea..

What if we can set the equilibrium points, in both longitude and latitude, on each car? That way, we can maximize long distance straight tracks, or have small, tight curved tracks such as Toscana? You can set your cars headlight beams for latitude, which is an option for almost all cars nowadays.
.. Just more customization if PD wants to add. That way, they won't need to upload all new cg files for each car..


If we could only adjust the cone of light (the beams of light where the tip of the cone is the equilibrium where the lights pass through each other) I think that would improve a lot of things. I'll see if I can draw a picture up tomorrow or even tonight, scan it or take a picture just to show you what I'm saying..
Click to expand...


So here's what I made. It's quite the rudimentary drawings that I've made but my point is clear. Although light in physics is meant to be drawn in squiggly lines, I kept them straight for the sake of clarity. The incidence of reflection is shown on all light angles with the standard half box representing a 90 degree angle. Where the light bounces from the top of the beam, back to the ground is the max distance. The second line is to show that midway from ground to top of top beam, reflecting once off the ground and once again off the top beam, that it returns to the point of initial incidence. When the light doesn't return, it shows an innacurate mapping of lighting, (meaning that it can't ever happen)

This is for a short track. It would have high intensity as it reflects off of the road. (Brighter due to less distance which means the photons returning to your eyes come in larger masses)

image.jpg


The next one is for an endurance setting. This light would be more of a dull, dimming light, as the photons would have scattered fore returning to the eye. This is What I think GT5 had issues with, as the lights seemed to go on forever, which means they'd never return.

image.jpg


This next one basically describes what should be done. If we could get a cart like above (something with much better quality) and a slider, pretty much like the ballast positioning, that would make it all the better. Although ballast only accounts for terms of x, it would have to include terms of y, as that is our main issue, height.

image.jpg


Yes, now some of these pictures are bs, but don't expect much from an iPad. If I spent a long time on it, I could probably make a function as how to change x and y to get z, the distance. I might just do that winter break. Anyways... I feel as if they (PD) listened to me/us when I asked for a tire degradation checklist for fast, slow, and what ever else they want. (Now I wish I said the amount if laps one can do per track ) maybe this may get to them, but in all reality, if I'm hitting barriers and having to pay to fix my body rigidity fixed every night race I do, I think Ill never invest in PD ever.. (Until fixed)
 
Maybe I'm just not understanding your drawings/explanation, but I'm pretty sure light doesn't behave anything near like what you've got there. It doesn't bounce "between the bottom and top of the beam", in this case if would just go in a straight line, and then when it hits the ground, some of it would be reflected back to the driver's eye, and some would just reflect off in a random direction and never bee seen by the driver. Where a particular light beam is reflected depends on the surface of the track.

Most surfaces are "random" enough such that if you shine a flashlight on it, anyone from any direction could see the surface lit up. Some light is scattered in pretty much every direction. However, if the track were a mirror, shining headlights on it would be essentially useless: You'd get no information about the condition of the surface (although there wouldn't be much to look for anyway). That's not really important though.

It's more important to realize why it gets dimmer as it shines farther away, but it's more complicated. Essentially, since the light from the headlight spreads out (like a cone, rather than a singe straight beam), the farther away it goes before being reflected back, the farther apart each individual ray is when it hits, and the less bright the light is when it hits the tarmac. At that point, we can assume since the surface is dull and rough, however bright the light is that hits, that's how bright it will appear. Again, this wouldn't be true for more reflective surfaces.

The cone shape is important, as if it were a parallel beam like a laser, it wouldn't spread out much with distance and wouldn't appear duller with distance. Of course, the problem with this is that your headlights would only light up a tiny speck in front of you!

It turns out that light intensity (more accurately, luminous flux of lux) falls off as 1 over distance squared. A relatively simple result for a simple light source, but more complicated for a car headlight which can focus light more.

Essentially, try shining a light on the wall, then slowly back away and watch the brightness of the spot decrease (while the size increases). Nothing to do with light going up and down there, just bouncing off the wall and back to your eye.

By the way, light is usually represented as squiggly lines only when talking about it as an electromagnetic wave with a particular wavelength and amplitude. When analyzing the behavior of light being reflected off relatively large surfaces, that rarely necessary.



That was probably a bit unnecessary, and perhaps a poor summary. Oh well. Maybe I helped. :lol:
 
So is this an issue with with the games lighting system or just how its implemented on certain tracks and certain cars?

Haven't got GT6 just yet but GT5's night racing was usually fine for me except when using standard car models where the headlights were often far too dim to be any use.

The street cars which many of us race in GT, realistically just wouldn't have adequate headlights in stock form to go night racing, the increased speeds of racing over typical street driving requires more powerful headlamps. Is an option to upgrade to racing headlights not available in the tuning menu? I thought I saw something about this being an option.

Most race cars (not NASCAR) shouldn't be having any issues as obviously those built with night racing in mind (Le Mans for example) already have very high powered lights.
 
BLADErunner80
So is this an issue with with the games lighting system or just how its implemented on certain tracks and certain cars?

Haven't got GT6 just yet but GT5's night racing was usually fine for me except when using standard car models where the headlights were often far too dim to be any use.

The street cars which many of us race in GT, realistically just wouldn't have adequate headlights in stock form to go night racing, the increased speeds of racing over typical street driving requires more powerful headlamps. Is an option to upgrade to racing headlights not available in the tuning menu? I thought I saw something about this being an option.

Most race cars (not NASCAR) shouldn't be having any issues as obviously those built with night racing in mind (Le Mans for example) already have very high powered lights.
Click to expand...

It isn't so much as a matter that they are too dim, but rather too off target. We just want to be able to adjust where they are pointing and the distance out. In my mind the lights are excellent on the racing cars in the game, however, they are pointed too damn high in the sky.
 
BLADErunner80
The street cars which many of us race in GT, realistically just wouldn't have adequate headlights in stock form to go night racing, the increased speeds of racing over typical street driving requires more powerful headlamps.
Click to expand...
I think the issue is less power and more aim. Realistically, high beams would probably be long enough for racing, but they're too high and would dazzle other cars from behind. But in either case, you need more lights aimed to the outside to pick up the apex as you turn in, normal headlights simply won't be aimed right for this.

Is an option to upgrade to racing headlights not available in the tuning menu? I thought I saw something about this being an option.
Click to expand...

I don't remember seeing it, but it's definitely a need. (Along with the ability to do some kind of limited race modding where it would add the stiffness that comes with a roll cage, the rest of race prep could be handled with existing tuning options.)
 
I have experienced this too. It needs to be fixed in an update, because driving at night with the stars is really cool.
 
BLADErunner80
Appears to be improved from GT5 at Nurburgring in this video at least, don't know if this is one of the tracks that is an issue for people.

Click to expand...

Well at least the sounds are almost there in Gt6... You listen close and can hear the high pitch whine. I just don't understand what that big source of bogged down audio is from...
 
I know I'm a littke off topic, but did they manage to at least get the cars with extra lighting fixed? It always bothered me that rally cars with light bars weren't any brighter than anything else. The 8 lights on the Quattro rally car should light up everything.
 
I felt the game was underexposed in terms of brightness overall. I set the exposure to +0.5 and it looked better on cookie cutter circuits. At night, the headlights beam much better than GT5, but this can be likely due to the exposure settings I did. Driving around lightless tracks like Willow Springs wasn't difficult, as the stars themselves lit up the sky to the point I can drive with low beams only.
 
So far I have found that some tracks are better than others and some cars are better than others. Thus far the Subaru GT300 base model has the best head lights of any car I have tried.

On Lemans in the R18 I could see nothing in the dark sections of the track. In the AE GT40 I could see better but not real well. In the Subaru I could see very well.

I also found that if I raised the brightness a bit on my TV it helped a good bit, apparently I had it a bit darker than I should have.
 
I had the same problem (OP) with the vision gt on Le sarthe. One of the events, it starts as afternoon then gets dark.
I could see nothing, until such time I tip toed under parts of the track that had light. Perhaps the moon wasn't out, i don't know.
 
HBR-Roadhog
So far I have found that some tracks are better than others and some cars are better than others. Thus far the Subaru GT300 base model has the best head lights of any car I have tried.

On Lemans in the R18 I could see nothing in the dark sections of the track. In the AE GT40 I could see better but not real well. In the Subaru I could see very well.

I also found that if I raised the brightness a bit on my TV it helped a good bit, apparently I had it a bit darker than I should have.
Click to expand...

Well that's just great... I find it hilarious that the world's best headlights on a racing car cant do for 🤬...

The R18 is basically the only reason why I bought GT6. If it would've came out in GT5, I highly doubt I would've bought it.
 
You're all overthinking this. I just crank up the brightness on the TV for night races. If you set the brightness high enough, it's just like racing in daylight.
 
GTO_VR4
I raced at the Ascari track for the first time, earlier today. At night. Good thing I was in a AWD vehicle. Because I spent most of the time off track. Lights were pure ****.
Click to expand...

I had this aswell. Used my M4 and it was like the lights weren't even on.
 
I turned the brightness up, I've squinted, I've sat inches away from the TV...nothing works. I just have to turn on the Driving Line and hope for the best.
 
VrapPlus
Don't know if this has been posted before, but I believe it deserves it's own thread, there some tracks are literarily undriveable at night, for example willow springs, any cars headlights there point too high up to actually see the road, the same with ascari, I haven't sat down and go gone every single one, but I know for a fact the ring and Bathurst work just dandy. Anyone else have more tracks to add to the list?
Click to expand...
It's absolutely improssible to see where the track is if you don't have red lights in front of you from the oppononets. The driver assist line helps a ton on those races.
 
I was able to get around Willow Springs in the Night Masters race. I used both the Renault and the S2000 that you're gifted. I didn't find it that different from real-life night track driving, maybe a little less light back from the track in some instances.

One problem that I haven't seen anyone mention: Opponent tail lights and brake lights are much too dim, especially when they're far away down the track.
 
Brainhulk
Here is me driving streets of willow at night.



Yeah, it was pretty damn scary with barely any lights...lol

And i dont have any problems using the s2000 and brz at night in gt6. But those are the only cars ive used so far at night
Click to expand...


Oh cool, I did a couple of those Extreme Speed SoW night events earlier this year. They're tons of fun. Now if only they'd give us the reverse layout in GT6 so we could accurately recreate the XS events...

Having done it for real, the cars I've tried on SoW at night feel pretty much exactly like the real thing. I was actually stunned at how quickly I felt like I was at a trackday when I got out on the track at night in GT6, it basically looks the same.
 
Willow Springs is drivable at night. It's just a task of track memorization in my humble opinion. Sure you can't see squat but it helps to envision the road in your mind and take the driving line you normally would. It just takes a little practice.
 

Latest Posts

Back