Something going on at Willow Springs

[HuskyGT]

Okay, so I was doing the Seasonal event today and noticed something strange. The light effects seemed much better than usual. I thought it was the time that the track was at, but when I saw the clock, something strange showed. Not only the time didn't make sense, but also the position of the sun and the car having its lights on.

The time was 8:30am, but I'm sure that by that time, the track should have that annoying glare all over it and the car lights would have gone off by then. This was not the case. Everything had a really nice contrast to it and no glare whatsoever. I went to test my car outside the seasonal event and place the clock at the same time to compare and this is what I found:

Seasonal Event. 8:30am. Notice the position of the sun right above the Toyota hut. Lights on the car are on as well. I'm not braking there. You can see the E Brake is on and there is no pressure on the brake.

Time Trial/Test Run. 8:30am. Notice how the sun is not visible in this angle whatsoever despite I'm in the same place at the same time. The brightness is starting to get blinding which is usual in this track, and the car lights are off.

Seasonal Event again. 8:30am. Different angle. Notice where the sun is and then check the next picture.

TimeTrial/Test Run. 8:30am. The sun is in a completely different position than the sun in the Seasonal Event. Lights off, and very strong glare is present as usual.

Now, I know that in the Seasonal, the track has no time change, but the inconsistency of the sun's position and the amount of light on the track versus the in-game track is very noticeable. I drove in the seasonal and I've never enjoyed this track that much. There was no sudden change of exposure, no annoying glare from the sun either.

Could this be a test bed for a new lighting system, or I'm just hoping for too much?

EDIT: Added offline track pictures at the exact same time.

 

[NixxxoN]

Willow springs lighting is messed up. I opened a thread a while ago.

 

[HuskyGT]

Willow springs lighting is messed up. I opened a thread a while ago.

I know. It's only drivable early in the morning, or late during the afternoon. Driving at noon and during the night is almost like a bad joke.

But yeah, just wanted to mention this because apart from the messed up lighting we all know about, the lighting in the Seasonal Event version of the track is completely different and much nicer.

 

[KiroKai]

Have you tried if you can replicate the lighting if you set it to a different time, maybe an hour earlier? Could be just a case of the event time being displayed wrong, even across menus?

 

[HuskyGT]

Have you tried if you can replicate the lighting if you set it to a different time, maybe an hour earlier? Could be just a case of the event time being displayed wrong, even across menus?

I will try that, but for what I've seen, the sun is is not following the same path. In the fourth picture you can see the path were the sun comes up from. It follows that same line vertically until it hides again. The sun in the third picture is way to the right. there is no way the sun will move horizontally unless you were in the poles or something, which is not the case.

I'm not really technical in these aspects, so I might not be using the right words. I'll take more pictures later on after work. I'll try it at 6:30 or 7:30 in the game's track and see what happens.

 

[Swagger897]

Yeah... And what PD spent their time on was correctly modeling stars....


I still don't see why we can't get a live weather option for single player, and a live weather option from hosts location for multiplayer..

 

[CommandrCyclops]

Maybe they're working on something where we can change the time of year. That would account for the different positions of the sun.

 

[BrandonW77]

Yeah... And what PD spent their time on was correctly modeling stars....

Star charts are readily available and I can't imagine it took much of their time to implement this into the game. I did a night race at La Sarthe earlier this week and from my point of view it was time well spent, the night sky was simply superb and added a lot to the experience.

There are certainly some things they've wasted precious time on though.......like the moon nonsense.

 

[MatskiMonk]

That's interesting, a little while ago I sat at turn 1 of Bathurst and watched the sun go down, based on the time of sunset I looked up Sunrise/Sunset times at Mt. Panorama and determined what the date used for the day/night cycle was (April I think, I can't remember now ) but, I'd be curious to see if that changed.

 

[f1webberfan]

IMO, PD were lazy as **** to adjust the clock.
And also on some seasonal events (at least in GT5) the time was set to fast, not normal. With all the bugs this game has ... that'll be the least of my worries.
Or maybe as @CommandrCyclops pointed out - the game is great and PD is implementing different sun position for different days of the year ... haha-a-a-a ............... No.

 

[cjr3559]

I noticed a similar weather/sun variation when doing the NSX Seasonal. Most of the time it was sunny, but there was the odd cloudy sky as well.

 

[Gwenbors]

I think at some point PD is going to add fighter planes that play laser tag with your car as you try to hot lap the track. They need the sun like that, so the planes can dive at you straight out of it... It's going to be the best seasonal event they've ever done.

 

[HuskyGT]

Have you tried if you can replicate the lighting if you set it to a different time, maybe an hour earlier? Could be just a case of the event time being displayed wrong, even across menus?

Okay. I took them at 7:30 with the same result. Sun is obviously lower, but it keeps the same position if you compare them with the the offline 8:30am pics. Lights are still off too. Tried it at 6:30 with no different results. Sun was just a bit lower and almost hidden behind that hill in the second pic. Tried 6:30pm, but the sun had shifted all the way to the other side of the track.

Maybe they're working on something where we can change the time of year. That would account for the different positions of the sun.

That's interesting, a little while ago I sat at turn 1 of Bathurst and watched the sun go down, based on the time of sunset I looked up Sunrise/Sunset times at Mt. Panorama and determined what the date used for the day/night cycle was (April I think, I can't remember now ) but, I'd be curious to see if that changed.

I'm going with this 👍 It's the most logical explanation and something I completely overlooked. Thanks guys. But still, I really wished the light effects would look like the Seasonal Event version of the track. Way easier to handle.

 

[NA]

Edit: NVM. The link isn't gonna co-operate.

 

[Swagger897]

Star charts are readily available and I can't imagine it took much of their time to implement this into the game. I did a night race at La Sarthe earlier this week and from my point of view it was time well spent, the night sky was simply superb and added a lot to the experience.

There are certainly some things they've wasted precious time on though.......like the moon nonsense.

I read all about that. What I wonder, is why didn't they model a live-model weather system..?

I do like the drive at Spa or Le Mans at night, but I felt it could've been used elsewhere (as in implementing similar systems such as weather, or actually using humidity)