I drive in cockpit and sometimes at night, it is difficult to see corners without track limits or braking line on because it is too dark. There are a lot of track lights on these tracks and track light illumination seems to have improved since the game was launched. But track lighting doesn’t cover everything and can even add shadows making certian parts of teh track even darker.
I’ve included a video linked here to show the difference betwen this game and Automobilista 2. You’ll notice AMS 2 has very little track lighting, and the ones it does have barely illuminate anything. It doesn’t really matter though, because the headlights are so bright, I can easily see down the road to my turn in and braking points. This comparison video starts with Forza, then AMS2, and then the 2 together at Spa focusing on Blanchimont and the braking zone for the bus stop chicane.
There is so much trakc lighting, that it can be hard to tell what your headlights are even illuminating, they are so weak in comparison. But you will notice how much farther AMS2 headlights illuminate down the road. The braking marker I use for the bus stop is easy to see. On Forza I could only tell where it was because of the testing freeplay pylons black silhouette. The other thing AMS2 does better, is the headlights give off illumination outside the frontal cone, slowly dispersing, but still bright enough to illuminate quite a bit to the right and left, and when needed, up and down. The forza headlights literally stop illuminating in a straight line along its cone.
TLDR - Forza headlights need to be brighter, have farther reach and better light dispersal to the sides like real headlights do. This is important for all players, but especially those of us that drive from cockpit or hood views. Headlights are more important than the track lighting, because despite their brightness and how many of them there are, they don;t get everything and in some cases cause shadows that make it worse.
Update 13 defnitely improved the lighting and visibility. I would still like to see longer and wider headlights, as those seemed to change the least. Improved color seems to have improved contrast, there does seem to be some ambient light outside the beams. Not sure if that is baked or produced by the tracklights and headlights themselves. Headlights are more intense and seem to be slightly longer. That slight bit does help. The effects are sublte, but a major improvement in motion. Headlights should still be longer and wider though.
I’m not sure if this is the right thread for the stuff I’m suggesting but It’s close enough, I’d say.
Basically, can we do something about the way light “spills” across enviroment when you have certain objects in front of your headlights. Examples below. Look how ugly and unrealistic the entire scene looks below when the headlights are directly pointing towards the sign. Also added a shot when the headlights don’t light the sign.
Happens with cars too. Notice the red/orange colour all over the enviroment. That’s simply not how it should look. I’ve seen even worse examples during night races where the entire enviroment would become coloured.
First of all, the headlights don’t have enough range for long and dark parts of a track.
It works even worse when driving on the Nordschleife on the uphill section.
A possible fix for this problem would be to implement toggleable high beams.
And giving us the ability to turn on lights by a button instead of automatic which doesn’t work correct anyways.
I was playing around with RTGI and RTAO. I found when both were maxed out, it was easier to see contrast of upcoming corners and brake markers. However, it needed to be maxed to be effective. Also this is an environmental change, not an adjustment to the actual headlights having farther reach and width.
Maybe it way slightly better dispersion of the light, but my fps tanked from 130 to 40 doing this. Even on a amd 7950 3xd and a 4090, i could not maintain a decent framerates and game pushing was not smooth. We really just need stronger headlights on the cars.
