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.
Agreed! I even left a suggestion in one of the threads in Car Issues or Suggestions Hub I think that cars with additional bumper lights and hood lights like the 80s/90s supercars or rally cars should be usable and cast beams on the tarmac and environment accordingly.
Similarly it’s 2024 and we are on new hardware and a new Forza game. There’s absolutely no excuse now not to have things like hi beam headlights or headlight on/off and wipers on/off in the game.
The headlights also don’t project beams on the track convincingly. It looks very canned and scripted. They need to better light up the track and surroundings. It looks like they are barely projecting beams just 7-8 feet in front of the car even though in foggy and hazy weather you do see the beams reflecting off in the haze in front of the car. This is a shortcoming of the engine perhaps or a lack of insight on their part but yeah, the game 100% needs improved headlight beam effects and the ability to toggle hi beam.
The headlights only illuminate about 50 ft down the track. At night in an unlit braking zone, you’ll only ever see two brake markers lit up at once. IRL they are reflective like street signs and you can see them 500m away.
It’s almost like they gave the player vehicle the headlight fx that the other players cars are supposed to have to increase fps performance.
Its my single biggest gripe with the game after only the bright vignette effect for night races, which absolutely destroys contrast ratios when driving at night ( especially for tvs with local dimming.)
Why dim the headlight when they could increase headlights and reduce all the track lighting. Seriously, you can see the entire track at many tracks with associated lighting. That has to a be ton of processing that could be reerved for the actual car headlights.
While we’re all here, can we have a toggle for the lights or, barring such a technical marvel, just program them to turn on like 30 in-world minutes earlier and stay on for an equal length past the current shut-off points? The transition always feels 0.5-1 lap too late at sunset and 0.5-1 lap early at dawn.
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.
Can I just add that the headlights and day night cycle needs a slight adjustment as when the headlights switch on/off automatically at dawn and dusk it can often leave you with a near pitch black view dependant on weather and time speed (x2,x4 etc.)
Even better allowing user control of the headlights on/off even via photo mode would make a great quality of life hack to the experience.
It 100% needs to happen, but t10 doesn’t seem to care. I feel the same way, they come on way too late and turn off way too early, and unlike EVERY OTHER RACE GAME I OWN this one doesn’t have a key bind option for something as basic as headlights in a game with NIGHT RACING!
