I’m trying to understand why T10 adds lighting on tracks where it doesn’t exist in reality. Then we have freaks like the Nordschleife lit up as if it were daytime. This is the case on most tracks or maybe on all of them. At Bathurst they added lights at the very first corner…
Two reasons come to my mind:
to make the game easier for the players
the headlights of the cars in the game are too weak, so you wouldn’t be able to see anything, so they help themselves with extra lighting.
My guess? Both
I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be able to feel for myself what it’s like to take countless corners in total darkness on the Nordschleife. Or climb Mount Panorama in the dark. Unfortunately these extra lights ruin the atmosphere. You don’t feel like you’re at the track but on a NY main street. In my opinion they should be removed, but I understand that some players would like to be able to choose whether they want to drive in normal (real) conditions or whether they want the extra lighting help though. Therefore, the best solution would be to add in options an on/off switch for additional lighting.
Below is a link to a video comparing FM and GT7, and to the second one from the recent twelve-hour race at Bathurst, where you can see how dark the track is in real life.
At this point it’s kinda too late for that. That would require an overhaul of every track + rework of headlights, which at this moment are too weak. I’d rather T10 spend their time elsewhere tbh.
These weak headlights do make you drive almost blindly sometimes though. So in the end the overall visibility balances out more or less?
But yes, in the ideal world it would be great to have 2 settings: T10 design vision and authenticity
As you mentioned, sometimes you can hardly see anything, so the headlights should be redone. And if they took care of that, they could also improve the lighting on the tracks in the meantime. Removing/ disabling fictional lighting should not be some huge challenge requiring thousands of man-hours.
Knowing life, they have no plans to change the front lights, so changing the lighting on the track will remain an unrealised dream. Unless the players would push hard for these changes. To do so would require activating the community on the forum, which would be a challenge. This means that the dream will remain unrealised
It seems like a purposeful design decision to add to the race-day atmosphere as well as increase accessibility with most of these trackside generator lights being placed at the apex of the more intricate corners.
I personal don’t find them intrusive and appreciate how they make the track visually interesting at night. I see where you’re coming from though, breaking the authenticity. I’m always a fan of giving the players a choice.
Racing in pitch black seems like asking for (more) trouble.
Even with neon guiding line overlays lighting up the track surface & boundaries like Tron light cycle trails showing players where to go & where brake, a lot of players still struggle to avoid crashing into other cars or even stay on track in broad daylight.
I’m in favor a better/brighter headlights that provide more night-time visibility at longer distances across a wider angle.
…But I don’t recall ever seeing this company respond to any requests for changes/fixes without suggesting it would require months/years of colossal effort & investment.
I would support that. I like being able to see the track, and I don’t care how realistic light placement is. And I get the appeal of a less illuminated track.
I’d go further and say it would be nice to have that option in photo mode. So you can turn headlights on/off independently of track lights.
I was one of the first persons that complained about all the lights on Nordschleife right after release. I want them optional and I want them to make the headlights of the cars better and they should offer us the high/distant beam lights of the cars, we could press left control stick or right stick, to switch between normal headlights and distant beam. They are not used for anything.
Nordschleife must be pitch black at night, else it’s not Nordschleife no then it’s a Forza Horizon Schleife. Same goes for every other real track, they can’t just put lights where they don’t belong. I don’t think there are any lights on Spa either. Same goes for Bathurst.
One, that there should be a setting between artificial lights and pitch black, namely moonlight.
Two, some cars don’t have headlights and damage may destroy headlights.
I can remember situations in FM7 where you really couldn’t see anything, because your car doesn’t have lights, the track doesn’t have lights, and the Moon doesn’t light anything.
If the car doesn’t have headlights like NASCAR or something, well you could just turn on the track lights, simple as that. If they make it optional nothing of this matters.
They could add an option where you can choose between tracklights on or off or dynamic. On it’s always on and time of day doesn’t matter, off it’s always off and dynamic the tracklights only turn on if it’s dark.
I think that all these additional lights put just as much or even more stress on the GPU/CPU than if the improved more powerful front lights were introduced. Note how many extra lights there are on Bathurst just on The Chase (turns 20-22 - a series of turns near a large building just before the last turn). In reality there are no lights there and in FM it is bright as day. And each of them generates its own effects (light source, shadows, reflections in objects, etc.). Do you think these lights don’t put a stress on the components?
They will but they are only illuminating a small area. Full beam headlights will cover a much bigger area.
There’s also the design decisions into what they want to include in the game. Not everyone wants pitch black. I completely understand it would be good as an option to turn them off but can’t see most gamers wanting them off.
I could have sworn that Turn 10 had some race events where the lights and audience werent there. Sort of like a race away from a race weekend.
Hakone was mostly dark except for screens on the start/finish straight and a hand full of the stadium lights on.
Maple valley didn’t have the carnival and there were very few people at the various popup tents. None of the inflateables were at the track.
There were other instances of reduced activity. Homestead’s grandstand being empty, and whatnot. If Turn 10 could put control of that into the players hands, that would be nice for single player. Also, if in these setting they have an option to turn the floodlights off, that’d be huge!
I found a video that compares Mount Panorama in the latest FM with its predecessor. And you wouldn’t guess. In the old version, there is no additional lighting, yet there were also cars without lights. The video is in daylight, but you can see the lack of lights on the side of the road, which were added in the latest version.
And here is a video of the Nordschleife at night from FM7. And what? No extra lights either! It was possible to be accurate to the original back then, but not now?
And here’s a comparison of the night race in FM7 and the latest release. You can immediately see the differences in the performance of the headlights between the old and new versions. In the old one, the lights reach much further. In the new version, the lights are almost invisible. Their range is comically short.
The headlights in this fame are simply pathetic. I was blown away when i played a night race in dirt 2. Even GT7 is significantly better in this aspect.
The headlights are useless. I don’t know what happened since I don’t remember struggling to see in FM6 or FM7 but in 2023 it feels like I can’t see more than fifteen feet in front of my car. At 25 MPH that’s fine but at like 150 or 200 MPH that’s pretty inconvenient.
I have a thought. How about redirecting some of the fusion-powered nuclear sunlight that permeates this game through virtually all racing conditions and putting that towards making the tracks more visible? There are conditions in this game where you simply cannot see anything in any camera mode, including things superimposed for accessibility reasons, while racing because of this game’s sun and that is a major problem. Oh, and some races in rain conditions still look like someone’s set off a suitcase nuke outside of the race track. That should have been fixed a long time ago.
