iirc it was just in the mad dash to cut and trim elements out of the gfx engine that were a drain on pc gpu/cpu resources, so they could get improvement in overall performance and higher fpsec's

my hope is that the early lighting and color beauty we saw in the sim in the first months of its release will eventually come back when the performance issue is solved.

The "new sun" is clearly very badly implemented. There's way too much glare during times of day when the sun light we see is greatly reduced like dawn and dusk. Way too much and the sky looks very poor and low resolution.

Look at this screenshot from the BOM update:

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...7&d=1333103708

That screenshot is taken very close to sunset or sunrise. We all know how the sun looks during those times. A lot less bright and orange redish. The closer to the horizon the easier it is to look straight at it, without the blinding glare, because the light has to pass through a lot more air.
Another thing out of wack after the last patch is how dark it is at, or just after sunset or just before sunrise.
If you played the early morning mission in ATAG, you'll know what I'm talking about.
The mission starts just 10-15 minutes before sunset, and you can't see NOTHING outside or inside the cockpit. Just compare that with what you actually see in the real world ten minutes before sun rise.

I really hope they can bring that natural look back. It shouldn't be that hard, they have the original as a refference and that original lighting was calibrated by a professional photographer.

you might be wrong there, depending on the exact geographic location the screenshot was taken (eg how far north it is, and how close to the arctic)

on the southern tip of australia (close to the south pole) the sun at dusk can get very bright and sharp (as it does on the Argentinian tip of south america). the bright sharpness of the sun is potentially very dangerous when driving (causes many accidents). the bright sunlight strikes you directly in the eye's (just under the car visor ) and is so bright and strong it can completely blind you unless you have good sunglasses on and are prepared for sudden the disruption it causes to your normal vision. without good sunglasses on you'd be in danger of killing yourself or others, or running off the road. the evening sun phenomena is well known here, and some local radio stations warn of it during the traffic updates or weather reports when the effect is particularly strong on certain days.

maybe a similar effect is at play close to the arctic circle up north :)

then again, maybe this is just another problem in their old gfx engine (presuming Moskow is to far south to be affected by the phenomena i described)

I live in Western Australia and the mornings looks very similar to that seen in the BoM screenshot. Of course, the Australian sun would be distinct to the Russian sun.

I hope that they increase the reflections on the aircraft. The new BoM aircraft seriously lack any reflections - although it is WIP. I am also concerned about the lack of "factory finished" aircraft skins.

Its exactly how you describe it here, close to the arctic circle, in Sweden. And, if im not mistaken, the "classic" bright red sunsets is due to modern pollution in the air more than anything and the degree of pollution vary depending on where one lives. California is a famous example. That level of pollution simply doesn't exist here.

Would be beaut if they could simulate the doctor you sand gropers get every day as well. :)

Well, the sun looks exactly the same in game now, and our current BOB map shouldn't have anything to do with the arctic condition you describe.
This is not specific BOM effect. It's in game now.

Polution is important, but not the main reason sunsets are orange/red.
It's about how how light works. At dawn and dusk the light has to travel trough a much thicker layer of lower atmosphere, because of the tangent angle. White light is made of different spectrums of light of different wave lenght. More red light is scatered toward you in lowe athmosphere than blue or green light.
That's where the red comes from. Anyway, I was talking about the excessive glare in the curent version of the game.

i thought it had something to do with our position on the longitude axis, and its relationship to the direction of the sun, but it could also be further compounded by the cleaner (and thinner ?) air.

with winter snow reflecting light, that could be another factor in the strong effect seen in the BoM wip screenshot