Regarding the in game sun:
I find the current beta patch version to be quite "realistic" with regard to the effect it has on my vision.
Your computer monitor can only do so much. It's not going to produce the light of the sun out of a bunch of pixels. They have to find a way to fake it and they're trying to fake what the world looks like when you're getting sun blind, and that's the reflex to squint, making things hazy and blurry and difficult to see all over, not just at the exact point of the sun. It seems a different take on it than all the other 'sun blind' attempts I've seen in other games and I think it's better.
The first time I saw it I had to take a second to realize that I wasn't actually squinting at the screen, the way I would if the sun was in my eyes. It was a 'wow, that's well done' moment.
So mark me down as pro-beta patch sun.
Oh, my credentials: human being. I also drive to work in the morning facing east and drive home at sun down facing west
