Terrible Lighting Needs Fixing

[BB]

So the answer to this problem is "don't turn detail past medium." Which is terrible.

The real solution to this problem needs some dev support in actually fixing their game which becomes unplayable depending on which graphics setting you use.

I have to play this game on lowest setting to keep myself from going blind. Even on this setting I can barely tell what I'm looking at with how this lighting works. I'm honestly hoping this is something wrong on my end and I can fix this somehow because I want to like this game.

DX11 Highest:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310166480
DX12 Highest:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310172852
DX12 Lowest:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310172873

Originally posted by Wiglaf777:

Turn up your gamma. I had to. Mine is at 2.3 to have decent visibility in darker areas like sigmar's chapel.

But I'll humor you.
DX12 Highest Gamma 2.3:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310354509
Oh yup that does look better. Oops, I accidentaly pressed M2.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310354524
And now I'm blinded. And in my blind stupor I stumble outside.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310354537
And am quickly turned into ash as coincidentally a nuke just went off a couple inches from my face.

Besides all that though, I have to say my biggest gripe is in the way they try to simulate your iris contracting and expanding by upping and lowering the brightness of whatever you're looking at. Featured here, where because fire is in front of your eyes, everything else gets darker because that's how eyes would work.
DX12 Lowest:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310367112
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1310367126
Except I don't need irises simulated for me because I have them already and they work fine and they are already doing that so now I have effectively double(quadruple) irises. You don't need to simulate this because when I move from a bright area to a darker area my real meat iris is fully functional and widening up so I don't need a second pair in-game. Like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ what a terrible lighting design choice.

Originally posted by DrSNAFU:

You can thank Valve for this. Ever since Lost Coast they implemented this "HDR" technique that overexposed or underexposed the image based on ambient light levels. This also served to make a 'bright outisde' when looking out a door or 'dark inside' when looking in. It was supposed to mimic the human iris adjusting to light levels.

So now every other game has to implement this utterly unrealistic system for stylistic reasons. An eye's adjustment to light is supposed to be gradual, but that'll throw off gameplay if you're blind for several seconds when entering or leaving structures. But they keep putting it in games, they just make it more and more jarring to compensate.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312916946

The effect shifts so quickly in this game too, and while halfway decent implementations rely on overall light levels, this game changes it simply based on what foreground/background element your crosshairs are resting on. And it's obnoxious.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312918237

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312918374

And I agree all the dirt and flares obscuring the lens are obnoxious too. Your eyes, are not, cameras!

I'm also finding they're using the HDR effect to create 'atmosphere' by crushing the blacks. Like in the church with the bell.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1312921446

Not only is the floor globally lit but all the structure above it is practically blackened. Instead of just cranking down the brightness or relying on the lighting engine to make inky blackness like in the dungeons of castle drachenfels (scary!), they just crank that HDR effect way down and make everything look ugly. You lose so much detail when you over/underexpose this much.

I don't find their new reliance on this lazy effect appealing.

[Das Big Hippo]

My only real complaint is the iris thing. I hate it so much.

[DrSNAFU]

I agree with myself.

[Mad Mooney]

Crank up your graphic settings, but lower your ambient lighting to medium or lower. I belive you can turn it off completley if you want. This controls the HDR system.

[BB]

Originally posted by Mad Mooney:

I belive you can turn it off completley if you want. This controls the HDR system.

You can't. It stays on when all settings are on the lowest as illustrated in the third set of pictures.

[Beard]

The simulated brightness changes are very jarring. In general, the lighting also looks dull and washed out... or too even (regardless of settings)? Not sure how to describe it.

[Pickle Bath]

And then give us an option to turn off the dang HDR

[Alveriel]

yeah i don't know why but a lot of recent games have gone to this auto brightness change. It really doesn't have a good effect on gameplay(or graphics). I mean i understand what it's meant to do in theory, but in practice it's horrible (if you played Horizon on PS4 you know what i mean)

[Pickle Bath]

To me it's only slightly worse than Motion Blur for a gimmicky modern graphical effect. But at least we can turn that one off. Amazing that Fatshark didn't add an option to toggle HDR yet. So unbearable if anyone is using fire weapons on your team, let alone just for environmental shifts.

[Hasu]

Yeah i now refund.
I was playin some jungle map with a big cave somewhere near the end.
Not fun at all with this lighting.
Its like most stuff is swallowed by darkness and then again a constant switching of bright to dark.
My eyes hurt. Just like back then with Arma.. look here and its bright look a inch to the side and its dark. Nope

[Folly]

On the subject of graphics, ReShade totally works with Vermintide 2, and imo offers a dramatic improvement over the normal graphics.

[BB]

Originally posted by Folly:

On the subject of graphics, ReShade totally works with Vermintide 2, and imo offers a dramatic improvement over the normal graphics.

What's that now?

[Hasu]

So is there any comment of the devs on this?

[BB]

Originally posted by ..:

So is there any comment of the devs on this?

You'd think there would be since apparently this game wasn't made for max settings in mind.

[Noodle Ninja]

HDR needs to go

[Captain Crowbar]

Seems to be better since full release tbh. I can put SSAO on extreme now without cringing at the filmgrain as well.