Dynamic ambient light, particularly on planetary surfaces

[NecroBones]

I wouldn't be surprised if this has been discussed before. But here goes.

Something that I always get irritated by, is how dark my ships look while parked on the ground. For instance, if you're on the launch pad at high noon (sun straight overhead), the rocket is nearly black. There's very little ambient light in this context (while arguably too much while in deep space). On the surface, there should be a lot of reflected light. Even more so in an atmosphere that scatters light, such as Kerbin's Earth-like bright blue sky.

I also get irritated at how often, when I land on some moon/planet, and I go to take a screenshot after planting a flag, both my Kerbal and the flag appear completely unlit, because the sun is straight up. Again, we're on the surface at high noon, so there should be a lot of reflected light from the surface around me.

So what I suggest as a visual enhancement, is a dynamic ambient-light system that adjusts the brightness and color of the ambient light based on what surface you're over (taking into account day/night side of course), and have it fall off with altitude. Though of course, even in low orbit, you can, and should, get a lot of reflected illumination from a planet as well.

Thoughts?

[NecroBones]

As a semi-related aside:

Nvidia sinks moon landing hoax using virtual light

http://www.cnet.com/news/nvidias-new-gpu-sinks-moon-landing-hoax-using-virtual-light/

This mentions how well illuminated you can be on the lunar surface, even while in shadow (such as Buzz Aldrin descending the ladder).

[Red Iron Crown]

As I understand it there are some Unity limitations for lighting, it's part of the reason we don't have proper occlusion effects from eclipses. Not sure if it applies to the issues you describe.

[NecroBones]

Yeah, I don't think that necessarily has to limit this. There's a mod out there that lets you set the ambient light with a slider (saw Scott Manley use it for some night-side video). Usually ambient lighting is fairly static, but as long as it can be changed periodically within the same scene, then what would be needed is just a calculation based on altitude and position over the planet's surface, which is data they definitely have.

[Alshain]

I think this will change with Unity 5. There's a whole new global illumination engine and new high end shader engine. I wouldn't expect Squad to waste time on it now only to re-do it later.

[NecroBones]

For now, I think I'm going to start using the ambient-light mod. It's a shame to need a mod for that though.

[xtoro]

And I just posted this same thing yesterday about 15 hours before your post..... http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/94442-Pitch-black-lighting

Using AmbientLightShifter, much better now...

[Valerian]

Done, my new mod covers those issues: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/96497

Edited November 4, 2014 by Valerian

[NecroBones]

Done, my new mod covers those issues: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/96497

YES, YES, YES! Downloading now!