Everything is always very dark in the game environment...

[Dida44]

Olá a todos!

Eu freguentado nesta página todos os dias e sempre aprendemos com as perguntas postadas.

Eu quero saber como faço para torná-lo iluminado o ambiente do jogo. Tudo é sempre muito escuro, eu não posso ver o navio quando no espaço. Obrigado antecipadamente pela sua atenção.

Edited December 30, 2014 by Dida44

[Anquietas314]

It's meant to be that way; in the real world it's even darker. Other than mods, your only option really is to put lights on your ship

(Trivia: it used to be much lighter but that was changed in an update a good while ago)

[Hobbes Novakoff]

Well, there's a mod for that! (Ambient Light Adjustment by timmers_uk http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71536-0-90-0-Ambient-Light-Adjustment-1-3-1-1-20-12-14-%28continued%29) Also, put lights on your ship as suggested above (hotkey is U; I think it used to be L but then someone realized that that was also the key for "translate right"). Or just time your docking maneuvers (about the only time when you actually need to see stuff, unless you're flying a plane, which should have headlights integrated into the landing gear) to occur on the daylight side of a planet.

Edited December 30, 2014 by Hobbes Novakoff
Spelling

[Anquietas314]

hotkey is U; I think it used to be L but then someone realized that that was also the key for "translate right".

Pretty sure it's always been U. EVA lights use L oddly enough though.

[Hobbes Novakoff]

Pretty sure it's always been U. EVA lights use L oddly enough though.

Well L makes more sense of course, and it's not assigned to anything on EVA. They probably should change it just to be more consistent across gameplay, but hey, that's what key mapping is for

[Kryxal]

Funny, I manage docking in the dark well enough usually ... then again, I tend to rotate the ships to point ports at the other, and use navball only till very close in (and then it's just a matter of seeing how far they are from contact).

[Alshain]

Everything is dark in the game... because it's space. Space is dark.

Edited December 30, 2014 by Alshain

[Laie]

Everything is dark in the game... because it's space. Space is dark.

Baloney. It's because the friggin game only knows 256 32 degrees of brightness.

You always have full-on starlight in space. I don't know if that should suffice to make out surface features on the moons and planets (probably not), but most rocket parts are painted blast white. In real life, I can make out white structures in a moonless night pretty well. Our rockets shouldn't be as totally invisible as they are.

Edited December 30, 2014 by Laie

[Greep]

Yeah but if he can't even see his ship in space that sounds unusual :/ Usually there's a graphics setting called "gamma" in every game, try changing that.

[Dida44]

Thank you for your attention, guys !!

In other games have the option to change the GAMMA bringing a little more "clarity", this is not ... I just wanted to admire the ship better. As for graphic resolution, I think that the game has to "evolve" to 64 bit, is a waste to have both available and not be used resource; 64 bit is the future (almost past). The further inclusion of new components in the game in the current plantaforma 32 bit more difficult will "migrate and evolve" to 64 bit.

[The_Rocketeer]

Baloney. It's because the friggin game only knows 256 32 degrees of brightness.

You always have full-on starlight in space. I don't know if that should suffice to make out surface features on the moons and planets (probably not), but most rocket parts are painted blast white. In real life, I can make out white structures in a moonless night pretty well. Our rockets shouldn't be as totally invisible as they are.

Sorry Laie, but this is hogwash. On a 'dark' night on Earth you still benefit from atmospheric light refraction and reflection from surface light sources. Go somewhere really dark and you won't be able to see your hand in front of your face. I remember a crystal clear moonless night on a small Scottish island and I couldn't make out the track under my feet. (Fell in the ditch 4 times.)

[MarvinKitFox]

. I remember a crystal clear moonless night on a small Scottish island and I couldn't make out the track under my feet. (Fell in the ditch 4 times.)

Was that due to the light, or the Scotch?

Clear skies, zero moon, gives ample light to walk by. You can usually make out a newspaper's headlines, but not read the small print.

And Yes, out in space this starlight will be about 2.5* as bright, and most rockets are either white or naked metal in color. Very, very visible.

I almost don't notice when launching at night, and have been carped on for posting a video/pic on here of my ship, not paying attention to the fact that it is in the night shadow of Kerbin. Yes of course it is dark at night in KSP, but the *only* time I've ever had a problem with that was trying to land in a dark crater on Mun or especially on Ike, with no lights on my ship.

[SRV Ron]

Go to the tropics deep in the jungle on a moonless night. I've been there on night patrol. Clear or not, no matter how good your night vision is, you will not be able to see your hand in front of your face. Even a Starlight Scope has difficulties operating under such a condition.

I'll have to ask my astronaut friends that question about visibility in space on the night side of Earth over the Pacific when there is no moon in sight.

Edited December 30, 2014 by SRV Ron

[Laie]

Go to the tropics deep in the jungle on a moonless night.

"Jungle" is the keyword here. On one of my nights out, the moon was so bright that I needed no other lightsource whatsoever. Untangling tent lines, chopping onions, no problem. But when I went under the trees to take a leak, it quickly went pitch black. I could have been pissing against a hog and wouldn't have noticed. Wasn't even a jungle, merely an european forest.

Clear skies, zero moon, gives ample light to walk by.

Maybe a gravel path or a road with markings, but I wouldn't try dirt track in the meadows, if only because I'd stumble over every root and branch along the way.

But a white car sitting in the field (or, more likely, a number of haybales or whatnot covered by white tarp) would still be quite conspicuous.

[The_Rocketeer]

Maybe you just have remarkable night-vision Laie. In my experience, moonless nights in undeveloped regions are black as... well, night. Starlight is lovely stuff, but bright it ain't.

[Hobbes Novakoff]

Funny, I manage docking in the dark well enough

Then you, sir, are a much better pilot than me. I can barely dock on the light side of a planet.

[Anquietas314]

Then you, sir, are a much better pilot than me. I can barely dock on the light side of a planet.

Put lights on the sides of your docking ports They're massless parts, so unless you're constrained by part count (unlikely given how late docking ports are unlocked) there's really no penalty for using them. Except perhaps having a few butt-ugly things sticking out beside the docking port.

EDIT: Oh, and of course there might be some aerodynamics issues if you're using FAR/NEAR.

Docking in general just takes practice. I do however strongly recommend using the Chase camera mode - it makes it a lot easier to align the docking ports and match velocities precisely in my experience.

[Alshain]

EDIT: Oh, and of course there might be some aerodynamics issues if you're using FAR/NEAR.

Not unless your attempting a suborbital dock, there is no air in space, therefore there are no aerodynamics either.

[Anquietas314]

Not unless your attempting a suborbital dock, there is no air in space, therefore there are no aerodynamics either.

Except if you have lights on the side of your docking port, they may well be exposed while you're in the atmosphere. Of course you should probably not be flying with an exposed docking port with FAR, but I suppose you could use the shielded one. I'm not sure how aerodynamic it is though.

[Vanamonde]

Guys, if you have no advice to offer OP, just move on to other threads. There's no need to get into an argument about how dark space should be.

[Alshain]

I seem to recall a mod someone made for streamers and youtubers to help their audience see what was going on. It adjusted the contrast up. That's the only thing I can think of.

[Laie]

I seem to recall a mod someone made for streamers and youtubers to help their audience see what was going on. It adjusted the contrast up. That's the only thing I can think of.

Has already been mentioned a couple of posts back, but because it's so goddamn useful...

Ambient Light Adjustment: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71536

[Kryxal]

Sorry Laie, but this is hogwash. On a 'dark' night on Earth you still benefit from atmospheric light refraction and reflection from surface light sources. Go somewhere really dark and you won't be able to see your hand in front of your face. I remember a crystal clear moonless night on a small Scottish island and I couldn't make out the track under my feet. (Fell in the ditch 4 times.)

This reminds me of when I was out in the middle of nowhere, following a road ... I couldn't see the line down the middle of the road if I looked straight at it, and bright yellow on black (well, grey really, what with weathering) is VERY visible. I had to look somewhat away and bring the rods into play to see the darn thing at all...

[moogoob]

The planetshine mod makes the dark side of your craft brighter when around the dayside, too. Doesn't do anything to when you're in shadow, though.