Driving at night is too dark! Help please.

[JoshOz]

I would like to know how to make driving at night possible (or at least more enjoyable). At the moment if I try to drive at night on any track I find it too dark. I have my headlights on and they are on high beam. I am using an LG OLED as my monitor with my PC connected. Black levels in everything else I play seems to be ok so I don't think it's the TV calibration as such.
I've got CSP 0.1.52 and Sol 1.54+1.6 installed. I have found two setting in the Sol config app - 'Night brightness' and 'Black level compensation'. The first setting, 'Night brightness' helps a little if I max it out to 200%. The second setting 'Black level compensation' also helps but I don't want to use it because it affects the overall black level, including driving during the day.
The way I describe the problem is if you ever driven an older car with poor headlights. You can see but it's a strain. I'd really like to to do some night driving but it's a struggle. I've seen screenshots and videos of Assetto Corsa at night and it always seem quite bright and drivable.

Does anyone have any ideas that might help. I posted a question a while back in regards to brightness calibration of Assetto Corsa so this kind of relates to that.

Thanks,
JoshOz.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

 

[JoshOz]

View attachment 387052

Thanks for your response Andrew_WOT. I already had that option ticked and set to 100%. My settings are all as suggested by the Sol instructions. Before I go messing with these options do you know which settings particularly improve overall track visibility at night, like headlights for cars?
JoshOz.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Thanks for your response Andrew_WOT. I already had that option ticked and set to 100%. My settings are all as suggested by the Sol instructions. Before I go messing with these options do you know which settings particularly improve overall track visibility at night, like headlights for cars?
JoshOz.

Increase it if it's too dark, that's it.

 

[Mitch9]

Increase it if it's too dark, that's it.

Sorry mate, that´s not it. I´m having a similar problem; I´ve increased the brightness and gamma in the lighting fx and track objects ike walls and dust become more visible, but the tarmac itself is still pitch black. Does this have to do with the texture of the road itself?

 

[JoshOz]

Hi Jlmp93,
I have done some experimenting with settings since my original post. I think I may have fixed the problem. Your screenshot looks similar to what I was experiencing. There is just no way to drive at night with it like that. The road blackness could be just that particular texture, I'm not sure about that but here are some things that might help you.
1. First setting I changed was in the Sol Config panel once in the game itself. The setting is called 'Night brightness adjust'. I changed my setting to 200%. It really helps with ambient lighting. Without increasing this setting I can barely see anything other than my car's headlights.
2. If that doesn't do enough then the other setting is the brightness setting within the Lighting FX in Custom Shaders Patch. I'm pretty sure you've already done this. This is more useful if your headlights and track lighting is too dark. I don't think it helps with ambient brightness. I have included screenshots of both settings that may/may not help you but at least they are here in case someone else has this problem.

Notes: I found some other settings that seem to help initially but I soon realised they affected daylight settings as well, so not so good.

They are the 'black level compensation' and the 'ppfilter brightness'. These two settings can be tweaked a little but you'd only use these if you had overall brightness issues. I accidentally had the ppfilter brightness turned up to 116% and wondered why my day racing looked so bright and washed out.

See how you go with the first setting. Hope it helps and I'll be interested to hear how you go.
All the best,
JoshOz.

 

[JoshOz]

Thought I better post a follow up regarding this issue. I just updated Sol and noticed how it was once again too dark at night. I checked the Sol Config panel and found the night brightness had reverted to around 60%. I had to bump it back up to 200%.
Anyone else who's been adjusting night brightness, just remember to check it after updating Sol.

JoshOz.

 

[Sheepy!]

One thing that helped me was bumping up the headlight wideness in the Lighting FX section

I found that 115-120% made the canyons much easier to drive at night

Edit: Also I found it was helpful to make sure the night sky was clear of clouds when driving at night. Helps the stars shine through a little bit. Not like the assetto by night mod, but enough that it's not pitch black like it can be at 2am with thunder clouds.

Edit 2: Ah I see you already tried the headlight wideness, my bad

 

[JoshOz]

One thing that helped me was bumping up the headlight wideness in the Lighting FX section

I found that 115-120% made the canyons much easier to drive at night

Edit: Also I found it was helpful to make sure the night sky was clear of clouds when driving at night. Helps the stars shine through a little bit. Not like the assetto by night mod, but enough that it's not pitch black like it can be at 2am with thunder clouds.

Edit 2: Ah I see you already tried the headlight wideness, my bad

Hi Sheepy!
I didn't alter the headlight wideness setting consciously to help with the darkness, I just changed settings according to the Sol instructions. The night brightness setting in Sol config panel seems to be the only setting I can find that helps with ambient light levels while not negatively affecting other aspects of gameplay. I haven't tried the 'assetto by night' mod so I'll have to have a look. I agree with you about the clear skies. I just set my weather to clear if driving while dark. I've come to the conclusion that driving at night is more of a novelty for me in AC due to lack of vision. It's good for a bit of fun and something different.
Thanks for your input Sheepy!
JoshOz.

 

[JoshOz]

Hi all,
I've just figured out something very important in the equation in regards to it being too dark at night. I just installed Adam's Sol Enhanced 2.0 Final Release and was testing it by cycling through time on a track when I noticed how dark it was at night. Once again I was back to where I started and I was checking all my settings to make sure nothing had reverted/changed. After a while I decided to switch on the 'PPFilter Config' panel while in the game and toggled the post process filter to 'Natural_Mod' ppfilter and all of sudden the track lit up beautifully (Note: this filter is too bright during the day which probably explains why so good for night driving). I could see everything and my car headlights were actually projecting light onto the road. Moral of the story - If you have already maxed out the night brightness setting in the Sol Config panel, then it could be your selection of post processing filter causing the darkness. Good to remember in case you are experimenting and forget you have changed it recently then go to drive and night and can't see a thing.

Hope this helps.

JoshOz.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Which filter did you start with, __Sol_Extra?

 

[JoshOz]

Which filter did you start with, __Sol_Extra?

Hi Andrew_WOT.
I've just been using the basic Sol filter mainly, although I was experimenting a bit with others. I just didn't realise the negative effect a filter could have on night driving. I'm in the process of finding out from iG_ADVM about how to use his new Sol enhanced filter at night. Sounds like he's put in a lot of effort on producing a good all purpose filter.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

Try _SOL_Extra, it should be better optimized for SOL. Other PPs might require some fine tuning.

 

[JoshOz]

Try _SOL_Extra, it should be better optimized for SOL. Other PPs might require some fine tuning.

I'll give it another try. I have tried it before but thought it was a little over saturated in colour and contrast but maybe I just need to give it more time.

 

[Mitch9]

Well too bad I wasn´t getting any notifications on this thread! So I messed a bit with the 'Night brightness adjust' and a clear sky at night (I almost always use scattered clouds) and it did help the issue, but I was also using a different track/car combo. Turns out the chivas GT500 have terrible headlights and I´m yet to check what´s up with the adelaide road texture. Will try that and the pp filter later. Thanks!

 

[JoshOz]

Well too bad I wasn´t getting any notifications on this thread! So I messed a bit with the 'Night brightness adjust' and a clear sky at night (I almost always use scattered clouds) and it did help the issue, but I was also using a different track/car combo. Turns out the chivas GT500 have terrible headlights and I´m yet to check what´s up with the adelaide road texture. Will try that and the pp filter later. Thanks!

Hi Jlmp93,
I feel like there are too many variables to make driving at night a reliable/enjoyable experience. What I mean by this is that once you've got it sorted you will still find times when it's too dark again, depending on track and car, as you mentioned. The two settings that definitely make a difference are 1 - Night brightness in Sol Config (I've got mine maxed out at 200%) and 2 - The ppfilter you have selected. Some ppfilters are just not suitable for night time. I'm currently experimenting with A3PP as it seems to offer good day/night balance. I really don't want to be changing ppfilter every time I change between day and night driving. You can also increase the Lighting FX brightness level but this is my least preferred option at it blows out the exposure somewhat.

Also, I recently started playing Automobilista 2 and the same problem exists in that game. I checked on the Reiza forum and others have the same problem. The worst part is that AMS2 doesn't appears to have ANY way of making it brighter at night. Even the cars don't seem to have high/low beam.
Let me know how you go Jlmp93. I'll try to help if I can.
JoshOz.

 

[ReduxASSETTO]

Lol i cant find sol config there is only some weather options

 

[JoshOz]

Lol i cant find sol config there is only some weather options

ReduxASSETTO, you should be able to see a 'sol config' button in the panel with all other apps. If it's not there then check in your Assetto Corsa settings under ‘apps' where you can toggle them on/off. It might need to be activated.

Also, I recently bought a computer monitor which I’m using now instead of my OLED tv. The night driving is much better now. So while OLED TVs are great for movies and perfect blacks, they might not be the most suitable for sim racing at night. Good to keep in mind.

 

[Sim_Misg]

...
Also, I recently bought a computer monitor which I’m using now instead of my OLED tv. The night driving is much better now. So while OLED TVs are great for movies and perfect blacks, they might not be the most suitable for sim racing at night. Good to keep in mind.

In that case you do have a calibration/config issue. Some of the lowest dark levels are clipped out on your OLED. Was it running on HDMI?

 

[realdealgod]

Excelent thread,

I was struggling and now I'm just fine tuning!

Thanks @JoshOz!