Ambient Lighting in MoP - Concerned

[Vephriel]

I've been wary of the new lighting effect we're getting with Mists of Pandaria. I wanted to give myself time to get used to it just to be sure, but I think I'm beginning to get worried about its implementation.

While there are some benefits of the new shadows and such, I find overall this new lighting is hurting the look of the game. It washes out details and gives an over-saturated brightness to everything.

As an example, this is a draenei character shown on both live servers and the beta. The customization is identical, all traits are the same. Note how much detail is lost in the Exodar background, then how bright the model itself looks.





Alternatively, here are links to them so you can open each in a new tab and switch between them.
http://i.imgur.com/1kWOx.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JfX8F.jpg

I'm not sure if I like it. I hope there might be a way to turn it off or revert to the old lighting, but I'm not sure if they'll implement a toggle. I can see some zones suffering from this effect when it goes live. If everything's bathed in this glaring contrast it could detract from the look of an area.

What do you guys think of it?

[Kalliope]

That looks....rather terrible. Is it too much to hope that it only applies to the character selection screen?

[Vephriel]

That looks....rather terrible. Is it too much to hope that it only applies to the character selection screen?

It's not, this new effect persists through the entire game. I found the selection screen to be the easiest place to replicate an exact scene for comparison.

It can be easy to ignore in Pandaria if you're on the beta since it's a brand new continent and you're not used to it looking one way or another, but when you start going into familiar areas it becomes more noticeable. I really dislike how bright things are when selected. I especially notice it when I highlight Veph for a screenshot (I usually do this in live so that she's brighter), but now it's just glaring white in some areas. I'm rather unhappy with this change and I dread the fact that it might forever alter the look of the game.

[Kalliope]

Is this something that might be an incorrectly flipped switch on the beta? Is the PTR like this too?

My brain is having trouble believing that this is intentional. >_<

[Boven]

I, too, hope there's a way to toggle it off. I didn't notice it so much in the panda starting area, but when I decided to roll a Tauren monk, it was really apparent. It was bad enough that I found it rather distracting. The over-saturation gave things in Mulgore a very harsh "intense sunset light" kind of look.

[Vephriel]

Unfortunately I do think it's intentional. It's been this way the entire time through beta. Game models now reflect light and shadow more realistically. For example, if I stand beneath some trees in beta, the dappled shadows of the leaves and the sunlight between them will actually appear in that pattern on my character model. In live our models always just have a side of them dedicated to shadow and light, not detailed shapes.

This just has the unfortunate side effect of giving too much contrast and saturation to things.

Here's another example. I tried to stand in roughly the same place. In both of these screenshots I have myself targeted. Notice how plasticy and overly shiny Veph looks in beta. I'm not a fan. :/

Live:


Beta:

[Bonita]

Oh wow. It really does look pretty bad. I don't like this at all. Looks like you have an obnoxious spotlight in front of you lighting everything up.

[Lupis]

Holy crap, that's insane. I really, really hope it will be changed, because that's just ugly. I mean, I want a little harsher lighting… It's very, very dull at the moment. But now it just looks like someone went in and badly photoshopped our characters. x.x

[Neilaren]

Is it really bad that I haven't even noticed this at all X_X That's way too shiny!

(Then again, I've been kinda turning a lot of graphic-y things off all beta because my computer hates it. I could'a sworn the whole point of dropping support for OSX Snow Leopard was so they could really make things efficient for Lion and Mountain Lion, but my performance is just telling me otherwise.)

[Vephriel]

Yeah...I had my reservations when beta started and I first noticed it, but I sort of ignored it for a while. When I actually took the time to sit down and look at comparisons though, I realized how horrible it was, and now I'm just incredibly concerned over the look of the game.

Anything with a bit of shine is suddenly made to look like glossy plastic and all the little textures get washed out.

[Makoes]

Have you tried adjusting your lighting effects? Could just be that something is set to high.

[Meggers]

Good god that's awful.

[Vephriel]

Have you tried adjusting your lighting effects? Could just be that something is set to high.

I have both my live and beta set to Ultra since that's what I always play with.

Even turning everything to Low and Disabled in beta though retains the bright contrast and lighting.

[cowmuflage]

I'm sure they'll fix it.

[Zuilu]

Blech, I remember noticing this issue when I was doing the monk starter zone (I think). There was a human NPC, likely a paladin, wearing white plate armor..I couldn't even make out the details of her armor because it was literally blinding. It's bad enough when you're wearing dark armor, but on the white plate she looked like a lightbulb, it was terrible.

[Vephriel]

Blech, I remember noticing this issue when I was doing the monk starter zone (I think). There was a human NPC, likely a paladin, wearing white plate armor..I couldn't even make out the details of her armor because it was literally blinding. It's bad enough when you're wearing dark armor, but on the white plate she looked like a lightbulb, it was terrible.

I know exactly who you're referring to. I had the same thought when I was doing those quests. Once you target her she's just a blob of white.

[Vephriel]

Sorry for double post, just found a video I was looking for. Wowcrendor made a video on the lighting changes back during the beginning of beta:

http://youtu.be/KG4tsVI5NXo

It goes over some of the differences, and I can see why the new effect would have good aspects, which is why I don't think this is just a glitch or a bug. It seems intentional, it just has a really unpleasant side effect in bright environments. Our models reflect that brightness to the point of practically being light sources themselves.

[Maizou]

I hate to even ask...

How bad is Vortex Pinnacle now?

On Live, it's Blinding to me. I have issues getting through it. >_>

[Miacoda]

You guys might need some sunglasses for this:

[Moonlost]

Mmm. Yes, I've not been on the beta too much to really notice the effects that much, but I have taken note of it on more than one occasion. And I have to agree with the majority here. It's not too bad in live gameplay for the most part (for me at least), but what really bugs me is that the glare is not turned off during character creation. I, personally, want to see my character model as plainly as possible when I'm creating them up. A number of skin tones for a lot of races are very subtle and this bright glare makes it harder for me to discern those small details. It can be more than a little frustrating at times.
I would love for there to be an option to turn this effect on and off, because I can see some that this dynamic lighting could prove to be rather beautiful in some areas and I can also see some people really enjoying the change, and I dearly hope that such a thing will be implemented at some point.