The other day i noticed a street light was on near fortress/crackhouse on Customs you could see the torch like glow and it looked to be illuminating the ground slightly, this was during the early morning in-game time i think so it was hard to see it, I went back at evening as the sun was going down and it was getting real dark and i couldn't see the light on anymore im not sure at what time the lights turn on(if they do), But i noticed through my NVG scope that all the street lights on the main road and surrounding area in customs give off a lens flare effect asif they were turned ON, But none of them were actually ON, I cant find any gameplay footage but i found some old pre-alpha screenshots showing that all the lights on customs and distant buildings were actually on at one point during development and it looks incredibly detailed and immersive and would make night gameplay amazing, im wondering if there was ever a playable version that had the lights on at customs? I would love to see some night gameplay footage on customs with the lights on, its weird how graphically impressive the game used to look back in 2016, but It's good to know we have the technology capable of doing it.
I've always been confused as to why the maps are pitch black and have very little to no environmental light sources? is it a result of the night vision goggles/scopes update or something? i feel like turning all the lights off so NVG can function better is abit drastic and removes multiple playstyles haha but i can't think of any other reason i doubt they affect performance drastically, night lighting can go a long way to improve gameplay immersion and the way you move through the map, This
i watched some Streets of Tarkov night gameplay and noticed that map has street lights on and enough environmental lighting that its seems possible to do night raids without nvgs so thats a step in the right direction, i just find it weird customs is pitch black now(besides 1 or 2 airplane warning lights on the towers) with remnants of previous version lighting still lingering through the nvg scope lol
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EscapefromTarkov/comments/12efcid/lights_on_customs_at_night/