This topic is so perfectly on-point, I was compelled to make an a/c here to C&P what I’ve posted elsewhere (warning: it’s a rant). Apparently ‘they’ only look at Larian forums, so hopefully ‘they’ will look at this thread. I’ve edited some parts, as I made explicit reference to this thread from elsewhere. I’m stunned, to be honest, by what has happened with the art direction re: lighting. So here’s my endorsement of the OP's very valid remarks:

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Some people clearly like their lighting to be neon-emblazoned camp, while others, like myself, prefer an earthier grit, something akin to a painting from the old masters – who clearly had more brains in the art department than Larian’s inept artistic leadership.

I haven’t played the game in months, so at first I thought I was mistaken for thinking the lighting had turned into this monotone candy-sludge. But the more I pressed on through the illithid ship, the more wretched the graphics became, until I emerged into the rancid sunlight of the beach and its surrounding visual puke.

The above Patch7/Patch 8 comparison photos deftly highlight the godawful U-turn they took with the lighting. There’s even loss of detail in the armour, as the OP notes. But look at that lurid rainbow-emblazed hair. Good Christ, my eyes…

Now check out how brilliantly the light alone transforms the illithid ship in Patch 7 to a sinister, foreboding and atmospheric lair of mystery and malignance. And look how such a simple change to ‘mere light’ in the Patch 8 screenshot can immediately devastate all the hard work the art team put into the assets.

I mean, this is what the art directors were doing for the last 6 months? In other words, they were actually undoing the progress made in the visuals.

It almost smacks of sabotage, it’s that obnoxious. As thoug¬h some conniving creative cutthroat decided the art asset team were getting too much kudos from the community – so it was time to bring them down a notch, by dousing all their great work in a florid sea of camp.

Now the visuals have been brought down to the stomach-churning mediocrity and ‘safeness’ of the tepid narrative. So there’s only the gameplay left – and could I endure a 100 hours of aesthetic vomit even if the gameplay was A1? No. I need at least some artistic chutzpah to enjoy these things – I don’t just play the games for the mechanics.

Now even – yes! – Blizzard have surpassed Larian in the visual department, with their superlative effort in the recent D4 updates: getting better and better. This is it now, people: the notorious Blizzard, once the grand-high lord of mainstream sell-out-ism, shows more creative daring, more maturity, more intelligence, more balls and more talent.

This lighting change is absolutely execrable stuff from people who don’t even work for a living – who get paid to have ‘fun’. I’m talking about the art directors, not the poor schmucks who have to listen to these talentless hacks.

On a positive note, it is technically ‘just’ lighting (in other words, doesn’t involve an entire graphics engine overhaul to change) – and surely they still have the far, far better previous lighting presets available. Just expose it as an option! Lighting has an unprecedented effect on atmosphere. One wrong turn can turn a great work of art into a monstrosity.

Just google ‘chiaroscuro’ and feast your eyes on the unparalleled evocativeness of extreme light against extreme dark. Now these are visuals with personality, balls, depth, intrigue and power. They’ve almost completely eradicated the colour black from their lighting.

What is wrong with these people who insist on such lurid, rainbow, glow-stick pustule-picture? It’s like the Dragon Age Dreadwolf logo reveal. Months before, I wrote – on other forums – that the initial reveal art for DAD was head-spinning-ly, out-of-control camp, with gratuitous glowing neon effects sparking out from every character and city. I was told by one guy that it was early days and no way were these an indication of what was to come.

It’s as if they read my remark and, as though to ‘stick it’ to me, made their official logo look like some thrashy Saints Row knock-off, all gaudy purples and fluorescent, sparkling visual diarrhoea.

Once again, I implore you to google chiaroscuro and see what could be – what was, in fact – and lament. Now please forgive me while I step away: my eyes have started to bleed again.