This is what modern 3rd generation night vision looks like (in about 2000+):
As someone who spent hours looking at things through 3rd gen NVGs in real life, I can tell that MWO's night vision is annoying, horrible, and makes no sense.
Annoying:
Looking through MWO's NV is like looking through a toilet bowl with a hole in the bottom that is illuminated with a bright green flashlight from the inside during a night with no moon or any kind of ambient light whatsoever.
Horrible:
NV is simply not as useful as thermal vision. Gameplay-wise, NV mode is severely inferior to the other vision mode or the naked eye. If it was a game-design decision to limit NV in comparison to the naked eye, then why is it that thermal (the other vision mode) is actually better than naked eye in nearly all types of engagements except for an up-close brawl?
Makes no sense:
The lack of starlight and glowing buildings (Hot buildings? Momma is cooking at night?) indicate that your night vision uses long-wavelength infrared light (the one used in the real-world thermal technology); however, then mechs should be the brightest things of all, especially when they are running hot. Even in the generation one night vision the working range is 750-800 nm, which means that the sky is usually the brightest thing of all.
You really have no clue how NV works, which I would have absolutely no problem with if MWO's NV mode was at least ok to look at. It looks completely unnatural, nothing in real life looks like that (at least as far as I've seen). It is also border-line useless in the game and, again, downright ugly.
Sorry for being so offensive.
Edited by Antony Weiner, 14 January 2013 - 02:20 PM.