I had not time to play CloD for a couple months and now I almost don't recognize it. It looked almost perfect some time ago with best lighting and visuals I have ever seen in the genre if not all other games. It looked so real except probably tree massifs which need only a subtle tweak. I especially loved to take off at a later afternoon, a golden hour with long shadows and everything illuminated by a mild warm light. Now they killed all the beauty with a kind of indigo filter over everything so the sun is still high enough and the ground looks like almost at night. The day time lighting also looks worse now even in the cockpits.
I have loved this game so much due to its outstanding art and visuals and now I see almost no difference with WoP and few others. It's sad they decided to mess up their achievements instead of just adding a gamma and perhaps a color slider in the video settings.

re-calibrate your monitor.

Lol I just knew someone was going to say that.
I personally thought the colours were slightly better about two betas ago, the only thing that really bothers me is the cockpits, which used to be much better.

Soaringbird, there is a rewrite of the gfx engine on the way. I think Luthier has said he won't be changing the colours again, but maybe the new gfx guy will add in a couple of sliders as well just to keep everyone happy.

If I don't see the realistic, contrasty in-cockpit sunlight come back this sim may stay forever in my desk drawer, never
to be installed.

Actually, the only time the cockpits bother me is when someone mentions it! The only thing that does bother me are the flickering shadows on the ground. Once they are fixed, which I'm sure will be dealt with in the upcoming patch, and the performance of the engine is improved, then I will be an extremely happy camper indeed.
Other than that this sim is genuinely beautiful. I know everyones got their own opinion, but thats exactly the point, if 100 people, simmers, artists, laymen or whoever were given the task of making the colours in this (or any) game as realistic as possible I guarantee that there would be 100 different results. Thats just human nature, and we all see things differently.
If anyone finds it impossible to play this sim at all because their opinion is that the greens are slightly the wrong shade of green or something like that, then thats a shame because this thing has a wealth of things to discover and enjoy beyond the pretty scenery. Just my opinion.

What other WW11 air combat game is there to even come up against CloD atm if people shelve it because of colours ? BoB WoV or IL2, anything else? Speaking purely graphically what else is even close?

My monitors are always calibrated. I am accustomed to use colorimeter devices on a regular basis.

I just got my new rig - so I only have Il-2 to compare it with... needless to say, I'm blown away.

It would be nice if the ToD tools get released with the terrain maker SDK... then we can adjust it whichever way we want (including for people with different colour perceptions - like artists, movie watchers who don't go out much, people who live at different latitudes or in places that rain less than England, and people who are colour blind).

We can force the virtual England to confirm to our norms from wherever we happen to live (and call it more realistic)! Should be fun.

I am agree that nothing was even close, some time ago and still is probably. It's pity although they gave up on their old, very realistic lighting and visual style and now seems trying to do something visually simplified like last Battlefield.

Not only that: the drawer will actually be NAILED shut. To remain so forever.

Thus Luthier has ruined not only a sim, but a fine piece of woodwork too.