In the previous Fallout 3 and NV, your pipboy had a "light".

This wasn't really defined too much as to whether it was just light from the pipboy screen that could be used as flashlight, or, if it was actual flashlight.

The lighting mechanics were a little ambiguous too.

Here, however - http://i.imgur.com/rNFR0iE.jpg

It appears there's an actual dedicated flashlight integrated into the pipboy.

Thoughts?

I'm going to name my Pipboy Aziz. https://youtu.be/mvwd13F_1Gs

Yep. Looks like a light bulb.

I hope so.

The pip-boy light used to be impressively useless, hopefully that will change with the dynamic lighting system 4 appears to have

Huh. I use it to search for loot in piles-o-random-debris in the darker corners of subways & ruins, like all the time. And no, I'm not using any grandiose ENB or "dark night" mods. (Only visual effects things I have are a green-tint-remover and Dynavision for DoF/blur/etc.)

Any good Pip-boy will have a bottle opener for beer and Nuka's

Hmm...maybe my monitor's just dark.

Either way I feel that a more traditional flashlight would be more useful.

The pipboy we get in Fallout 4 is a new model, so the light could be much brighter than those in Fallout 3/NV

I didn't like the pipboy light in previous games because it was just a basic universal light that lit up everything everywhere around you without much by way of focus or shadowing effects.

This flashlight, and this generation of gaming might just let us see more flashlighty effects with shadows, beam focus, fade and reflection effects.

At least that's might hope, and it'd add to some of the atmosphere in making dark places more claustrophobic unless you get yourself addicted to cat-eye, or have a vision mod helmet, or something.

Since when was it a debate where the pipboy light comes from in NV and 3? You can clearly see the pipboy screen light up when you turn it on in third person.

Anyway, this is a great way to show off the new lighting system. This will hopefully add that much more depth to the surroundings when exploring dark foreboding ruins.

It was definitely a light that emanated directly from the Pip-boy screen. You can see it very clearly in third-person.

EDIT< Dang, ninja'd by a few seconds!

thats aparently a cover for a Vacume tube/power plug type thing.. kind of like a plug in port on the Ipad or laptop Flash drive thing that is probably where you plug in addons like the stealthboy.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/File:Fo4_Pip-Boy_vacuum_tube.png

I like this change.

Volumetric lighting FTW. I remember seeing rotating spotlights when they were showing off the settlements; it looks like the lighting in general us hugely improved.

I also remember seeing a ceiling fan overhead light during the settlement building footage.

Raiders used to be alerted by Pipboy usage ALL the town

'Whats that?'

'Huh?'

Lured them in for head shots!

You just raised a really good point...How does the PC open bottles so quickly? Had society gone full screw-cap by 2077, or does the Lone Wanderer/Courier have a bottle opener somewhere on their person at all times?

She's just so macho that she pops them off with her thumb

Actually you eat the bottle whole.

Seriously how else do you explain that the only thing that drops from poping a Nuka cola is the cap and not the bottle?

Related: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-WGCSB6VSQ

Or its just a vaccum tube, its a universe that relies on tech like that still, time will tell.

Considering that none of the other Pipboy variants had external vacuum tubes like that, only vacuum tubes behind a grill in the facing as shown here;

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/c/c2/Fallout_PIP-Boy_2000.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081206231729

and the new lighting physics would almost beg for an actual flashlight, a designated integrated flashlight in this version would, at least to me, seem more probable.

Additionally, most vacuum tube technologies we've seen where tubes are visible, the vacuum tubes are clear, not opaque as seen here -

http://i.imgur.com/rNFR0iE.jpg

If the "bulb" end was clear with the classical vacuum tube look and amber glow to it, I wouldn't disagree with a probability for vacuum tube, but, since it's opaque, it would stand to better reason that it's the reflection chamber for a flashlight.

As to giving it attribution as a chamber for vacuum tube, Fallout has a long history of showing off vacuum tubes as part of the aesthetic, and it wouldn't make logical aesthetic design sense to have some random tube shape on the pipboy that didn't look as vacuum tubey as possible. Further as far as design aesthetic goes, it can really only be seen 3rd person, where if it was vacuum tube related, it'd likely be visible from the first person view as well, instead of obscured.

If however, it's a flashlight, the flashlight itself doesn't need be seen; only the flashlight lighting physics.

It thus makes more design sense from an aesthetic and "functional" plausibility point that the feature pointed out is indeed a flashlight.

I wonder which part hold the battery

Would seam like a very impractial light consider it doesnt have something to direct the light like you see on a flashlight.

It's understandable if some folks have never heard of this thing called a diffuser -

http://images1.sw-cdn.net/model/picture/625x465_1103647_1051302_1429690867.jpg

here's another -

http://images1.sw-cdn.net/model/picture/625x465_1103641_1051269_1429690867.jpg

still doesnt looks like something with directional light, which is the only way it really would be a improvement over fallout 3 light.