I have posted this before - however I did it in someone elses post and the post just disappeared off into the neverever land unanswered :) and I can't find it B)So I am really hoping someone can help in this post because this is really frustrating me and causing FS2002 to be almost unplayable at night... Since I usually do a lot of night flying (which is one of the reaons I bought the game - I love lights :()The problem is I have noticed is that the Runway lights (and taxi way lights) are very dull and hard to see when looking through the main cockpit window. However, if you look to the left, or right, or use the Virtual Cockpit (even if there isn't one) or any extrnal view the runway lights and other external lights are bright and clear. This isn't much of a big issue during normal flight, but as you can see - coming in for landing can be... painful at times... I was flying into Christchurch Airport today at 2am, and prefectly clear conditions - yet still had to use ILS to find the runway (and I'm BAD at that :()I have replaced the runway lights with some other ones around but the same thing happens. As you can see between the two pictures, the difference in light intensity is very different... The first one is inside the cockpit - the second is the Virtual Cockpit view. As you can see I haven't got any internal lights on (it is the same with or without the internal lights on). I have altered everything in my setup to see if that could be the problem, but still nothing...Please, any help would be really great --- even just suggestions (polite ones please :()ThanksWiNC

Hi WiNC,Check out this site under down-loads: http://fsw.simflight.com/ It has a nice selection of lights to choose from...good luck!This Hobby Just Keeps Getting Better... :-yellow1Kind Regardshttp://www.aavirtual.com/images/aav700_banner.gif

I was having the same problem......runway lights, etc was very, very dull in FS although other programs seemed OK. Very frustrating. Then my monitor went out and I had to go out and buy a new one. Bought a 17" flat screen and suddenly everything became super bright...now see details I never saw before....I am truly enjoying FS more than ever. Suggest you check out your monitor.Bob

Most aircraft panel configurations use a non full screen outside view behind the panel, one exception is the default Bell206. If you cycle through the W key to get rid of the panel and use the minigauges or no gauges or switch to the virtual cockpit or other views you will see the outside view in a full screen. Move your panel up so you can see the bottom of the outside view window and drag the outside view window down to the bottom of the screen and then put your panel back in position. You will have to hit Shift+enter several times to get the ground in view again. You can save the situation like that or change the panel.cfg to get the outside view full screen all the time. One problem is whenever you switch views and then back you will have to use Shift+enter again.To change the panel.cfg change the SIZE_Y=line to 6143 &l;Default View&r;X=0Y=0SIZE_X=8192SIZE_Y=2500 *** change to 6143 ***To avoid having to use Shift+enter all the time I believe you can adjust the value in the &l;Views&r;VIEW_FORWARD_DIR=to compensate, although you will have to play with the values till they are right. If the panel.cfg you change is used as your start up, you may have to switch aircraft and then switch back and resave.Make sure you have a copy/backup in a safe place of any files you are going to modify. Kurt M

Kurt - you are a wonder!!!!! :)Thank you - I would never have figured that out myself - It appears all the default planes by Microsoft have this issue... so your instructions above worked perfectly!! :)Thanks !! :)Further to testing I have found the following works well (usually no need to tweak)when you change the [Views]VIEW_FORWARD_DIR=add +10 to it and it puts it back to what it was with their default settings.Most don't have the View_Forward_Dir setting so you just put in[Views]VIEW_FORWARD_DIR=10,0,0Though some do have this and it is usually set at 3,0,0 so you just change that to 13,0,0I have just gone through and changed all the default (bar the chopper which was fine) to the new settings. now I have lovely bright lights which you can see miles away in a clear night :)

I'm glad it worked out. I've also noticed that having the outside view at full screen is one of four ways to eliminate the panel discoloring that happens with certain video card/driver combinations. On my system at least I have to have 4 conditions present to get the discoloration, if any one is changed the panel is fine.The only time I get the discoloration is if 1-fsaa in used2-16 bit is used3-the outside view window is not full screen4-text is on screenKurt M

I've applied the fixes to several aircraft panels (built-ins, freeware, payware) and the fixes worked very well. Those and the combination light sets from FSW lend toward a very workable night environment.In addition to the discoloration problems you describe being software and image related, some cards and monitors have poor video "clamping" resulting in color distortion when a strong dominant color is present, or the apparent overall contrast changes with average pcture level or brightness giving an appearance of flare. Look for changes of black items as the overall pix average brightness changes. These are hardware related issues that are best worked around by maintaining moderate card and monitor settings so the circuits are not over driven by too strong video levels.

>I'm glad it worked out. >>I've also noticed that having the outside view at full >screen is one of four ways to eliminate the panel >discoloring that happens with certain video card/driver >combinations. On my system at least I have to have 4 >conditions present to get the discoloration, if any one is >changed the panel is fine. >>The only time I get the discoloration is if >>1-fsaa in used >2-16 bit is used >3-the outside view window is not full screen >4-text is on screen >>>Kurt M I also have had this problem and had also noticed the "conditions" required to produce it -- I also noticed that it didn't happen in all aircraft - maybe this has to do with the size of the outside view window. Will have to investigate this more . My solution was to operate in 32 bit mode - but this does rob me of a few framerates Barry

Hey WinNC!I had the same problem when I first started using FS2002. The solution for me was not buying a new monitor, but rather it was a simple adjustment of the "brightness" in my monitor. As soon as I increased my monitor brightness, life was good again and my lights displayed fairly nice. I say fairly because the problem is still there, and I think it is a programming problem from the part of Microshaft, but at least with the brightness you can get around the problem and see some visible runway lights at night.Give it a try!Sincerely,Dennis D. Mullerthttp://www.aavirtual.com/images/aav205_banner.gif[/img]

Hi :)I adjusted the brightness of my 17" monitor and it made a difference :). I also find that the default street lights are woefully dark.. let me give you an example:-On approach to Piarco Int'l in real life, the built up areas are very bright, but in FS2002 you can barely see the lights :( ... I downloaded the "White Night" files from the following site, and I can see the built up areas :)http://members.aon.at/white-night/ :)http://www.aavirtual.com/images/aav2207_banner.gif