Hi,I've been simming for a little over a year now. Usually get 2-5 hours per week in and find myself enjoying it more and more each month.One problem I'd love advice on. The virtual cockpit is very dark - even in daytime flying. I find this to be true in all the FSX default planes as well as the wonderfully done Dreamfleet Dakota, FSD Saratoga and Alphasim LongEZ. When flying on a sunny day, the 2-D panel is well lit and beautiful. Switch over to VC in almost any airplane and it is quite a bit "darker". Like there is not enough light getting into the cockpit. I love flying in VC but this keeps me from doing it more often.Any ideas?

Hi,I've been simming for a little over a year now. Usually get 2-5 hours per week in and find myself enjoying it more and more each month.One problem I'd love advice on. The virtual cockpit is very dark - even in daytime flying. I find this to be true in all the FSX default planes as well as the wonderfully done Dreamfleet Dakota, FSD Saratoga and Alphasim LongEZ. When flying on a sunny day, the 2-D panel is well lit and beautiful. Switch over to VC in almost any airplane and it is quite a bit "darker". Like there is not enough light getting into the cockpit. I love flying in VC but this keeps me from doing it more often.Any ideas?

Want VC light, try the default Lear 45 at night.....and soak up the retinal tan. After that, the VC lighting will seem about right.

Hi,I've been simming for a little over a year now. Usually get 2-5 hours per week in and find myself enjoying it more and more each month.One problem I'd love advice on. The virtual cockpit is very dark - even in daytime flying. I find this to be true in all the FSX default planes as well as the wonderfully done Dreamfleet Dakota, FSD Saratoga and Alphasim LongEZ. When flying on a sunny day, the 2-D panel is well lit and beautiful. Switch over to VC in almost any airplane and it is quite a bit "darker". Like there is not enough light getting into the cockpit. I love flying in VC but this keeps me from doing it more often.Any ideas?

Actually you could try raising the contrast setting on your monitor a bit. That might help some.

Many of the default aircraft have a bug in the aircraft.cfg which means their VC dome lights as disabled.Take the CRJ 700 from Microsoft for example, if you look in its aircraft.cfg and look for the [lights] section you will see that a couple of the lines are disabled (commented out) because they have // in front of them. If you remove the // this will re enable the dome lighting.You can also easily tell if its VC (virtual cockpit) lighting as it will have vc in the name as can be seen in the examples below. Do not remove the // from in front of the name if the name at the end of the line does not contain vc in it, you may end up with unpredictable results if you do.

[LIGHTS]	 //Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing	 light.0 = 3,  -64.70, -37.00,  -0.50, fx_navredm ,	 light.1 = 3,  -64.70,  37.00,  -0.50, fx_navgrem ,	 light.2 = 3,  -104.63,   0.00,  14.30, fx_navwhi ,	 light.3 = 1,  -29.00,   0.00, -2.30, fx_beaconb ,	 light.4 = 2,  -104.63,   0.00,  15.00, fx_strobe ,	 light.5 = 1,  -32.50,   0.00,  7.00, fx_beaconh ,	 //light.6 = 4,  -10.00,   0.00,  3.90, fx_vclighth,   remove the // to enable VC dome lights.	 light.7 = 2,  -64.50, -36.50,  -0.50, fx_strobe ,	 light.8 = 2,  -64.50,  36.50,  -0.50, fx_strobe ,

//This is how it would look with the VC dome lights enabled	 [LIGHTS]	 //Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing	 light.0 = 3,  -64.70, -37.00,  -0.50, fx_navredm ,	 light.1 = 3,  -64.70,  37.00,  -0.50, fx_navgrem ,	 light.2 = 3,  -104.63,   0.00,  14.30, fx_navwhi ,	 light.3 = 1,  -29.00,   0.00, -2.30, fx_beaconb ,	 light.4 = 2,  -104.63,   0.00,  15.00, fx_strobe ,	 light.5 = 1,  -32.50,   0.00,  7.00, fx_beaconh ,	 light.6 = 4,  -10.00,   0.00,  3.90, fx_vclighth,	 light.7 = 2,  -64.50, -36.50,  -0.50, fx_strobe ,	 light.8 = 2,  -64.50,  36.50,  -0.50, fx_strobe ,

One problem I'd love advice on. The virtual cockpit is very dark - even in daytime flying. I find this to be true in all the FSX default planes as well as the wonderfully done Dreamfleet Dakota, FSD Saratoga and Alphasim LongEZ. When flying on a sunny day, the 2-D panel is well lit and beautiful. Switch over to VC in almost any airplane and it is quite a bit "darker". Like there is not enough light getting into the cockpit. I love flying in VC but this keeps me from doing it more often.Any ideas?

I have a work around for you, but not everyone likes what I do. I use the SMOKE system to activate the old vclight fx files via the "i" keyboard assignment. Here are some examples but be sure to backup your original aircraft.cfg files first!This shows how one may get daytime VC lights and retain the night VC lights. After inserting the smokesystem (and make sure the VC lights are commented out under the LIGHTS section), then by using the "i" key in the daytime you get good VC lights. At night the Shift-L controls panel lights but both on are super bright, so just toggle the "i" key again to use only the night system. This way you get the best of both worlds. These are the six aircraft I've done this for.Goose Gruman, C206B Grand Caravan, Default B737-800, Default C172, Default Douglas DC3, and Maule M7 260C=============== Goose Gruman =====================[Views]eyepoint = -0.9, -1.35, 2.95 //Longitudinal, Lateral, Vertical (feet)[SMOKESYSTEM]smoke.0 = -0.9, -1.35, 2.95, fx_vclighth //Add vc lights for day use[LIGHTS]//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landinglight.5 = 1, -15.6, -0.26, 4.4, fx_beacon ,//light.7 = 4, 1.60, 0.00, 2.70, fx_vclight,================== C206B Grand Caravan =======================[Views]eyepoint = -12.5, -1.2, 2.19 //(feet) longitudinal, lateral, vertical distance from reference datum[SMOKESYSTEM]//smoke.0 = -10.5, 0.00, 1.19, fx_vclighth //Add vc lights for day usesmoke.0 = -12.5, -1.2, 2.19, fx_vclighth //Add vc lights for day use[LIGHTS]//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit light.0 = 3, -16.72, -25.80, 3.85, fx_navredhlight.1 = 3, -16.28, 25.80, 3.85, fx_navgrehlight.2 = 3, -42.28, 0.00, 2.12, fx_navwhihlight.3 = 2, -16.90, -25.90, 3.85, fx_strobehlight.4 = 2, -16.45, 25.90, 3.85, fx_strobehlight.5 = 1, -40.10, 0.00, 10.01, fx_beaconh//light.6 = 4, -11.61, 0.00, 0.98, fx_vclight================ Default B737-800 =========================[Views]//eyepoint = 48.2, -1.55, 1.9 //(feet) longitudinal, lateral, vertical distance from reference datumeyepoint = 48.2, -1.20, 1.9[SMOKESYSTEM]//smoke.0 = 47.60, 0.00, 3.00, fx_vclighth //Add vc lights for day usesmoke.0 = 48.2, 0.00, 1.9, fx_vclighth //Add vc lights for day use[LIGHTS] //Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landinglight.0 = 3, -24.20, -56.60, 3.90, fx_navredm ,light.1 = 3, -24.20, 56.60, 3.90, fx_navgrem ,light.2 = 2, -71.32, 0.00, 5.92, fx_strobeh ,light.3 = 2, -25.00, -57.20, 4.20, fx_strobe ,light.4 = 2, -25.00, 57.20, 4.20, fx_strobe ,light.5 = 2, -7.55, 0.00, -5.50, fx_beaconb ,light.6 = 1, 2.00, 0.00, 8.70, fx_beaconh ,//light.7 = 4, 47.60, 0.00, 3.00, fx_vclighth ,light.8 = 3, -29.50, -56.60, 3.70, fx_navwhih ,light.9 = 3, -29.50, 56.60, 3.70, fx_navwhih ,================= Default C172 =====================[Views]eyepoint= -3.95, -0.85, 1.9 //(feet) longitudinal, lateral, vertical distance from reference datum[SMOKESYSTEM]smoke.0 = -2.27, 0.00, 1.45, fx_vclighth //Add vc lights for day use[LIGHTS]//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpitlight.0 = 3, -2.76, -18.11, 2.97, fx_navredlight.1 = 3, -2.78, 18.11, 2.95, fx_navgrelight.2 = 2, -3.13, -18.31, 2.95, fx_strobelight.3 = 2, -3.11, 18.31, 2.95, fx_strobelight.4 = 1, -20.51, 0.00, 6.20, fx_beacon//light.5 = 4, -2.27, 0.00, 1.45, fx_vclight=================== Default Douglas DC3 ======================[Views]eyepoint = -6.495, -0.8, 3.25 //was 3.32//eyepoint = -6.495, -1.4, 3.26 //-6.495, -0.8, 3.25[SMOKESYSTEM]smoke.0 = -6.50, 0.00, 4.80, fx_vclighth //Add vc lights for day use[LIGHTS]//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landinglight.0 = 3, -27.20, -46.30, 0.65, fx_navredm ,light.1 = 3, -27.20, 46.30, 0.65, fx_navgrem ,light.2 = 3, -64.00, 0.00, 2.72, fx_navwhi ,light.3 = 1, -36.80, 0.00, 6.25, fx_beaconh ,//light.4 = 4, -6.50, 0.00, 4.80, fx_vclighth,light.5 = 4, -33.00, 0.00, 4.20, fx_vclighth,==================== Maule M7 260C ===========================[Views]eyepoint= -2.0, -0.75, 1.4 //(feet) longitudinal, lateral, vertical distance from reference datum[SMOKESYSTEM]smoke.0 = -2.24, 0.00, 2.20, fx_vclighth //Add vc lights for day use[LIGHTS]//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit light.0 = 3, -1.23, -16.56, 2.68, fx_navredlight.1 = 3, -1.23, 16.56, 2.68, fx_navgrelight.2 = 3, -17.05, 0.00, 4.45, fx_navwhilight.3 = 2, -1.23, -16.56, 2.68, fx_strobelight.4 = 2, -1.23, 16.56, 2.68, fx_strobe//light.5 = 4, -2.24, 0.00, 2.20, fx_vclightWARNING! If you use this method, you loose the "smoke" capability, so it's just a trade off. It's a choice you have to make.Phill

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try modifying a .cfg file and see how I like it.Do all of you also have significantly darker virtual cockpit views even when flying daytime with bright sunny weather? When I see the VC screenshots from vendors, they all look like they have plenty of sunshine in the cockpit and no need for extra lighting. I'd love to just have the look of a sunny bright cockpit without external lighting.Thanks again for everyone's help!

Just think of it as wearing sunglasses, LOL. I believe it has to do with the lighting in FS, the way it is programmed. On a real sunny day you would be squinting and the parts of the cockpit that the sun shined on would be very bright, you just don't get that kind of contrast in FS. I don't run in DX10 mode, but doesn't this give you shadows in the VC? Does this also affect the brightness?