Huge, exagerated airport and aircraft lights

[frankla 44]

What is with the exagerated size of airport lights (such as VASI) and aircraft (Beacon, strobe and landing) lights? Also their placement is strange. For example the VASI lights are blocked by trees that are behind the lights. (I am not sure if I am getting my point across here) I apologize if this has been brought up, bought I still can't find a way to narrow searches on AVSIM.

[Highmike 68]

If you're new to FSX then you're just discovering some of the numerous quirks which feature in this particular sim. You'll find other objects with exagerated dimensions such as houses, trees and motor traffic. I myself have simply made concessions to the peculiarities of this sim and so I no longer give them much attention. A particularly annoying one has been the evidently accidental placement of trees on runway headings just before the threshold. It's not too bad in a nifty bird like a fighter, but in a 747 you can't just manoeuvre around them.In the case of trees the solution is simply to dial down the autogen, but I think you may be stuck with the VASI and aircraft lights.

[Guest UlfB]

Hi,With REX you have the option to alter default runway lights.I wouldn't be surprised if there are some freeware alternatives available in the avsim file library.

[timest 472]

You can add the below in the [DISPLAY] section of your fsx.cfg file:RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=1.0 //scales edge, center,end, touchdown, runwaysRUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=1.0 // scales VASI lightsRUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.0 // scales approach light barsRUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.0 //scales RAILs and ODALs)the description of each is after the //You can alter the values to taste.

[Walt90 0]

Tim,A question for you about REX.Do you have any plans to work the airport rotating beacon? The one in FSX has always troubled me. From what I see, the light goes out around ten miles from the airport. Not very realistic. This is in clear weather.I have managed to adjust the beacon fx file to increase the brightness and adjust the hue, but have not found a way to make the beacon visible past ten miles. What makes it worse is seeing the runway approach lights before the rotating beacon.Best,Walt

[timest 472]

Hi Walt, interesting observation ;)We will look into this and report back.

[frankla 44]

Tim,A question for you about REX.Do you have any plans to work the airport rotating beacon? The one in FSX has always troubled me. From what I see, the light goes out around ten miles from the airport. Not very realistic. This is in clear weather.I have managed to adjust the beacon fx file to increase the brightness and adjust the hue, but have not found a way to make the beacon visible past ten miles. What makes it worse is seeing the runway approach lights before the rotating beacon.Best,Walt

Does REX complement GEX or is it a competing product?

You can add the below in the [DISPLAY] section of your fsx.cfg file:RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=1.0 //scales edge, center,end, touchdown, runwaysRUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=1.0 // scales VASI lightsRUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.0 // scales approach light barsRUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.0 //scales RAILs and ODALs)the description of each is after the //You can alter the values to taste.

Thank you Tim. Is there any line that fixes the aircrafts landing lights and beacons?

[Guest dougwells]

Wow! Great discussion. The conversation has morphed into an area that has always troubled me in FSX.- I have REX. Do the runway light changes come automatically with I pick a new theme or is there somewhere in REX that I must go to make this happen.- VASI lights. Why can I see them from 20-30 miles away. I can turn this WAY down so it is basically only visible ~5-10 miles from airport.- Landing lights. Yes. The default washes out the airport detail and makes it very hard to taxi at night.Love REX. The clouds are amazing and the airport and water textures are a nice addition as well.Doug

[frankla 44]

Wow! Great discussion. The conversation has morphed into an area that has always troubled me in FSX.- I have REX. Do the runway light changes come automatically with I pick a new theme or is there somewhere in REX that I must go to make this happen.- VASI lights. Why can I see them from 20-30 miles away. I can turn this WAY down so it is basically only visible ~5-10 miles from airport.- Landing lights. Yes. The default washes out the airport detail and makes it very hard to taxi at night.Love REX. The clouds are amazing and the airport and water textures are a nice addition as well.Doug

So REX is really a Environment texture package, not a ground texture one? How does it affect the frame rates?

[timest 472]

frankla, no REX doesn't compete or clash in any way with GEX. The only ground textures are for airports (runways, taxiways etc.) The frame rates are subject to how you set texture resolutions and sizes inside the REX config manager.Doug, you can choose your style of runway lights in REX selection area. The section I pasted above in regards to the landing lights in the FSX.cfg file can help tremendously, so you might want to experiment ;)

[Walt90 0]

Hi Walt, interesting observation ;)We will look into this and report back.

Thank you Tim!

[frankla 44]

You can add the below in the [DISPLAY] section of your fsx.cfg file:RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=1.0 //scales edge, center,end, touchdown, runwaysRUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=1.0 // scales VASI lightsRUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.0 // scales approach light barsRUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.0 //scales RAILs and ODALs)the description of each is after the //You can alter the values to taste.

Thanks tim,It didn't do it for me. The problem for me is from far away. The lights are huge and obscure the scene. As I get closer the look and intensity are corrected. This is specially true of nav lights and landing lights of AI planes. from a distance the AI look like to balls of red and green attached to each other. Its almost like a badly exagerated bloom effect, which I have turned off anyway. Again, if i zoom in or get close, the lights become distinct and proportionate. Also the landing lights, the landing lights wash out everything and illuminate the airports in unreal way. The lights illuminate the tops of the buildings too. In other words nothing blocks them off.

[boris4356 4]

Thanks tim,It didn't do it for me. The problem for me is from far away. The lights are huge and obscure the scene. As I get closer the look and intensity are corrected. This is specially true of nav lights and landing lights of AI planes. from a distance the AI look like to balls of red and green attached to each other. Its almost like a badly exagerated bloom effect, which I have turned off anyway. Again, if i zoom in or get close, the lights become distinct and proportionate. Also the landing lights, the landing lights wash out everything and illuminate the airports in unreal way. The lights illuminate the tops of the buildings too. In other words nothing blocks them off.

This bothered me too, and I found that by replacing the halo.bmp file with another version from the file library helped to make the lights a bit smaller. Not perfect mind you, but a little better.Bill

[frankla 44]

This bothered me too, and I found that by replacing the halo.bmp file with another version from the file library helped to make the lights a bit smaller. Not perfect mind you, but a little better.Bill

thank you bill. Can you point me to the location of the file? both in the library and in fsx folder?