unable to fly at night

[mbunjes 1]

Hi everybody,I have a problem that I can't seem to find the answer to. All my airports at night are pitch black, except for my own landing and taxi lights. I need a guide dog to get me from the runway to the gate.I've tried all the settings in display options (I think) but nothing turns on tje airport lights. Are there no airport lights in FS9 or do I need an add-on for that ?cheersMartin

[Opa 6]

Hi everybody,I have a problem that I can't seem to find the answer to. All my airports at night are pitch black, except for my own landing and taxi lights. I need a guide dog to get me from the runway to the gate.I've tried all the settings in display options (I think) but nothing turns on tje airport lights. Are there no airport lights in FS9 or do I need an add-on for that ?cheersMartin

You have an issue that I do not think I have seen in the forums before.Most default airports in FS2004 (also known as FS9) DO have some sort of lighting of the buildings etc. - albiet pretty basic at best. There are some very good enhancements available for download but I think the FIRST order of business is to find out why you are not seeing the default night lighting.Please post your System Specs and Operating System - XP, Vista or Win 7. My guess is that it is an OS setting. As far as I know there is no setting in FS2004 which would turn night lighting on and off.

[mbunjes 1]

You have an issue that I do not think I have seen in the forums before.Most default airports in FS2004 (also known as FS9) DO have some sort of lighting of the buildings etc. - albiet pretty basic at best. There are some very good enhancements available for download but I think the FIRST order of business is to find out why you are not seeing the default night lighting.Please post your System Specs and Operating System - XP, Vista or Win 7. My guess is that it is an OS setting. As far as I know there is no setting in FS2004 which would turn night lighting on and off.

Thanks for taking the time. The buildings do have some sort of lighting but all runways, taxiways and platforms are totally black.My system specs are pretty anciient :P4 3GHz , 2.5 Gb RAM, ATI Radeon 1950 Pro with driver 8.593.1, Sound Blaster XF Extreme , Saitek Proflight yoke and rudder, two monitors MIP and overhead, homebuild pedestal with Goflight throttle, switches and Open Cockpits modules connected to one of two wideserver clients also running Active Sky, Radar Contact 4, Flightsim Commander and FS Real Time, the other client running TOPCAT and Google earth. All machines run Windows XP professional with the latest updates. At the moment I'm 30 miles from Albuquerque on my way to KJFK so I can't delve too deep in my machine running FS.Hope this is enough information for you.BTW do you have dutch ancestors ? Opa being grandfather in dutch....

[Opa 6]

Thanks for taking the time. The buildings do have some sort of lighting but all runways, taxiways and platforms are totally black.My system specs are pretty anciient :P4 3GHz , 2.5 Gb RAM, ATI Radeon 1950 Pro with driver 8.593.1, Sound Blaster XF Extreme , Saitek Proflight yoke and rudder, homebuild pedestal with Goflight throttle, switches and Open Cockpits modules connected to one of two wideserver clients also running Active Sky, Radar Contact 4, Flightsim Commander and FS Real Time, the other client running TOPCAT and Google earth. All machines run Windows XP professional with the latest updates. At the moment I'm 30 miles from Albuquerque on my way to KJFK so I can't delve too deep in my machine running FS.Hope this is enough information for you.BTW do you have dutch ancestors ? Opa being grandfather in dutch....

Opa is the word for Grandfather in several languages I have discovered. My second son married a German gal and all the grandkids know us as Oma (grandmother) and Opa. Makes it easier to distinguish the two sets of grandparents.As to your lighting issue I am at a loss. You are running a far more sophisticated system than I.I am also using XP (on a single monitor) so the idea of an OS setting issue (such as in Vista) seems remote.Perhaps some others who run multiple monitors will chime in and be able to assist. :(

[january 19]

Opa is the word for Grandfather in several languages I have discovered. My second son married a German gal and all the grandkids know us as Oma (grandmother) and Opa. Makes it easier to distinguish the two sets of grandparents.As to your lighting issue I am at a loss. You are running a far more sophisticated system than I.I am also using XP (on a single monitor) so the idea of an OS setting issue (such as in Vista) seems remote.Perhaps some others who run multiple monitors will chime in and be able to assist. :(

Opa & Martin- I run triple monitors & views with a really ancient AMD 1.8. I have lighting on all taxiways/runways etc with no problem. I use Ultimate Terrain with everything ON. I'm also mystified- but I'm pretty sure lighting has nothing to do with multiple monitors.Alex ReidNight Approach at KORD

[jagabom 21]

Alex, are you ever going to upgrade that unit?JimCYWG

[mbunjes 1]

So , I guess that confines my flying to daytime only.

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

Hi everybody,I have a problem that I can't seem to find the answer to. All my airports at night are pitch black, except for my own landing and taxi lights. I need a guide dog to get me from the runway to the gate.I've tried all the settings in display options (I think) but nothing turns on tje airport lights. Are there no airport lights in FS9 or do I need an add-on for that ?cheersMartin

I agree that the night lighting of airports is very poor.You can of course use the progressive taxi to guide you to gate or parking.One way i found it easier to taxi around at night was to make sure i was also in darkness.i would turn of my room lights and just use a low wattage red light,( i had to have some light as the monitor would dazzle my eyes after awhile)and by doing this i would find that my eyes would adapt to the dark and i could see the taxiways a little better.Its worth a try.Andy

[Guest Astradan]

"Unable to fly at night"I knew a pigeon once that didn't like carrots. He had this problem too.

[mbunjes 1]

"Unable to fly at night"I knew a pigeon once that didn't like carrots. He had this problem too.

Aahh... Don't like carrots either......

[january 19]

Alex, are you ever going to upgrade that unit?JimCYWG

Why?????Been married to the same great lady for 53 years- no plans to upgrade her either!<grin>Alex Reid

[N60JBravo 27]

Back to the topic....Here are a couple things to checkNavigate to ...\FS9\Texture and verify that folder contains halo.bmpIf it does not, or you want to try replacing the one you have with the original, it can be extracted from MSGAME3.cab which is located on FS9 disc #2.Open your FS9.cfg file and look for something like - [DISPLAY]RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=.7RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=.7RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=.7RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=.7The default values are 1 and not included in the .cfg by default, I think. You might try adding them and changing the values to =2 to see if that makes any change.In FS9 settings>display>Scenery tab try setting the scenery objects sliders on high, and special effects detail too.In FS9 settings>display>Hardware tab under "hardware rendering options" -Try flying with "Transform and lighting" both checked and unchecked.Try flying with the "Hardware-rendered lights" slider at different settings, both high and low.Granted that I am grasping at straws here, but in several years of following forums, focusing on problems and how to fix them, I don't remember ever seeing this issue. This might be why your not getting much response.A re-install may be the answer, but I wouldn't recommend that unless nothing else works.Also, airport surface lighting is done differently than the night lighting textures on buildings, so the fact you have one and not the other is inconsequential. Hope this helps,Joe

[mbunjes 1]

Back to the topic....Here are a couple things to checkNavigate to ...\FS9\Texture and verify that folder contains halo.bmpIf it does not, or you want to try replacing the one you have with the original, it can be extracted from MSGAME3.cab which is located on FS9 disc #2.Open your FS9.cfg file and look for something like - [DISPLAY]RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=.7RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=.7RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=.7RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=.7The default values are 1 and not included in the .cfg by default, I think. You might try adding them and changing the values to =2 to see if that makes any change.In FS9 settings>display>Scenery tab try setting the scenery objects sliders on high, and special effects detail too.In FS9 settings>display>Hardware tab under "hardware rendering options" -Try flying with "Transform and lighting" both checked and unchecked.Try flying with the "Hardware-rendered lights" slider at different settings, both high and low.Granted that I am grasping at straws here, but in several years of following forums, focusing on problems and how to fix them, I don't remember ever seeing this issue. This might be why your not getting much response.A re-install may be the answer, but I wouldn't recommend that unless nothing else works.Also, airport surface lighting is done differently than the night lighting textures on buildings, so the fact you have one and not the other is inconsequential. Hope this helps,Joe

Joe, thank you for your help. I added the runway options and tried flying at night. OK, I can see the runway when landing and the buildings seem better lit as well but Im still missing the turn-offs because I see them too late and only in the light of my own taxi and landing lights. Parked at the gate in spot view, I can barely see my own plane !Do you think the developers of FS9 have ever been in an airport at night ? It's the most brightly lit place you can imagine. I tried fiddling with the options you suggested but didn't see much difference except a significant frame-rate drop. Maybe I'm expecting too much.I'm a reasonably experienced flightsimmer but I've never been able to fly comfortably at night.I think I'm going to give up on the night flying. What does it look like in FSX ?

[red1 0]

Why?????Been married to the same great lady for 53 years- no plans to upgrade her either!<grin>Alex Reid

:(

[Opa 6]

Have you experimented with adjusting the contrast and brightness settings on your monitor?I had a somewhat similar issue a few years ago and adjusting my monitor settings helped alot.