The constant trend with some developers to slave the landing lights to the VC lighting...1. CLS 7672. Quality Wings 757 (being addressed in SP1)3. Some of Caranado's birds4. Flight1 has done this with aircraft like their PC12...For the record landing lights should have nothing to do with any lighting in the cockpit. I wish this oversite in development would stop. My latest aggravation is with CLS's 767. On their forums they've went so far as to exclude the dome light (guess it's time to change those marketing pictures) which really takes that add-on to a turn for the worse when it comes to night ops. What's one supposed to do sit at the gate with the landing lights on just to see properly in the cockpit? Luckily the referenceto the dome light was still in the 'aircraft.cfg' file allowing me to use their 742 dome light file as a replacement.I've worked with more that a few developers and none of the ones I work with do this. From Feelthere to Dreamfleet (hopefully things will be back up soon)none of them do this crap but many others do and it makes no since. EXTERIOR LIGHTING SHOULD HAVE NOTHING AND/OR NO EFFECT ON COCKPIT LIGHTING!!!Please stop this madness...In the case of CLS there's absolutly no excuse as this is a 'lite' add-on with more than enough room for all lighting to have it's own switch. I'd hate to say laziness is in play here (even the freeware guys get it)...Sorry for venting so bluntly but I'm getting sick of this FS2000/Year 2000 development technique that makes no since with today's add-ons.

Yeah, I have to agree with that... It's idiotic to see the landing lights go on when you enable the cockpit lighting or vice versa. Makes indeed no sense and, indeed, night ops becaome that much more unrealistic. It's a pity indeed.One thing you said sparked my extra interest, though: "Dreamfleet (hopefully things will be back up soon)"Is there something you know and I don't? :( I mean, will we ever see the Dreamfleet 727X?

I went through a similar argument with PMDG and their 737NG. The 600-700 series had a dome light, once the 800-900 upgrade came out and is installed you lose the dome light. Their reasoning..."Pilots don't fly with the dome light on" (I paraphrase). No, maybe they don't but walking into a cold and dark cockpit and trying to set up everything with the very weak panel lighting is a pain. Then there is the issue of their logo light not turning off...looks pretty lame at FL350 and a big glaring tail logo shining out for absolutely nobody to see? Again, the answer was pretty lame..."there is only so many lights available in FS9" (paraphrase again). Really?? That doesn't seem to have been a problem for other developers? Even freeware ones????? Naturally it was a losing battle, as it always is when a developer decides not to complete an addon, but instead, put out a new one so they can stick it to us again. I call it the "CS school of FS development and marketing" and, apparently, it's as virulent a disease as Ebola.

Dillon, I honestly don't know what else can be done that hasn't already been done to remediate this issue......after all, it's not as if the information needed by any developer isn't available for free no less!Years ago I published a White Paper that outlined the specific techniques and steps needed for emissive backlighting for FS8 and FS9. Several years ago I updated that White Paper to descibe the changes and improvements needed for pure FSX models at the specific request of MS/ACES, who then made it availble to the public on MS's own Microsoft Developers Network website!It's also featured prominently on at least two well-know flightsim wiki sites...A google search for "FS emissive lighting" will yield thousands of references to articles and posts, most of which provide links back to those two aforementioned White Papers... :( As it happens, at my specific request, ACES themselves reinstated the "old FS9 emissive backlighting scheme" in FSX as part of their SP2/Acceleration updates.So, the information needed is not a secret... It appears to me that there simply isn't enough thought given to "lighting" during the pre-planning process. It's as though "lighting" is only considered as an afterthought...For any project, "lighting" must be an integral part of the pre-planning process, as "lighting" is a synthesis of the model, the gauge/panel system, and the graphics art. Inadequate thought and/or poor decisions made during the pre-planning process can and do result in subpar results at the end of the development cycle, at which time it is far too late to make the requisite changes... :(