So, maybe we all need to setup our monitors, to get the lighting effect that we want. Thats what I'm going to do.

Well said. With all those types of video cards and monitors, your suggestion is the best course of action, as video-monitor configurations can vary graetly in quality, brightness, contrast and end user perceptionThis was debated with the developers over at the beta and it was an impasse.

Thanks Roman!I have my Flight Nights (say that fast 5 times) set the way I like now. I added some Gamma. My ground textures at night are as bright as I like. Lowering the Gamma, made everything darker... so try that folks if things appear to bright for you.You could also try adjusting Contrast/Brightness in tandom as well. Higher Contrast over Brightness works well in the correct preportions.Now, let us speak no more of this... I am bored now!LOL!

They are all 22" Acers.

Speaking from experience - Acer monitors suck at colour management. I have an Acer 22" monitor that I don't bother using for anything other than email and a web browser - I use my main Samsung 26" for anything I want to look right.Color matching & management is seemingly simple but in practice annoyingly complex task.Find the Colour Management icon in control panel and set all of your monitors to use sRGB IEC61966-2.1. You will need to do this numerous times, and as Administrator.Then make sure your monitors are set to use things like a Neutral colour mode (not 'Warm' or 'Cool'), disable any 'Automatic' or 'Magiccolor' or 'U-beaut-o-rama-my-iColors' mode, set gamma to 2.2, set contrast and brightness to 100%, set any individual RGB color modifications to neutral.Only then start mucking around with gamma or brightness in software.Get the hardware right first, then alter gamma / brightness to your liking in game.If you have a CRT you are on your own...

It's the same process with a CRT. :)I flew a couple of moonless nights, and the ground is reasonably dark. Still probably brighter than it should be, but nothing like having an almost full moon which turns night into day in Flight.I use a utility called Gamma Panel to change gamma on the fly for times when it needs adjusting.Hook

Ya. Night flying is hard. It went through a few adjustments during beta. At one point it was overly bright, now its overly dark. I think a middle ground is needed. If I fly at night, I hop from cloud to cloud. If I can see a cloud, I know there is no mountian between me and that cloud. I dont go THROUGH the cloud. Just find my next cloud target in the distance. Thats not how you fly in real life. Sometimes you dont have cloud targets, or your nothing but clouds.

In my country if you want to fly night VFR you need special training with local instructor. If you hold IR you do not need that training (obviously). Thats probably regulated by JAA (EASA).Anyone have experience how that works in US?

I had similar problems on that Observatory mission - blew the landing three times in a row. Going to try the monitor adjustments and see if that helps. Thanks. :Peace:

There were complaints about night lighting being too dark IIRC during the beta and they adjusted it in the beta update. Unfortunately everyone then complained that they had made it too bright. :( I believe they mentioned that the lighting change had been made on the art director's fully colour adjusted monitor and it looked fine there.

This was a test that I set up in the beta (which is why the dates are in FEB). My screenshots are from the beta, but I'm getting the same results now (I tested this last night).Try this:1.) Set weather to Clear skies, set the date to Feb 7th, and the time to 7pm (Full moon rise): Lighting seems about right to me for a full moon.http://arwenevecom.i...l_Moon_Rise.jpg2.) Now change the time to 10pm (the full moon will now be fairly high): Way too bright to me. (Even if the terrain was covered by snow, it wouldn't be quite this bright.)http://arwenevecom.i..._Too_Bright.jpgAs you can see its much too bright, even for full moon. But when you look at the moon its hardly bright which doesnt match the ground illumination.It was also stated during the beta: "There is a problem with the sky fogging in general for the stars, sun and moon. The fog density is set too high and it is causing the stars to become fogged out, and the sun and moon to be much dimmer." I don't believe this was fixed.

Speaking from experience - Acer monitors suck at colour management. I have an Acer 22" monitor that I don't bother using for anything other than email and a web browser - I use my main Samsung 26" for anything I want to look right.

Please feel free to send me the funds to buy 5 x 26" Samsung monitors like you have. Thanks! My Paypal account information is as follows...Or you can mail a check to this address...I know you didn't mean to hurt my feelings by refering to my choice of monitors as "they suck", but, I am a very sensitive guy.. and I am not rich. But, that's OK, cause I know you're sending me the money to buy ones that don't suck! Thanks brother! :Waiting:

I had similar problems on that Observatory mission - blew the landing three times in a row. Going to try the monitor adjustments and see if that helps. Thanks. :Peace:

Just replayed that mission and didn't use any Skip to Waypoints and my return to the airport featured a beautifully lit runway / VASI setup - landed without incident. I didn't go back and try it by skipping to see if that results in a dark runway. . .

For me, no matter what weather theme I pick, if the moon is up, nights are overly bright.

That is my exact problem. If you actually go out into an aircraft at night in real life, you will soon realize that the darkness of night is *very* dark. From the air, all that you really can even see is the street lights or runway lights.

I've reported what y'all are having issues with to the developers - I too think a lot of the lighting, while on the right track, needs adjustments.

Very interesting topic. I knew someone had to bring this up some time because today I noticed how bothered I was by the extreme brightness while flying at night.

 

I made some comparisons:

 

1. Night in real life. You can see that everything besides the city is pitch black. You can't see the terrain or the water.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EELxyuEVoAU/TyZKOQiYM3I/AAAAAAAAEMc/FjiDOOnF0w0/s1600/1IMG_1532+copy.jpg

 

 

2. Night in FSX. See the video below. As in the image above, only city lights are visible. Other than that, it is very dark.

 

 

I hope Microsoft addresses the issue and makes the night a lot more darker as it should be. All try and adjust the gamma settings on my monitor as pointed out. Thanks for the tip!

The nights are darker if there's no moon up.

 

Hook

Another pic of how it looks in FLIGHT. The extreme brightness is very unrealistic.