Sunlight

[Timmer 2]

HDR is very bi-polar for me. I can turn it on and be fine and then I'll look a certain direction and it'll instantly go down to about 0.5FPS and sometimes it'll come back to normal and other times not. Sometimes just depending on where I look. I figure there most be some geometry or object rendering that can clog up the HDR pipeline.

 

Also, I find two weird artifacts: the shadows generally dance around on the aircraft and especially in replays the lighting of the sky and scene in generally flicker dark-to-light as I rotate around the camera. This didn't happen until a couple betas ago.

 

Finally, FXAA looks much worse than HDR off with AA on and apparently my card cannot run the nicer S--whatever mode above a couple FPS. Hopefully with time or computer upgrades. I've always been a big fan of HDR to get that brightness that's been missing in computer games since the beginning.

[JonRD463 146]

I think what Adam is saying is that X-Plane doesn't look as bright on a clear, sunny day as FSX, or for that matter, reality. I've fixed it by increasing my gamma up a little.

 

Adam, go into your Rendering Options and play around with the gamma setting. You'll have to restart X-Plane for the changes to take effect.

[urthgental 162]

ar least in germany, at clear summer sunny says, at lower flight levels there is always some haze in the air. only at a very few sunny winter days you might be able to look >100 nm from the top of high mountains.

 

in that respect, one should not consider FSX athmosphere visualization as reference...

[HiFlyer 8,882]

For me it would depend on if XP (HDR) is attempting to depict a clear day in those shots or not. If so, that sky would be much too hazy, and that's after a recent 6 hour trip through just such terrain, observing how mountains and valleys in real life look in the distance on a very clear day.

 

Being more familiar with FSX, I cannot remember whether XP has a variable visibility setting to up the view distance and move the haze back a bit. (As opposed to the simple "blueing" effect of distance)

 

EDIT: It appears that you can, but the effect is not necessarily pleasing....

[Murmur 3,814]

Hi guys, I am new to xplane...spend most of my time using fsx and prepar3d. am I doing something wrong or is it just how xplane is...the sunlight doesn't seem right when compare with fsx and prepar3d! its like there is a very light mist over the simulation all the time and the sunlight is not as good.

 

Other than increasing "gamma settings" as already suggested, make sure that the visibility is set to at least 80 miles. Below 80 miles, you get progressively dimmed lights and sky colors.

 

Marco

[LAdamson 240]

ar least in germany, at clear summer sunny says, at lower flight levels there is always some haze in the air. only at a very few sunny winter days you might be able to look >100 nm from the top of high mountains.

 

in that respect, one should not consider FSX athmosphere visualization as reference...

 

Around here, in the Rocky Mtns, west of Denver Colorado, USA........................unless there is an inversion or smoke from forest fires ( a lot lately), then it will be severe clear, in which you can see mountains far into the distance.

[sascha 314]

That 2nd FSX shot looks the most hazy to me.

 

I agree with Murmur - the original issue is probably an effect of viewing distance.

 

I prefer a visibility of around 40 miles myself, as it has an effect which works for both urban areas with lots of haze and more rural with less.

 

I do not think any flightsim (FS9, FSX or P3D) simulates the efect of sunlight as well as some of the new ego shooters where you really get a feel for the daytime.

 

With the various flightsims there is always something wrong, usually the air itself does not have a proper feel to it.

 

In the above comparison shots I actually prefer the 2nd shot (FSX with HD) because it feels like a late afternoon scene.

 

I agree that the first shot is most realistic for clear mountain conditions, but it seems I prefer a bit of unrealism myself!

 

I guess I am just a romantic, heheh!

[tf51d 284]

Being more familiar with FSX, I cannot remember whether XP has a variable visibility setting to up the view distance and move the haze back a bit. (As opposed to the simple "blueing" effect of distance)

 

Those shots I took were clear skies at each sims maximum visibility settings!!

[HiFlyer 8,882]

Those shots I took were clear skies at each sims maximum visibility settings!!

 

Yeah. After Looking at the thread I updated XP and played a bit more. For me, there is definite hazing effect, no matter what the setting, and it seems more apparent when in mountainous terrain.

 

Frame rate was not a happy camper either. Normally with this hobby that would mean new (place name of processor and or video card here) but I am not going there, right now. :P