I have seen a few videos on the internet and some of the planes have the cockpit lights off and the instrument panel lights on - it seems like the way a pilot would fly at night. Is this an add-on or do some planes do this and others don't? I can't seem to find how to do it. Thanks!

I turn my cockpit lights off as soon as I have everything set up. It's easier to taxi too at night. What aircraft are you trying to operate. I fly the 737NGX and the switch for the cockpit lights is on the overhead panel (which is impossible to find/see at night). I use an educational guess to locate. I would assume most pilots turn off the overhead lights once everything is set up for any aircraft (GA and heavies).

 

Best regards,

Jim

As far as I know, you turn on the dome light so that you can see everything inside the cockpit. Once the engines are running and you are ready to taxi, you would turn off the dome light and rely upon the instrument and panel lights for illumination. Not all aircraft in Flight Sim have this feature. Most freeware planes and the default planes simply use a cockpit floodlight to light instruments, panels, and the cabin.

It's to do with Modelling,

It needs to be set up there.

 

FSX was only meant to take lights on / off inside, for everything.

If you want individual sides, centre, overhead, instrument,

then this makes the model more complex, and the programming.

From my RW experience for night flight, I would always keep cockpit lights dimmed to the bare minimum to set up instruments and prepare the cockpit so as to get my eye vision accustomed to a very smooth and low level lighting. Because of a lack of sudden lighting contrast (high intensity to low) this makes taxi and takeoff a lot easier on your vision outside the cockpit. External visual references are easier to spot when doing this. The only time dome light is used is when parked at the gate upon arrival. Normally, it takes an eye between 15 to 20 minutes to totally adapt to a high contrast lighting environment (from high to low).