Hi Guys,

 

I just was wondering what add ons and/or settings you have your nights set to. For some reason a lot of the times that I fly at night, it seems like its a tad too dark. I feel like you should be able to see more lights at cruising altitude or on descent rather than almost pitch dark. I do have ENB series, so that could be why. But yeah, what settings/add ons will give me the most realistic night enviroment??

ENB does that to you:-) I would recommend dumping ENB and try SweetFX with adi518's settings(adi518 is a user here at AVSIM). Black still stays black, but the lighting is bright like the default settings. The problem with ENB is that while it makes dark dark, it also lowers the brightnes of runwaylights, citylights etc...

 

I'll try post some before and after pics with my SweetFX-settings when I'm in my aircr...at my FSX-pc:-)

Thanks buddy, I'll look into that.....although I don't want it to be too bright at night like the default......ever since I put the ENB series on, switching back from that and default night, the default just looks so ridiculous now lol.

Anybody have some more input on their night texture settings for a realistic night environment??

I'm using SweetFX, here's what my nights look like: (If the panels look dim it's because I had the lighting dimmed to how I like during flight). If you would like, I could grab a screenshot of the runway and lights on approach, just ask.

 

Taxiing to the gate at KSFO after a short flight from KLAS.

http://virtual-aviation.org/main/images/jonp/avsim/screenshoots/2013-5-18_23-16-45-115.jpg

 

Once I saw SweetFX, I dropped ENB like a bad habit.

 

Here's CeeJay.dk's SweetFX page: http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=376265

Sweet! Yeah that pic looks a lot better than what I'm workin with right now. What are your settings on SweetFX?

I think pretty realistic is DX10 with lowered settings for night lightning:

[Graphics]

NIGHT_THRESHOLD=256

 

Also, I am dimming my monitor a bit. It is almost impossible to land on a small strip with no lights. mainly, because it is not possible to locate it without violating plenty of rules.

That is my way of getting close to reality.

Saw your PM, so here you go with some superquickshots I did from and around ENBR ;

 

No SweetFX

 

 

With SweetFX

 

 

..and a few splitscreen comparisonshots(SweetFX on the right side);

 

 

 

 

...and some dayshots 

 

 

 

 

Here are the settings:

 

I think pretty realistic is DX10 with lowered settings for night lightning:

[Graphics]

NIGHT_THRESHOLD=256

 

Also, I am dimming my monitor a bit. It is almost impossible to land on a small strip with no lights. mainly, because it is not possible to locate it without violating plenty of rules.

That is my way of getting close to reality.

 

BartEnder - please tell me more about this parameter. I could not find any references to it when I googled FSX NIGHT_THRESHOLD

 

 

please tell me more about this parameter. I could not find any references to it when I googled FSX NIGHT_THRESHOLD

By default, the value is set to 4096, and I do believe it is not present in fsx.cfg by default. Add an entry starting with 1024 and go down to 512, 256 or whatever value lower than 4096 which is the stock night brightness. it should be present under [Graphics] section. My favorite setting is 512, with that value I still see the taxiways, in 256 I do not see them, even with taxi lights on some aircraft.

I have not seen any difference in DX9 on my system, no matter the value, so I guess FSX in DX9 does not take this parameter into consideration.

 

Just let me know, if You will need any additional information.

By default, the value is set to 4096, and I do believe it is not present in fsx.cfg by default. Add an entry starting with 1024 and go down to 512, 256 or whatever value lower than 4096 which is the stock night brightness. it should be present under [Graphics] section. My favorite setting is 512, with that value I still see the taxiways, in 256 I do not see them, even with taxi lights on some aircraft.

I have not seen any difference in DX9 on my system, no matter the value, so I guess FSX in DX9 does not take this parameter into consideration.

 

Just let me know, if You will need any additional information.

 

Thanks!

By default, the value is set to 4096, and I do believe it is not present in fsx.cfg by default. Add an entry starting with 1024 and go down to 512, 256 or whatever value lower than 4096 which is the stock night brightness. it should be present under [Graphics] section. My favorite setting is 512, with that value I still see the taxiways, in 256 I do not see them, even with taxi lights on some aircraft.

I have not seen any difference in DX9 on my system, no matter the value, so I guess FSX in DX9 does not take this parameter into consideration.

 

Just let me know, if You will need any additional information.

 

I tried this parameter in my cfg using values ranging from 4096 to 256 - made no difference in the night brightness that i could see under DX-10. I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and load up SweetFX. I'm really dissatisfied with the night sky I'm getting now.

Use this with sweet for nigh pretty nice created by Paul dx10 guru

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                      Choose effects                         /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

 

// Set to 1 for ON or 0 for OFF

#define USE_SMAA_ANTIALIASING 1 //[0 or 1] SMAA Anti-aliasing : Smoothens jagged lines.

#define USE_LUMASHARPEN   1 //[0 or 1] LumaSharpen : Also sharpens the antialiased edges which makes them less smooth - I'm working on fixing that.

#define USE_BLOOM         0 //[0 or 1] Bloom : Makes bright lights bleed their light into their surroundings (relatively high performance cost)

#define USE_HDR           0 //[0 or 1] HDR : Not actual HDR - It just tries to mimic an HDR look (relatively high performance cost)

#define USE_TECHNICOLOR   0 //[0 or 1] TECHNICOLOR : Attempts to mimic the look of an old movie using the Technicolor three-strip color process (Techicolor Process 4)

#define USE_DPX           0 //[0 or 1] Cineon DPX : Should make the image look like it's been converted to DXP Cineon - basically it's another movie-like look similar to technicolor.

#define USE_LIFTGAMMAGAIN 0 //[0 or 1] Lift Gamma Gain : Adjust brightness and color of shadows, midtones and highlights (avoids clipping)

#define USE_TONEMAP       0 //[0 or 1] Tonemap : Adjust gamma, exposure, saturation, bleach and defog. (may cause clipping)

#define USE_VIBRANCE      1 //[0 or 1] Vibrance : Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.

#define USE_CURVES        0 //[0 or 1] Curves : Contrast adjustments using S-curves.

#define USE_SEPIA         0 //[0 or 1] Sepia : Sepia tones the image.

#define USE_VIGNETTE      0 //[0 or 1] Vignette : Darkens the edges of the image to make it look more like it was shot with a camera lens. May cause banding artifacts.

#define USE_DITHER        0 //[0 or 1] Dither : Applies dithering to simulate more colors than your monitor can display. This lessens banding artifacts (mostly caused by Vignette)

#define USE_SPLITSCREEN   0 //[0 or 1] Splitscreen : Enables the before-and-after splitscreen comparison mode.

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                  SMAA Anti-aliasing settings                /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

 

#define SMAA_THRESHOLD 0.20           // [0.05 to 0.20] Edge detection threshold

#define SMAA_MAX_SEARCH_STEPS 20      // [0 to 98] Determines the radius SMAA will search for aliased edges

#define SMAA_MAX_SEARCH_STEPS_DIAG 10  // [0 to 16] Determines the radius SMAA will search for diagonal aliased edges

#define SMAA_CORNER_ROUNDING 0        // [0 to 100] Determines the percent of antialiasing to apply to corners.

 

// -- Advanced SMAA settings --

#define COLOR_EDGE_DETECTION 1        // [0 or 1] 1 Enables color edge detection (slower but slightly more acurate) - 0 uses luma edge detection (faster)

#define SMAA_DIRECTX9_LINEAR_BLEND 0  // [0 or 1] Using DX9 HARDWARE? (software version doesn't matter) if so this needs to be 1 - If not, leave it at 0.

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                       LumaSharpen settings                  /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

// -- Sharpening --

#define sharp_strength 0.50   // [0.10 to 3.00] Strength of the sharpening

#define sharp_clamp    0.035  // [0.000 to 1.000] Limits maximum amount of sharpening a pixel recieves - Default is 0.035

 

// -- Advanced sharpening settings --

#define pattern 2        // [1|2|3|4] Choose a sample pattern. 1 = Fast, 2 = Normal, 3 = Wider, 4 = Pyramid shaped.

#define offset_bias 1.0  // [0.0 to 6.0] Offset bias adjusts the radius of the sampling pattern.

                         // I designed the pattern for offset_bias 1.0, but feel free to experiment.

                           

// -- Debug sharpening settings --

#define show_sharpen 0   // [0 or 1] Visualize the strength of the sharpen (multiplied by 4 to see it better)

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                       Bloom settings                        /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define BloomThreshold 15.25 //[0.00 to 50.00] Threshold for what is a bright light (that causes bloom) and what isn't.

#define BloomPower 1.446     //[0.0000 to 8.0000] Strength of the bloom

#define BloomWidth 0.0142    //[0.0000 to 1.0000] Width of the bloom

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                        HDR settings                         /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define HDRPower 1.30  //[0.0 to 8.0] Strangely lowering this makes the image brighter

#define radius2  0.87  //[0.0 to 8.0] Raising this seems to make the effect stronger and also brighter

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                      TECHNICOLOR settings                   /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define TechniAmount 0.11        //[0.0 to 1.0]

#define TechniPower  2.8         //[0.0 to 8.0]

#define redNegativeAmount   0.88 //[0.0 to 1.0]

#define greenNegativeAmount 0.88 //[0.0 to 1.0]

#define blueNegativeAmount  0.88 //[0.0 to 1.0]

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                      Cineon DPX settings                    /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define Red   8.0  //[1.0 to 15.0]

#define Green 8.0  //[1.0 to 15.0]

#define Blue  8.0  //[1.0 to 15.0]

 

#define ColorGamma    2.5  //[0.1 to 2.5] Adjusts the colorfulness of the effect in a manner similar to Vibrance. 1.0 is neutral.

#define DPXSaturation 3.0  //[0.0 to 8.0] Adjust saturation of the effect. 1.0 is neutral.

 

#define RedC   0.36  //[0.6 to 0.2]

#define GreenC 0.36  //[0.6 to 0.2]

#define BlueC  0.34  //[0.6 to 0.2]

 

#define Blend 0.2    //[0.0 to 0.1] How strong the effect should be.

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                      Lift Gamma Gain settings               /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define RGB_Lift  float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000)  //[0.000 to 2.000] Adjust shadows for Red, Green and Blue

#define RGB_Gamma float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000)  //[0.000 to 2.000] Adjust midtones for Red, Green and Blue

#define RGB_Gain  float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000)  //[0.000 to 2.000] Adjust highlights for Red, Green and Blue

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                        Tonemap settings                     /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define Gamma 1.0        //[0.00 to 2.00] Adjust midtones

 

#define Exposure 0.00    //[-1.00 to 1.00] Adjust exposure

 

#define Saturation 0.00  //[-1.00 to 1.00] Adjust saturation

 

#define Bleach 0.00      //[0.00 to 1.00] Brightens the shadows and fades the colors

 

#define Defog 0.000  //[0.00 to 1.00] How much of the color tint to remove

#define FogColor float3(0.00, 0.00, 2.55) //[0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00] What color to remove - default is blue

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                       Vibrance settings                     /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define Vibrance 0.15 //[-1.0 to 1.0] Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                        Curves settings                      /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define Curves_contrast 0.30  //[-1.0 to 1.0] The amount of contrast you want

 

// -- Advanced curve settings --

#define Curves_formula 7      //[1|2|3|4|5|6|7] The constrast s-curve you want to use. 

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                         Sepia settings                      /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define ColorTone float3(1.40, 1.10, 0.90) //[0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00] What color to tint the image

#define GreyPower  0.11                    //[0.0 to 1.0] How much desaturate the image before tinting it

#define SepiaPower 0.58                    //[0.0 to 1.0] How much to tint the image

 

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                       Vignette settings                     /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define VignetteRadius -1.00   //[-1.00 to 3.00] lower values = stronger radial effect from center

#define VignetteAmount -1.00  //[-2.00 to 1.00] Strength of black. -2.00 = Max Black, 1.00 = Max White.

#define VignetteSlope 16       //[1 to 16] How far away from the center the change should start to really grow strong (odd numbers cause a larger fps drop than even numbers)

#define VignetteCenter float2(0.500, 0.500)  //[0.00 to 1.00] Center of effect.

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                        Dither settings                      /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

//No settings yet, beyond switching it on or off in the top section.

 

//Note that the checkerboard pattern used by Dither, makes an image harder to compress.

//This can make your screenshots and video recordings take up more space.

 

 

   /*-----------------------------------------------------------.

  /                     Splitscreen settings                    /

  '-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define splitscreen_mode 3  //[1|2|3|4|5]  1 = Vertical 50/50 split, 2 = Vertical 25/50/25 split, 3 = Vertical 50/50 angled split, 4 = Horizontal 50/50 split, 5 = Horizontal 25/50/25 split