I just have to say your points here is exactly what I was trying to get across to Flight1. They used a white light in their 172R as a dome light when red light is what's realistically in the cockpit. Little things like that can kill it for people who like night flight... I must will say for the record that if you have clear skies and depending on the time of year, you can actually see the horizon at night. It all depends on the time of year, cloud cover, and/or haze. Also depending on what time it is during the night can play a factor also. FS2k4 actually models this well as I was impressed and surprised to see different shades of sky color depending on what time of the night I was flying. I'm glad to hear about your edits and I'll diffidently take a look. I still wish I could find a night picture of the 172R's panel so I can make my own edits (I still won't be able to get around that light switch problem unfortunately :-hmmm )...

Hehehehe, 100 Bucks to calibrate your monitor?

Hi, This was already available from a while ago, For those want black night and no clouds at night, download FFPV2.ZIP (use only the night files) http://fsw.simflight.com/FSWdownload.htmlIt remove the clouds light at night and complete black sky. If you see the sky and clouds, your monitor brightneess is to much increase, I never see the clouds at night either sky in fs2004 at night and my monitor is set according to a monitor testerThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

$100 but it is WELL worth it for doing it every couple of weeks! For graphic color output work there is no choice!! I also calibrate my printer as well. HUGE IMPROVEMENT. Really WYSIWYG at it's finest.The problem stems from the fact you have 2 different mediums/palettes that you're trying to match up. CMYK is ink tones, RGB is monitor colors. Every single monitor is different and every single printer made is different so calibration is necessary for color critical work, which I do so it is very necessary and very much pays for itself. Carmine http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/Images/wave.gif

Chris, your stuff is great and looking forward to Skyworld 2004 but what your solutions don't do is the following.1st Pic: Standard Untouched FS2004 With Flight1 172R Cold & Dark.2nd Pic: Darkened Cockpit & Sky w/same clouds same plane, same position.3rd Pic: Darkened Cockpit & Sky w/Same Clouds, Same Plane, Same Position, Running Without VC Light4rd Pic: Darkened Cockpit & Sky w/Same Clouds, Same Plane, Same Position, Running With VC LightYou really need to see them full screen with no ambient light to appreciate it.--> Michal, put this in &/Or change your FS9.cfg under the Display Section for closer to life airport lighting:RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.5RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.50RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.30RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=0.60--> Dillon, change these values in the fx_172vclight.fx Color Start=80, 80, 80, 1Color End=80, 80, 80, 0to:Color Start=0, 0, 0, 1Color End=35, 0, 0, 0Have fun for now!Carmine http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/Images/wave.gif

Hi Carmine, Thanks for your information :) Well in my case even your first pic I can't see the clouds, I had to increase the monitor brightness to the mid setting to see the clouds in the first shot, normaly I set this slightly little lower then the mid setting and all clouds go away, I have a Viewsonic E70F.It will also improve little my files if you want to use it, since it is completly black sky and black lights. ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

Thanks Carmine... :-)

LOL...I know what you're talking about. That's really getting to the nitty gritty of things. Very good eye and congrats on your work.:-beerchug

Carmine, that VC FX edit did the trick, it looks perfect... :-jumpy I can now tolerate flying the 172R at night. Your update gave just the right lighting anyone would find in the real thing. Since Flight1 isn't going to update the light switch problem I'll have to deal with the landing light constantly being on in order to have my gauge backlighting :-roll .I've made some sound updates of my own, give me your email address so I can send them to you as a thank you for the work you've done here (you saved me allot of time figuring out an alternative to Flight1's default lighting). You can let me know what you think...

Carmine,I know exactly what you

Hi Douglas, Make sure you have used the alternative night folder, but you may not see the difference, Anyways carmine have found the solution, mine solution was more overall from external and inside. ThanksChris Willis[link:fsw.simflight.com/FSWMenuFsSim.html]Clouds And Addons For MsFs

>>>>Make sure you have used the alternative night folder, but you may not see the difference, Anyways carmine have found the solution, mine solution was more overall from external and inside.<<<

It get's pretty dark on mine. But believe it or not, I've found the video driver versions seems to also effect this. Some drivers I ran were lighter at night than others. "Unless it was my imagination, but I don't think so"...The one I'm running now is pretty dark at night, and fairly realistic, if you had some moonlight. If I lower the monitor brightness, even that fades down to dark, and my panel is still plenty bright enough. I run real weather most everywhere, so I can't really use a weather related darkness fix. Adjusting the monitor works better here, and the button is right up front center...You think fs2004 is bright at night? To me it's much, much improved over fs2000. 2000 looked like dusk all night long. MK

>Since Flight1 isn't going to update the light>switch problem I'll have to deal with the landing light>constantly being on in order to have my gauge backlighting>:-roll .Dillon, simply load up the texture files used for VC gauge backlighting and change the alpha channel from white to black! :)

Thanks Bill, I'll give it a try...