Nightlights for photoscenery in Prepar3D v2.5

[OzWhitey 3,353]

Hi chaps,

 

Let me first tell you what I've worked out so far about this topic, then I'll ask for your advice.

 

So, nightlighting over photoscenery adds massively to the immersion. I fly a broad range of photoscenery, in P3D v2.5 exclusively now but previously in FSX.

 

The world has changed a little of late, with a number of new night-lighting options available.

 

Let's start by clarifying that we're talking about photoscenery with no intrinsic night lighting effects here (unlike ultimate VFR or the old megascenery v1). So we'd be talking about MSE2 or home-made photoscenery predominantly.

 

There's a 2013 thread on this topic for FSX, but everyone seems to have been having a confused week so there's lots of internal contradictions!

 

http://forum.avsim.net/topic/427185-utx-and-megasceneryearth/

 

Anyway, here's what I can report:

 

Aerosoft night environment works very well over photoscenery in Prepar3d v2.5. There not the best looking lights imho, but others would disagree (I'd like a bit more glow). Main plus is that performance is bulletproof, they work every time and you can enable and disable via scenery library. Downside is that coverage is current incomplete and worldwide coverage will be a major expense - best for your favourite country or two.

 

Taburet has a competing product. I own a few of them. I don't use them currently, on my previous rig (i750 @4.0) the performance was in slide-show territory with P3D. I'll try them again at some stage with the new supercomputer, but though this product is a little cheaper I'd stick with the Aerosoft version where available.

 

That leaves us with two options for large-scale coverage - UTX and Orbx FTX Global.

 

Let's chat about Orbx FTX Global first This works OK - I like the appearance of the lights, a nice glow - but over photoscenery I'm only seeing lights on major roads. Basically there's heaps more lighting when I'm using them with the Orbx FTX Global landclass scenery. I don't know if this would be better with Orbx Global Vector (more roads to light), as that's one thing I don't own.

 

Finally UTX Europe v2 for P3D - only been out a few days. This was my hope to night-light my European photoscenery. I've had mixed success with this in the past. So far, no luck. I get some objects - such as raised freeways - showing, but it's the lights I'm after. Can't see any so far after a few hours flying.

 

There's my report, now here's my question. Does anyone know how to get the UTX night lighting to appear over photoscenery? Obviously I've got it turned on, and it's at the top of the scenery library priorities. Just no luck so far, I confess I don't really understand how the UTX lights work. 

 

Any thoughts on how to make this work?

 

Cheers,

 

Rob

[Pease_W 6]

The little bit I've read about UTX v2 is that the lighting methods have changed and that's probably why you can't see any. If you had the files from v1 those would work. But you might ask at the developer's support forum to be sure.

[Pugilist2 878]

Glad you started this thread being as I love photo scenery, but hate that their is not any night lighting.  I own FTX Global and would be curious how it looks when the NA landclass becomes available.

 

How does the night lighting in Ultimate VFR look?  I was thinking about purchasing, but am not sure on the quality compared to Mega Scenery.

[OzWhitey 3,353]

Can't use utx v1, it's only utx v2 that works with prepar3d.

 

Ultimate VFR? Own it, but not intalled yet. Will try and do this in the next few days and report back. Unfortunately, it won't solve my large scale night light issue though, we are just talking four U.S. states snd Guam atm.

[Pugilist2 878]

Thanks. Please let me know your thoughts on Ultimate VFR when you have time to install it.

[OzWhitey 3,353]

OK, installed ultimate VFR Arizona yesterday. Quick test only so far. Initial impressions were:

 

Photoscenery itself - low quality, based on free sources. Not something I'd fly over myself (the MSE ultrares for KPHX is far better, for example).

 

Nightlights - look pretty good over Phoenix but frames terrible.

 

Buildings etc: not a lot around KPHX.

 

Summary: not convinced this is a keeper, but will experiment a bit further. If I can get night lighting working well I'd be willing to buy it just for that, of if there was a decent amount of buildings in the autogen.

 

So at the moment, I'm back to Orbx Global for the nightlighting over Arizona photoscenery.

 

At the moment, night environment is my only good solution, But a) it's not available for most US states and b) it'd cost me close to $1000 to cover them all at current prices even if they were available.

 

So my questions are:

 

1. Any way to get more Orbx lights over photoreal? Works, but only on the big roads. Any way to get this on the medium to small roads? Would vector make a difference?

 

2. Anyone know how to get those UT2 lights showing in this situation?

[Clutch Cargo 384]

I was surprise to hear about your Ultimate VFR Arizona experience as their website claims "professional" attention to the ground images. Can you post a few screenshots of your Phoenix area?

[wa3pnt 0]

Buried somewhere in one of the forum there is a post regarding lighting for photo scenery.  It was related to the UTX Night Lighting, and UTX stated that they were working on lighting for photo scenery in the USA.

 

I've seen no further posts since the original statement.

 

I just dug up the link.  It's worth reading as it's not a long thread.

 

http://www.simforums.com/forums/topic50803.html

 

RodeoGeorge

[OzWhitey 3,353]

Thanks George. Orbx Global works fine with vector roads over photoscenery, so interesting that UTX v2 doesn't.

 

The Xtreme lighting product mentioned in the thread you linked sounds interesting, in fact exactly what I need. However, that's the only mention I can find of it on the internet! According to those posts, should have been released a couple of months ago. Is Scenery Solutions just trolling me??

 

Clutch - don't get too excited by the marketing blurb. The stuff about professional tools etc is pretty meaningless (what TV production tools would you use to make photoscenery??). What really matters is the quality of the source imagery, and if you want good quality then free imagery is not usually the best option. Look, product is cheap enough to buy it and try it out - but not even close to what you can generate with FSET in terms of photo image quality.

 

Scenery Solutions people - if you're reading this, release that Xtreme lighting product already. Promise I'll buy it if you do!

 

Still wondering about one thing - would Orbx Vector increase the number of lights seen with Orbx Global over photoscenery? Depends if only major roads are still lit, I guess (most of the Global nightlights are ties in to the landclass tiles).