VC too dark. Need ideas

[JimD737 0]

Folks,I find that on some aircraft the VC is too dark even though the sun is out and there are no clouds.Examples:1. Mil Transport: On the ramp, mid-day, no clouds, lots of windows. I have to turn on the interior lights to get a better view of the gauges.2. Fighter-type: With such an open canopy letting in so much light, when I turn away from the sun, the "shadowed" cockpit is much, much darker than I would expect.Is there any way to change this? I've brightened my monitor but it gives FS9 a bleached or whited-out look.PC is a P4/3GHz, 2GBRAM, NVIDIA GeF7800GT/256MB (latest drivers 81.??)Thanks.Jim

[dfish 1]

Are you using an LCD monitor?. If so raise the black level when using flightsim, I've noticed that the VC was dark during night flights, after adjusting the black level on my monitor the VC brightened up.Dave FisherCYYZP4 Prescott 3.2e 478p 800mhz 1mg CPUP4P800SE Asus Motherboard1.5 gig PC3200 DDR RAM 400MHZGeforce Ti 4200/128Maxtor 80 Gig ATA 133 HD x2WDC WD800 80 Gig HDhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/ng_driver.jpghttp://fs2crew.com/linepilot.jpghttp://www.jdtllc.com/images/rcv4bannersupporter.jpg

[Guest lemonadedrinker]

Hi,This is my 2 cents worth. I have a small flat screen type and by changing the angle at which I look at it I find things do get a lot more visible. When it slopes away from me things are darker and standing the screen up more makes things much easier to see.Andy.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

"I find that on some aircraft the VC is too dark even though the sun is out and there are no clouds."I hear you.... I find this can be an issue with MSFS and some VC's.... Try rotating the aircraft in slew 360 degrees, and I bet the VC at some point "brightens" up. MSFS is trying to mimic shadow inside the aircraft in a sense. Problem is, our eyes in the real world can adjust to shadow and light much better than a sim can.I've tried to get around this in some of my more recent Microlight efforts by adding a bit of luminescence to the panel material and even the gauge projection poly material. Not much, but just enough to compensate for a VC when it's in shadow. I can offer this suggestion to other aircraft designers, and I imagine other aircraft designers have ways of their own to compensate. There is a tool out there by Martin Wright that can do this for any aircraft without having to have access to the model source, but it's a trial and error process and if a material is shared between a panel and another aircraft part, it can make things worse and give your aircraft a luminescence when you don't want it--unless you want it to appear "possessed", that is.-John

[ilovetofly 1]

I don't know which AC you are refering to but Mr. Schupe in his Beech 18S tells us to turn on the panel lights when the panel becomes too dark, as this seems to be reflecting the real thing. Also Realair's Supermarine Spitfire's instruction manual says to do the same thing. Won't hurt to have the panel lights on in the daytime. It could be that that is the way it is. Maybe not in some AC. If not, then the previous suggestions may help.

[Guest SageWisdom]

How old is your monitor? It sounds more like a problem with the contrast rather than the brightness. Are you using custom settings on your Nvidia's control properties? If so, try the defaults. Also check your texture rendering in the sim. Make sure they are at the highest settings.

[hangar 660]

yes, this lighting problem in the vc has been a pet peeve of mine for the longest time. It can be very frustrating and many planes will actually be shelved by me because of it.The only REAL answer currently in my opinion lies within the developers hands...while turning up the brightness on your monitor can sometimes help alot, i dont believe this should be the way to fix it.Its funny how some developers completely ignore this issue, yet others go to great lengths to prevent it. The only aircraft i bother with these days are the ones that offer the best solution to this...which is...having a multiple/adjustable cockpit lighting system. Usually having a very bright overhead light switch, and then another switch for a dimmer more subtle panel backlighting works best for me...this way during the day you can use the brighter overhead floods, and at night you can use the dimmer panel backlighting so you dont gt blinded.I dont know why all devs dont offer this these days, needless to say i only stick with the devs who do :-)A few planes off the top of my head which you might find pleasing in this regard woud be the dreamfleet bonanza, baron, 727...the LDS 767...and the Aeroworx B200 KingAir...albeit all payware...but im sure others here could point you in the right direction for some freeware as well?Dave

[Dillon 2,197]

Are you using Active Sky Version 5 or 6???

[n4gix 4,947]

The modeler also has the option to 'hand-edit' the .x files to provide a level of 'brightness' of any particular polygos to overcome the overly dark light effects of the sim.

[Dillon 2,197]

I asked about ASV/6 because you could have some dark night sky/environment textures that make everything darker at night than with the default textures...ASV gives you options to correct this... :-)

[JimD737 0]

My monitor is kind of old (19" tube) but is OK in other games. I plan to buy a flat panel soon, just waiting to amass the finances. I'll try all of your suggestions. I'm just glad it is not just me. The two aircraft were CS C-130 and FSD T-38 but I see it in almost all aircraft. Having flown Cessnas and T-34s in real life, I have to say it doesn't really get that dark.Best Regards to all,Jim

[Guest PDX Bailey]

This issue could be related if the developers choose to tint their windows in the VC mode. Some vendors (Carenado for example) choose to tint their VC windows, while others (RealAir and Flight One Software) either don