Hi guys

 

Quick question, in dusk and night settings why is it my runway lights on final using stock default airports are lit up like Xmas trees from 5nm+, yet I can barely make the runway lights on most of my payware airports from the same distance?

 

Is it to do with how the lighting has been developed by the 3rd party devs? Usual mix of vendors, UK2000 Taxi2gate, Flytampa FSDT etc.

 

Thanks

Sid

Stock FSX runway lights are, in my opinion, way too big and bright when viewed from a distance.  I think a lot of payware airports use their own light textures to correct this issue.

Thats probably true but from what distance in the real world would you expect to be visual with the runway lights at night? In the sim I reckon this is about 3 or 4 nm for me flying into payware airports.

Thats probably true but from what distance in the real world would you expect to be visual with the runway lights at night? In the sim I reckon this is about 3 or 4 nm for me flying into payware airports.

That would vary tremendously based on weather conditions.  FSX is an old program and utilized a lot of legacy code from previous versions of MS Flight Sims.  I've not noticed at what distance the landing lights are visible, I just know that when they become visible, they tend to "pop" on and are very easy to see.

I agree with the OP at some payware airports eg Orbx YBBN the runway lights are almost invisible until just before touchdown.  Stock lights may be too bright and you can adjust this in fsx.cfg but some payware runway lights do seem to be very dim no matter what the weather.

 

Bruceb

Add the following lines to the Display section of the FSX.CFG file then adjust to your liking. lower values dim the lights, higher ones make them brighter. 

 

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.9                                   ; Runway lights
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.9                                           ;VASI/PAPI lights
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.1                                 ;Approach Lights
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.5                                      ; Strobes

Add the following lines to the Display section of the FSX.CFG file then adjust to your liking. lower values dim the lights, higher ones make them brighter. 

 

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.9                                   ; Runway lights

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.9                                           ;VASI/PAPI lights

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.1                                 ;Approach Lights

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.5                                      ; Strobes

 

 

Thanks for this. Do you know of any way to turn these lights on during the daytime. I have often over ran airports as I have failed to see them.

 

Thanks

John

Do you know of any way to turn these lights on during the daytime.

 

 IRL unless the visibility is below 3sm (it can vary from Country to Country), the runway and approach lights aren't turned on during the day.

 IRL unless the weather is down the runway and approach lights aren't on during the day.

 

 

Thanks

The config tweak doesn't affect payware custom lighting from my testing anyway.  I might have this wrong but when I have increased the approach value it makes my stock airports even brighter but I noticed no difference at my numerous payware airports.  It's a bit of a shame because I can't fly visual at night until I'm literally 1-2 NM out because I can't see anything.

Yes the config tweak, which I use, only works with stock airports - yet to find any way of adjusting the brightness of payware runway lights some of which are very dim.

 

Bruceb

if you got  rexe  you can adjust  the lights in the options

I've tried all the options in the REX lighting section and none of it seems to apply to payware airports either.  :(