Airport lighting at night stands out like a sore thumb when flying high

[captain420 3,099]

This has been an annoying problem and I would hope by now that they've fixed this. When flying at night from high above, you can easily see the runway lights of every airport in the vicinity. It's annoying. Is there a way to fix just the airport lighting without messing with the others?

[irrics 1,517]

Excellent point.  In real life, airports are hard to see at night depending upon angle and location from your aircraft.  

Very unrealistic to have them so obvious all over and so much brighter than other competing lights.

[Don Quixote 76]

Yes, the default lights are horrible. However, this is easy to fix with Real Terra Haze (if you don't have it already, it's a must have plugin!):

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/22387-real-terra-haze-for-flywithlua/

 

These are my lights settings, which IMO offer a good balance of night lighting:

 

Note the "lights intensity" setting which is in the main RTH window rather than the "lights" popup.

 

Of course you can adjust them to your own taste.

[Swe_Richard 1,172]

Yes, the default lights are horrible. However, this is easy to fix with Real Terra Haze (if you don't have it already, it's a must have plugin!):

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/22387-real-terra-haze-for-flywithlua/

 

These are my lights settings, which IMO offer a good balance of night lighting:

 

Note the "lights intensity" setting which is in the main RTH window rather than the "lights" popup.

 

Of course you can adjust them to your own taste.

 

 

That is a good tip!

 

You seem quite knowledgeable about RTH; would you know if it is possible to "smooth out" the annoying "light-popping" during night flights?

[Don Quixote 76]

would you know if it is possible to "smooth out" the annoying "light-popping" during night flights?

 

I'm afraid that's not easy, the problem is that the lights visibility distance can't be increased (even with the extended DSF option), although it has been requested many times...

 

However, if you reduce the overall size and brightness of the lights in general and the distant lights in particular (with the settings in the above screenshot) the "popping" of the lights becomes somewhat less noticeable, simply because they are less visible and so merge better with the background.

[captain420 3,099]

Thanks Don! I will give your settings a go.

 

And there use to be a script that works alongside with RTH so that the night lighting slowly transitions to on when the sky becomes dark, looks much better than default setting where they just immediately light up. But I don't think that script works anymore with the latest RTH.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Speaking of RTH...  that and my flywith lua plugin is kaput with the latest beta....  is that happening for everyone?

 

I'm getting these lines at the first load and a red message of Lua Stopped!

 

 

I did run into this thread but that doesn't seem to work for me.

http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/forums/topic/105030-rthlua294/

[airlinejets 709]

Speaking of RTH... that and my flywith lua plugin is kaput with the latest beta.... is that happening for everyone?

 

 

Hi Ryan,

 

Go to http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/22387-real-terra-haze-for-flywithlua/&page=9&tab=comments

 

You will find a zip file near the end of the comments that temp fixes RTH

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Hi Ryan,

 

Go to http://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/22387-real-terra-haze-for-flywithlua/&page=9&tab=comments

 

You will find a zip file near the end of the comments that temp fixes RTH

I did this but now I've got an intense fog layer...  I can't see anything more than a few hundred feet in front of me.