September 12, 20169 yr Author I'll try running hdr again - see if I can stand it What was it that you couldn't stand? If your settings are right, it should be neither too dark nor too bright (day or night.)
September 12, 20169 yr Does PTA have an affect on VAS or performance? And does it overwrite your existing textures and shader files? ASUS ROG Maximus Hero XII ▪︎ Intel i9-10900K ▪︎ NVIDIA RTX 3090 FE ▪︎ 64GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro ▪︎ Windows 10 Pro (21H1) ▪︎ Samsung 970 EVO Pro 1TB NVME SSD (OS Drive) ▪︎ Samsung 860 EVO 2TB SATA SSD ▪︎ Seagate 4TB SATA HDD ▪︎ Corsair RMx 850W PSU
September 13, 20169 yr What was it that you couldn't stand? If your settings are right, it should be neither too dark nor too bright (day or night.) Cockpits at night get too "bloomy" the glass cockpit aircraft especially are pretty bad - the glass blooms up and glows. In the daytime the same thing happens and the contrast on the glass is washed out. So far I tweaked some settings and it's looking better than I ran before. Also, in P3D v2 I think I remember a value we could change that set the time delay from one end to the other, (if you were inside cockpit then looked outside) - do you know where that is? How can I change that - I want the transition to happen rapidly. Exmaple - king air 350i in daytime even... look how washed out the glass is! Ick. If I lower the brightness in P3D, the outside world is far too dark. I can't find a happy medium. What was it that you couldn't stand? If your settings are right, it should be neither too dark nor too bright (day or night.) Cockpits at night get too "bloomy" the glass cockpit aircraft especially are pretty bad - the glass blooms up and glows. In the daytime the same thing happens and the contrast on the glass is washed out. So far I tweaked some settings and it's looking better than I ran before. Also, in P3D v2 I think I remember a value we could change that set the time delay from one end to the other, (if you were inside cockpit then looked outside) - do you know where that is? How can I change that - I want the transition to happen rapidly. Exmaple - king air 350i in daytime even... look how washed out the glass is! Ick. If I lower the brightness in P3D, the outside world is far too dark. I can't find a happy medium. | My Liveries | FAA ZMP | PPL ASEL | | Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 64GB 6000 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |
September 13, 20169 yr Author I don't have that particular aircraft, but here's the PMDG NGX at night with my settings: And the default Mooney G1000 in daytime with the sun shining directly on it: And random NGX daytime shot:
September 13, 20169 yr Do you have bloom disabled then? The mooney shot is too bright imo - it's worse with dark cockpits during the day - they look washed out. I'm just not seeing that at all. The NGX - is that FSL spotlights though? | My Liveries | FAA ZMP | PPL ASEL | | Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 64GB 6000 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |
September 13, 20169 yr Author Keep in mind the Mooney cockpit is almost white so when the sun hits it it's SUPER bright. I have bloom enabled but very low, at 0.25. The NGX lighting is just default PMDG.
September 18, 20169 yr I think yours is more blue than mine, but without HDR (I tried it for a few days... ugh just can't do it lol), I think I got the horizon looking better. But even with the raleigh scattering, the whole sim looks a bit too blue. Like the color temperature (K) is too cool, should be warmer. I'm guessing that upping the horizon scattering yields a cooler color perhaps? And edit! I just ran this same shot with HDR and it's looking a lot more like yours...especially when I jacked up the brightness - it works great for exterior, but particularily in black/dark cockpit colors, the increased brightness just washes the heck out of everything in the cockpit, it looks quite bad. So there doesn't seem to be a happy medium, a brightness slider high yields a better look externally, but wrecks the interiors I think. A lower brightness slider is a happy medium in the VC, but the sky is FAR too dark external view. In the second shot HDR brightness slider is set to 1.25, Bloom (which I highly dislike = .31), and saturation = 1.02 First World Problems, I know! | My Liveries | FAA ZMP | PPL ASEL | | Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 64GB 6000 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |
September 18, 20169 yr Commercial Member How do you set default presets, do you just check all the boxes? Paul Grubich 2017 - Professional texture artist painting virtual aircraft I love. Be sure to check out my aged cockpits for the A2A B-377, B-17 and Connie at Flightsim.com and Avsim library
September 18, 20169 yr Author Well, as always there's going to be a lot of personal preference involved. Here's where I'm at with cockpit looks, starting with the dark Cherokee cockpit: To me, it doesn't look washed out, simply brightly light in a very sunny sky.
September 18, 20169 yr Looks fine on the cessna (white panel), but we're going nuclear on the cherokee panel hehe. Could be my monitor vs yours as well. Or, my brain is so used to a dim dark panel in non HDR mode so I think yours are too bright. Do you have a saved preset in PTA and also what are you P3D settings for HDR? Paul - I'm not exactly sure. | My Liveries | FAA ZMP | PPL ASEL | | Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 64GB 6000 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |
September 18, 20169 yr Author [PRESET COMMENTS] Comment= [CLOUDS Cloud_Brightness] IsActive=1 [CLOUDS Cirrus_Brightness] IsActive=1 [CLOUDS Cloud_Shadows_Size] IsActive=1 [CLOUDS Cloud_Size] IsActive=0 CloudSizeCoeff=0.50 CloudSizeVCoeff=0.50 [CLOUDS Cloud_Popcorn] IsActive=0 CloudDistanceFactor=0.00000000050 CloudOpacity=1.00 [CLOUDS Cloud_Volumized] IsActive=0 [CLOUDS Cloud_Alternate_Lighting] IsActive=0 [CLOUDS Clouds_Lighting_Tuning] IsActive=0 CloudLightFactor=0.85 CloudSaturateFactor=0.33 [CLOUDS Clouds_Fog_Tuning] IsActive=1 FogFactor=1.00 [CLOUDS CloudShades] IsActive=1 ShadeFactor=0.75 [sHADOWS Shadows_IlluminatedBoost] IsActive=1 BoostCoeff=1.50 [sHADOWS Shadows_Depth] IsActive=1 DepthCoeff=0.65 [sHADOWS MoonDiffuse_Brightness] IsActive=0 BoostCoeff=1.00 [sHADOWS MoonAmbient_Brightness] IsActive=0 DepthCoeff=1.00 [sHADOWS Autogen_Shadows] IsActive=1 AutogenCoeff=0.95 [sHADOWS Aircraft_Lighting] IsActive=0 AircraftCoeff=1.00 [FOG Atmo_scattering] IsActive=1 DensityCorrection=1 Power=2.00 Density=0.0000000040 Green=0.060 Blue=0.150 [TERRAIN Terrain_haze_Alt] IsActive=0 Seasons=0 Power=2.00 Distance=0.00000000035 Red=1.00 Green=1.00 Blue=1.00 [TERRAIN Boost_EmissiveLandclass] IsActive=1 BoostRatio=2.25 [TERRAIN Saturate_EmissiveLandclass] IsActive=1 Ratio=1.75 [WATER FSXReflection] IsActive=0 [WATER Granularity] IsActive=0 Coeff=3.00 [WATER WaterReflection] IsActive=1 Coeff=0.55 [WATER WaterRefraction] IsActive=0 Coeff=0.35 [WATER WaveSpeed] IsActive=0 Coeff=1.00 [HDR HDRAdaptation] IsActive=0 [HDR HDRTonemap] IsActive=1 [HDR HDRContrast] IsActive=0 Coeff=0.50 [HDR HDRTone] IsActive=0 Red=1.00 Green=1.00 Blue=1.00 [postPROCESSING PostProcess] IsActive=0 NoHDR=0 [CUSTOM_SHADER Sepia] IsActive=0 Index=0 Params=436F6C6F72546F6E65583D312E34300D0A436F6C6F72546F6E65593D312E31300D0A436F6C6F72546F6E655A3D302E39300D0A47726579506F7765723D302E31310D0A5365706961506F7765723D302E35380D0A4461794E696768745573653D300D0A [CUSTOM_SHADER Curves] IsActive=0 Index=1 Params=4375727665735F6D6F64653D300D0A4375727665735F636F6E74726173743D302E36350D0A4375727665735F666F726D756C613D350D0A4461794E696768745573653D300D0A [CUSTOM_SHADER Levels] IsActive=0 Index=2 Params=4C6576656C735F626C61636B5F706F696E743D31360D0A4C6576656C735F77686974655F706F696E743D3233350D0A4461794E696768745573653D300D0A [CUSTOM_SHADER LiftGammaGain] IsActive=0 Index=3 Params=5247425F4C696674583D312E30300D0A5247425F4C696674593D312E30300D0A5247425F4C6966745A3D312E30300D0A5247425F47616D6D61583D312E30300D0A5247425F47616D6D61593D312E30300D0A5247425F47616D6D615A3D312E30300D0A5247425F4761696E583D312E30300D0A5247425F4761696E593D312E30300D0A5247425F4761696E5A3D312E30300D0A4461794E696768745573653D300D0A [CUSTOM_SHADER Technicolor] IsActive=0 Index=4 Params=546563686E69416D6F756E743D302E34300D0A546563686E69506F7765723D342E30300D0A7265644E65676174697665416D6F756E743D302E38380D0A677265656E4E65676174697665416D6F756E743D302E38380D0A626C75654E65676174697665416D6F756E743D302E38380D0A4461794E696768745573653D300D0A [CUSTOM_SHADER Vibrance] IsActive=0 Index=5 Params=56696272616E63653D302E32300D0A56696272616E63655F5247425F62616C616E6365583D312E30300D0A56696272616E63655F5247425F62616C616E6365593D312E30300D0A56696272616E63655F5247425F62616C616E63655A3D312E30300D0A4461794E696768745573653D300D0A [CUSTOM_SHADER DPX] IsActive=0 Index=6 Params=5265643D382E300D0A477265656E3D382E300D0A426C75653D382E300D0A436F6C6F7247616D6D613D322E350D0A44505853617475726174696F6E3D332E300D0A526564433D302E33360D0A477265656E433D302E33360D0A426C7565433D302E33340D0A426C656E643D302E32300D0A4461794E696768745573653D300D0A [CUSTOM_SHADER Tonemap] IsActive=0 Index=7 Params=47616D6D613D312E300D0A4578706F737572653D302E300D0A53617475726174696F6E3D302E300D0A426C656163683D302E300D0A4465666F673D302E300D0A466F67436F6C6F72583D302E300D0A466F67436F6C6F72593D302E300D0A466F67436F6C6F725A3D322E35350D0A4461794E696768745573653D300D0A [CUSTOM_SHADER LumaSharpen] IsActive=0 Index=8 Params=53686172705F737472656E6774683D302E36350D0A53686172705F636C616D703D302E3033350D0A5061747465726E3D320D0A4F66667365745F626961733D312E300D0A4461794E696768745573653D300D0A [FXAA FXAA_Tuning] IsActive=0 Preset=13 Sharpness=0.75 - default amount of filtering Contrast=0.125 - high quality Edge=0.0625 - high quality (faster) [CFG Tweak] IsActive=0 Patch=
September 18, 20169 yr Thanks for that! So I copy that to a text file and put it in the PTA preset folder? And did you make any changes to the P3D in game HDR settings? | My Liveries | FAA ZMP | PPL ASEL | | Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 64GB 6000 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |
September 18, 20169 yr Author Yeah, you should be able to just past that into a text file, save it as whatever.ini in the PTA root folder (with the PTA.exe) and you should be able to load it as a preset. I posted HDR settings earlier, but here they are again. These are from Prepar3D.cfg because I also have tweaked tonemap settings here: HDR_BRIGHTNESS=1.500000 HDR_BLOOM_THRESHOLD=3.000000 HDR_BLOOM_MAGNITUDE=0.250000 HDR_BLOOM_BLUR_SIGMA=0.800000 TONEMAP_DAY_EXPOSURE_KEY=0.300000 TONEMAP_NIGHT_EXPOSURE_KEY=0.050000 HDR_SATURATION=1.250000
September 18, 20169 yr Thanks for that too.. Yeah it's gotta be monitor settings or something... when I look into the cockpit (especially the dark ones), the outside is just overexposed. It looks ok from external but on my screen it's really really bright. Oddly enough, my PTA picks were really close to yours haha. Just the in-game settings appear to be quite different. | My Liveries | FAA ZMP | PPL ASEL | | Windows 11 | MSI Z690 Tomahawk | 12700K 4.7GHz | MSI RTX 4080 | 64GB 6000 MHz DDR5 | 500GB Samsung 860 Evo SSD | 2x 2TB Samsung 970 Evo M.2 | EVGA 850W Gold | Corsair 5000X | HP G2 (VR) / LG 27" 1440p |
September 18, 20169 yr Author That's how HDR works. It's the same thing with real camera photography. In order to properly expose the majority of a picture, the outside might get overexposed. Basically just do a google image search for any cockpit photos, and you'll notice the same exact thing. The camera adjusts to the natural light in the cockpit, and the outside gets overexposed. As long as it's balanced in normal viewing like in my screenshots, it's fine. If you did what you did in your screenshot and 90% of the screen is cockpit, then yeah the outside areas get overexposed. When you're just flying "normally," looking outside while also keeping some instruments in view (or, say, looking out over/under a wing) you should have a happy medium between both. I can do the same thing in my sim, looking down into the cockpit and overexposing the terrain/sky, but if I'm doing that I'm not actually "looking" outside, I'm looking at something in the cockpit (which is why the camera was pointed there in the first place, lol.) edit: The F22 is also a bit of an extreme example as you have an extremely narrow cockpit that's darker in color, with great visibility outside.
Create an account or sign in to comment