fsx-se Night flying... blind

[Orlaam 306]

I'm trying to figure out why my night flying is so horrible. I used to love night flights in FS9 but FSX is a no-go. Now before you say FS9 was too bright and FSX is realistic, that's not the problem. I have watched dozens of night vids and my "environment" is nothing like that. For example, for landing, the runway isn't visible until maybe a couple miles out. I flew last week into SNA and had no idea where I was going. I wasn't able to land centerline at all because I simply cannot see the runway lights. Same with a trip I tried into PHX. Way off the center. I had no idea where the runway was and could not have even landed without ILS guidance.

 

Something is clearly wrong with my setup if it's so dark that airports are essentially dark. The city is not very lit either but has improved marginally with ORBX global and LC. My airports are all default. Only tweak I implemented was that lights.zip and cfg tweak to get rid of the huge fake balls you see in default FSX. I also have REX textures on the runways and taxiways.

 

The problem seems to be with the light system though. What can I do? Any ideas??

[nicovanj 4]

REX texture makes a _^big difference.

[Orlaam 306]

But Rex is altering the night lighting? How? I didn't use it to change the lights, just runway and taxiway textures on the ground.

[flibinite 18]

Not in FSX-SE, but I had a similar problem in P3D that an Nvidea graphics driver update fixed.

[n99wb 10]

I'm just guessing that you used to use a CRT and now have a flat panel monitor.

Try adding gamma and adjusting brightness/contrast. You can crank it up so

it looks really great at night, but it will look bad during the day. Save a night profile

and a day profile.  You'll be golden.

[Orlaam 306]

Not in FSX-SE, but I had a similar problem in P3D that an Nvidea graphics driver update fixed.

  Yeah I think I'll update.  I wish I knew what driver was "safe".  Some of them aren't so good despite being new.

I'm just guessing that you used to use a CRT and now have a flat panel monitor.

Try adding gamma and adjusting brightness/contrast. You can crank it up so

it looks really great at night, but it will look bad during the day. Save a night profile

and a day profile.  You'll be golden.

 

It's not that.  Yes my FS9 monitor was a CRT and I'm on an LED now, however, the lights aren't just dim.  They are nonexistent until I'm very close.  Then they don't really light up.  I already put my monitor on Photo mode with displays the best color and is very bright.  I'll try and get a screen shot to show you how bad it looks.

[Boeing or not going 578]

  Yeah I think I'll update.  I wish I knew what driver was "safe".  Some of them aren't so good despite being new.

 

It's not that.  Yes my FS9 monitor was a CRT and I'm on an LED now, however, the lights aren't just dim.  They are nonexistent until I'm very close.  Then they don't really light up.  I already put my monitor on Photo mode with displays the best color and is very bright.  I'll try and get a screen shot to show you how bad it looks.

Some addon scenery developers model lights as a certain object type that gets drawn in only when you are close. Rex Texture Direct adjust the lights for any scenery using default lighting style and has many different variants I prefer Lamp.

[Orlaam 306]

Approach into KDVT, a ORBX freeware enhanced airport.  Look how dim the lights are!  They should at least be as bright as the surrounding lights.  I never installed REX lights, just ground textures and sky/clouds.  No signs, sounds, lights or anything.

 

[n99wb 10]

This is interesting.  I jacked up my brightness, contrast and GAMMA  a bunch (way too much) to show

you an example.  Left them that way, came back to post and the runway lights show up on the picture

YOU posted!  So. . .  Well, I can't post a pic. But, I will say that the capture has very bright RW lights

when my bright, contrast and gamma are jacked up, but they almost disappear when set to "my" normal.

 

N99WB

 

Anyone else wanna chime in?  Have I fallen out of tall tree and landed on my head, or can this be happening?

[cianpars 1,164]

I found that ENB and a little bit of trial and error with this gave me a more acceptable night environment.  Improved the daytime appearance as well.

 

IAN

[galfed 3]

Sorry to hear about your night flying problem. To give you a reference how it would look in real life watch this video, if you like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcWJGU1GG8c

 

Hope you get it perfect!

Manfred

[Bjoern 1,153]

Those lights are way too dim. Revert back to defaults and then see whether the cfg tweaks or modified textures cause the issue.

 

 

For what it's worth, here's what I'm seeing in FSXSE DirectX 10 mode and using Steve's DX10 Fixer. No fsx.cfg or light texture tweaks.

http://i.imgur.com/hpVluef.jpg

[Orlaam 306]

I found that ENB and a little bit of trial and error with this gave me a more acceptable night environment.  Improved the daytime appearance as well.

 

IAN

What is ENB?

Those lights are way too dim. Revert back to defaults and then see whether the cfg tweaks or modified textures cause the issue.

 

 

For what it's worth, here's what I'm seeing in FSXSE DirectX 10 mode and using Steve's DX10 Fixer. No fsx.cfg or light texture tweaks.

http://i.imgur.com/hpVluef.jpg

I had installed a modified halo bitmap everyone suggested from the library and it suggested those three FSX.cfg lines (scalar, ect) but adjusting those values didn't seem to do much.

 

Obviously I was trying to get rid of the huge unrealistic balls that come default. REX didn't improve that at all. The library file was what looked best but it's only good during the day.

 

I don't use DX10 though. Your lights looks great.

[cianpars 1,164]

Just Google ENB for FSX and there is plenty of information available.  Videos, threads and example ini configurations.

 

IAN

[Orlaam 306]

Ok thanks :-)