Prepar3D switches the lights on too late for my liking. When landing in the evening I'm sometimes, when the timing is bad, struggling to make out the runway on approach during dusk because it's not lit up even though it's already fairly dark. Same goes for city lights which is a bit annoying.

 

Is there a way to tell the simulator to turn them on earlier? Like modifying a cfg file?

I'm in agreement with this.  Anyone have a solution?

 

Bill

Same here, landed at Heathrow recently with all buildings dark, lights came up when I was parking at the gate, thought there was a power outage at the UK2000 airport... I too would welcome a tip if there is one.

+1

In the Prepar3D.cfg file, under the [GRAPHICS] section, add the lines  

DAY_THRESHOLD=42768
NIGHT_THRESHOLD=8096

you can change these to your liking,  These are my setting, and it turns the lights on about an hour before sunset, and keeps them on till after sunrise.

  

16 minutes ago, monica6211 said:

In the Prepar3D.cfg file, under the [GRAPHICS] section, add the lines  

DAY_THRESHOLD=42768
NIGHT_THRESHOLD=8096

you can change these to your liking,  These are my setting, and it turns the lights on about an hour before sunset, and keeps them on till after sunrise.

  

Thank you, I will try your settings. 

 

Can you explain what exactly the numbers mean ?

33 minutes ago, monica6211 said:

In the Prepar3D.cfg file, under the [GRAPHICS] section, add the lines  

DAY_THRESHOLD=42768
NIGHT_THRESHOLD=8096

you can change these to your liking,  These are my setting, and it turns the lights on about an hour before sunset, and keeps them on till after sunrise.

  

THANK YOU!

THANK YOU  times 100! :) :)

 

For the longest time I though there was a bug in either: REX sky textures, P3D  or PTA

FS9 and FSX had this issue too!  

Certain sky textures - it would be quite dark but cities would have that " power outage" look!

Or PTA with the shader modifications would introduce this issue.

I could not use almost all REX dawn/dusk sky textures because of this. Only use some aftermarket freeware ones that worked fine ( lights would go on at the proper time!). but did not like the colour that much.

 

 

 

 

 

I put these into the Graphics section and I really don't see a difference. 

what do the numbers represent...I'm afraid to change them. 

 

 

Thanks!

mine were already there? dont remember ever adding this line

I copied this from Predrag Drobac on FB groups. I hope he doesnt mind me sharing, all credit is his.

 

DID YOU KNOW: You can control when FTX night lights will appear ;)
Edit prepar3d.cfg and add DAY_THRESHOLD=32768 under the [GRAPHICS] section. The higher the number - night lights will appear earlier. My current value is 42768 and you can see the lights earlier during sunset. Acceptable entries are 0-65535.
Also you can control when the lights will turn off with NIGHT_THRESHOLD=4096. The higher the value, the lights will longer stay on. My current value is 8096.

Sadly guys, DAY_THRESHOLD tweak will cause sunglow/lens flare to disappear early too, which I don't like. So, AGAIN, P3D will make you decide what is more important to you, night lights or sun glow/lens flare. Everything, literally everything in P3D is about compromise, two good features can't work in the same time, damn it!

On 1/8/2018 at 5:52 PM, monica6211 said:

In the Prepar3D.cfg file, under the [GRAPHICS] section, add the lines  

DAY_THRESHOLD=42768
NIGHT_THRESHOLD=8096

you can change these to your liking,  These are my setting, and it turns the lights on about an hour before sunset, and keeps them on till after sunrise.

  

Hi guys

Sorry to dig an old post, but has anyone managed to make this work with p3d v4 ? IMO, this is one of the most annoying flaws in P3d ...

thanks

Eduardo

It works great. Give it a try, it may need to be adjusted depending on your monitor.

6 hours ago, DuduGuimaraes said:

Hi guys

Sorry to dig an old post, but has anyone managed to make this work with p3d v4 ? IMO, this is one of the most annoying flaws in P3d ...

thanks

Eduardo

Yes, it works very well. You just have to play with the numbers until you get the times that work for you. This is my setting that seems to be just about right in my eyes. 

DAY_THRESHOLD=40000
NIGHT_THRESHOLD=8000

Day Threshold controls when the lights come on in the evening.  Higher the number, the earlier they come on (you will also lose your lens flare when they come on).

Night Threshold controls when they turn off in the morning, Higher the number the longer they stay on.

I don't fly much in late evening, but I did just recently and I thought something was wrong with scenery files. It was getting very dark and the dad-gummed city was not turning on lights. Runway lights were fine. I could swear I didn't have this problem a while back, ( I remember taking some photos of the lighting of the city). Anyway I will try changing the numbers.