P3D at night is way too bright

[SimonC 116]

I am quite happy with Thopat shader mod for P3D. Makes the night dark, and days are relatively realistic (as realistic as it can become for P3D). My IPS monitor is calibrated (Spyder).

[SierraHotel 982]

The answer is:- This..... http://1coder.ru/PTA/  with this....... https://www.sass-projects.info/thopat/ 

[Flic1 976]

4 hours ago, SierraHotel said:

The answer is:- This..... http://1coder.ru/PTA/  with this....... https://www.sass-projects.info/thopat/ 

I agree....the Thopat profile has been great and I have been through quite a few profiles including my own....!! 

The stars being visible during early dusk is a P3D issue and I don't believe you will be able to correct that.  There used to be a way in FSX to dim the stars.  Someone had modified them and they looked pretty good.. It's been a while and can't recall what the file was...or if it even works in P3D....

[Gabe777 132]

On 3/27/2017 at 12:13 AM, Afterburner said:

That your P3D is too bright at night is not necessarily due to the lack of proper monitor calibration. How do I know?  Because even a calibrated monitor displays your screenshots too bright for night time. (And screenshots made via Ctrl+Print are not affected by your monitor settings on the hardware level, unless they are done software-wise via Windows).

I would say that your sky sets are the main culprit. On your screen, you still have the sun setting down on the horizon, while the sky is completely black. This is very unrealistic (unless you are orbiting in space); in the real world, the sky is always blue during a sunset/sunrise at high altitudes. Indeed, the darkness and intensity of the blue is actually less during sunset/sunrise that at noon. I would say that you SHOULD see sunset conditions at the time of your sim, but your ASCA sky set already turns sunset into night as far as sky color, whereas the ground and the clouds are still displaying sunset colors. Personally, I think that some ASCA sky sets are utterly unrealistic. I highly recommend ENVTEX for skies (it is currently on sale).

Here is one example how a sunset sky at 30000 ft should look like (this is with ENVTEX):

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxGfZ6paBlRwUy1BSkNkY3drWGs

If you still find your NIGHT too bright, you can reduce the value of "TONEMAP_NIGHT_EXPOSURE_KEY=0.130000" in your p3d.cfg without affecting the daytime brightness. Personally, I have set it to 0.03, and it gives me nice, dark nights.

Great info. Thnx.

One thing I have noticed however is that the night sky brightness does differ depending on season.

For full realism you should calibrate to pitch black at 12 midnight in late December in Northern Hemisphere and lighter in summer.

In UK sky never goes completely black in June !

I actually think P3D were very clever doing this... But if you hate colour banding, which is unavoidable with 8 bit colour, even with an OLED screen, it is better to go black all the time.

[Arthur42417 193]

On 3/26/2017 at 2:34 PM, Scandinavianaviator said:

As the title say, i find my P3D at night to be very light. I use PTA AS16 and ASCA, but it feels like nothing helps.. It doesnt look realistic.. Hope a p3d genious can help me get a better sim, thanks in advance 

http://imgur.com/a/1XY84

http://imgur.com/a/dEWUr

 

i avoid night flights in p3d......p3dv4 is way too ugly at night....thank god i also own xp11😁

Edited April 14, 2019 by Arthur42417

[pete_auau 1,158]

You  realize  this  is  a  2  year old  thread 

[GeeBee 5]

.......   And still very relevant as P3D is still rendering 8 bit color.