PMDG 737NGX Instrument Panel Fading

[Stuart Frost 0]

Steve,

When rotating the PMDG 737 around a vertical axis during a check to see if I installed the shadows correctly, I found a strange effect occurring on the Main Instrument Panel. The shadows were successfully there, but as I rotated the aircraft 360 degrees, the instrument display degraded at a particular angle to the sun such that gauges was unreadable. The light intensity was unacceptable to allow reading the instrument over an arc of about 10-20 degrees. Continuing to rotate the aircraft from that point, the gauge starts to improve to a normal display until once again degrading at the same location again. This problem only happens when engaging the Shadow option obviously. It is so bad that if you are flying at a angle like similar to my shadow check, it is impossible to navigate at that precise point. Is there a reason for this problem and are there any remedies to try to correct my situation

Thank you in advance, 

Stuart Frost

[tf51d 284]

Had the same issue, turn off bloom in FSX settings and it will clear up.

[Stuart Frost 0]

tf51d,

Thank you for your quick response. I did exactly as you suggested, but found little if any improvement to the condition I have experienced. I even turned off all items in SteveFX's program under Bloom. I understand that a shadow will create a darker surface where it falls, but reducing the instrument display intensity to the point of almost being shut off is a bit disturbing. I am only venting, not complaining personally to my fellow simmers.

Thanks again,

Stuart Frost

[SteveFx 258]

You need to post a picture as it's impossible to really know what you are seeing or even where the sun is relative to the aircraft,

The texture that comes with your aircraft is "illuminated" according to whether it is in shadow based on the ambient light and the sunlight factor which come from your sky texture based on the time of day.

a surface that is not shadowed is illuminated with the ambient light plus the sun light

a surface that is in full shadow is illuminated  just with the ambient light 

This doesn't work well with a backlit display and so prudent aircraft developers should set these not to be shadowed.

The angle to the sun plays a part as well such that if the surface on which the shadow lands is facing directly towards the sun you get the ambient light and if it is facing at say 60 degrees to the sun then you get ambient plus 1/2 the sunlight.

shadows are also reduced if the visibility is less than infinite.

With the fixer you have some adjustments that you can use wisely or not

you can use shadow boost to darken shadows more than the ambient light. I recommend not to use this and if you insist to test very carefully as textures can become far too dark, but people ask for it so I supply it as an option.

you can increase the contrast which lightens  sunlight and darkens shadows, again using anything but a small value here can cause overly dark or light textures.

there are options to reduce the fading of shadows in reduced visibility or the fade of with angle relatiive to the sun. These are usually safe to use and recommended by me.

what you seem to be describing although it's hard to be certain is overly dark shadows?  You need to make sure that you haven't set excessive values in the fixer sliders and that the sky textures are not setting the lighting too low.

Also try uninstalling the fixer libraries and compare and report the same test in default dx10'preview in fsx.

 

 

[tf51d 284]

Another possibility is you have ASN/AS2016 "enable wing fade effect" checked. That setting can cause fading in the VC when visibility is low.

[Stuart Frost 0]

Two part answer

Steve,

I read your response and understand what may happening through no fault of the fixer. I guess the only solution would be to have the PMDG 737NGX and other aircraft  isolate each instrument from being over-laid by the effects of shadows, if I read you correctly. I tried your suggestion to turn off the libraries using the default profile and found the generation of strange looking shadows that appeared randomly generated with very gagged edges. None of the shadows had any relation to the actual aircraft surfaces which makes me conclude that this situation can not be corrected by the fixer. Correction may be possible however thru modification to the PMDG aircraft by PMDG as you suggest. Thanks for your help and hope you received the pictures requested.

tf51d,

Thanks for your continued suggestions but all my testing was done on FSX alone with no Add-Ons active. I did not use my AS2016 anytime as I did want to have to find clear skies and bright sun to maximize the conditions when the problem occurs.

 

Thanks to you both,

Stuart Frost

 

[SteveFx 258]

Stuart,  although the shadow logic is the same (i.e. It isn't the fixer) I am investigating to understand why the digits don't fade when shadows are off to see if anything could be done.

ok, I now understand what is happening and I think that I can improve this for you in the next fixer release.