Any tweaks for Night lights popping at night?

[pegruder 65]

Just wondering if there is any fixes for this night light popping yet?  It's been awhile since I've tried searching and wondering if you crafty folks figured something out.

[CarlosF 1,234]

Unfortunately, no, and I do hope LR addresses it in the future.

[pegruder 65]

1 hour ago, CarlosF said:

Unfortunately, no, and I do hope LR addresses it in the future.

:(  Same.  Its probably the only drawback of XP.

[CarlosF 1,234]

I got used to it so no big deal, having said that,  hopefully LR can implement a fix in the same way XP handles autogen.

[curbz 22]

48 minutes ago, pegruder said:

:(  Same.  Its probably the only drawback of XP.

+1

The night environment is so incredibly gorgeous, but then spoilt by the popping... it's such a shame.

[Paraffin 2,197]

1 hour ago, CarlosF said:

I got used to it so no big deal, having said that,  hopefully LR can implement a fix in the same way XP handles autogen.

I don't think it will be an easy fix like the extended loading of autogen.

Every light is a separate illumination source, which adds another layer of CPU/GPU calculation on top of the buildings and streets that are already being generated (and lit up). The current radius of night lights is what Laminar figures our current CPU/GPU can handle, without starting to hit the frame rate too badly.

One way to extend the range would be to use separate 2D texture overlays with baked-in lighting for the farthest night lights. That might be difficult to make look realistic though, with the demarcation line between actual lights and baked-in lighting constantly moving as the plane flies forward. Laminar is aware of the problem, I think, but it may be a while before they come up with a solution.

Of course the ultimate solution, would be to keep the current model and extend the LOD when we're eventually using more powerful computers. A stopgap would be to add a slider for night lighting LOD, so those with stonger computers right now could push out the range a little. With Laminar's attitude about not letting the users play with too many graphics settings (and then users complaining about the frame rates), this may be a non-starter.

[strider1 575]

Austin has been bugging Ben for a fix, so hopefully Ben has some ideas !

[Kuragiman 227]

Well they figured out how to do in P3D V4 so come on Laminar!  CHOP CHOP!  We want horizon to horizon night lighting too!

[Paraffin 2,197]

18 minutes ago, Kuragiman said:

Well they figured out how to do in P3D V4 so come on Laminar!  CHOP CHOP!  We want horizon to horizon night lighting too!

Does P3D v4 do dynamic (individual source) lighting out to the horizon? I heard it was something like a limit of just 256 light sources. That's enough for planes, but not enough for even a major airport. 

Is that the case, or do they actually have a Global Illumination model like XP, with thousands of individual light sources at night? I'm just going by what I've read here, since I don't own P3D.

[N1G 88]

I thought something called Alpha-Fade was a good approach and x-plane used that. I guess not.

 

Bob

[Kuragiman 227]

1 hour ago, Paraffin said:

Does P3D v4 do dynamic (individual source) lighting out to the horizon? I heard it was something like a limit of just 256 light sources. That's enough for planes, but not enough for even a major airport. 

Is that the case, or do they actually have a Global Illumination model like XP, with thousands of individual light sources at night? I'm just going by what I've read here, since I don't own P3D.

I don't know what tech they are using in P3DV4 to do it but I watch Matt's video and it was impressive looking.   Lights as far as the eye could see just like the real deal.

[Paraffin 2,197]

40 minutes ago, Kuragiman said:

I don't know what tech they are using in P3DV4 to do it but I watch Matt's video and it was impressive looking.   Lights as far as the eye could see just like the real deal.

That's great at high altitude where baked-in texture lighting can work, but it changes when you get down low, and you're looking for things like street lights, moving car headlights and tail lights, and building windows lit up. I fly GA and helicopters, so that's a big thing for the way I fly. A realistic large airport also needs a ton of lighting sources to look good at night, between fixed lights and moving ground vehicles and aircraft.

Still looking to verify if there are just 256 light sources in P3D v4, or if it's more like XP11's Global Illumination.

Edit to add, just a quick scan of the P3D v4 threads found this quote:

JV from ORBX said the current dynamic lighting feature supports 256 light sources in one scene, this feature still needs to be improved in the future. But the night environment in V4 is already miles ahead of V3.