[P3Dv4] No Overhead Panel (Dome) Lighting

[1230james 4]

Decided not to post this in a specific aircraft's subforum since I'm having this issue across all PMDG planes

So a while back I decided to move to P3Dv4. I usually never fly at night so I haven't noticed this issue earlier, but it seems that none of the lights for the overheads work on any PMDG planes.

In the 737 and 777, the overhead panel looks completely dark while all the switches, buttons, dials and whatnot look okay whenever the dome light is on.
In the DC-6 (amazing job on that, btw), the red light works on the captain's and F/O's overheads on the sides, but the red light for the overhead has no effect.

Here's some screenshots so you know what I'm talking about:
737 overhead with the dome light on
Yes, the dome light switch is actually on
Dome lighting works perfectly fine on everything else, though (MCP, pedestal, etc)
Here's the overhead in the 777
And in the DC-6 (you can see that the overhead is dark, but the switches and everything else are red)

I heard somewhere that you need to have HDR lighting on, which I do. Pressing "I" (India) also apparently does something? Not sure why the smoke trail toggle would be linked to the cockpit lighting (but then the Martin bar is triggered with the water rudder toggle, so whatever), but I tried it anyway. Neither of these made a difference.

Here's my lighting settings. Maybe I'm missing out on something super obvious and I've just been too oblivious and bad at searching to figure it out.

If it helps, here's my computer's hardware:

• Windows 10 64-bit (Home, if that makes any difference)
• i3-6100 (3.7 GHz, dual-core)
• 16GB RAM, DDR4
• Intel HD Graphics 530 (sucks, I know, but it does anything I ask it to, as long as it's not GTA V or Crysis :P)

Before someone starts going down the "something's wrong with your computer/sim" path, here's the cockpit lighting working perfectly fine in the Connie that Lockheed includes with P3D. I also recently did a complete system reformat in an attempt to fix an issue with SimConnect, so I doubt something's wrong with my computer.

Also, I've been able to get the overhead lighting to work fine before in FSX:SE. I've since uninstalled my PMDG stuff for FSX to save drive space, but I guess I can go and install the NGX again if someone wants a screenshot.

I have a friend who's running basically the same thing software-wise (also has P3Dv4, the NGX and 777 (not the DC-6, though), similar lighting settings in the game options, etc.) and his dome lighting works on the overhead without any issues, so this has stumped me for a while.

Help would be appreciated; thanks in advance.

My name's in my signature, please don't crucify me 8(

[downscc 1,327]

Interesting problem.  James I recommend you send this direct to PMDG on a trouble ticket.  My guess is that since you see the same thing in both NGX and 777 (the DC6 is actually like that) and there's nothing wrong with your settings then there might be something "structural" happening here.  My eye keeps getting drawn to your graphics but I'm not familiar with it, can you confirm that it is DirectX 11 capable?  LM posts a system requirements page on their web site and they require as minimum DirectX 11 and a video card with 2GB VRAM or greater.

[Nighthwk 566]

Integrated Intel graphics are not supported by either PMDG or LM. That's where your issue is coming from, most lilely.

[1230james 4]

6 hours ago, downscc said:

(the DC6 is actually like that)

Yikes. Better bring a flashlight with me on the next flight...

6 hours ago, downscc said:

My eye keeps getting drawn to your graphics but I'm not familiar with it, can you confirm that it is DirectX 11 capable?  LM posts a system requirements page on their web site and they require as minimum DirectX 11

I can indeed.

6 hours ago, downscc said:

and a video card with 2GB VRAM or greater.

Not sure what to say about this, honestly. Went into the BIOS a year ago and I set the DVMT to max. I'll admit I'm not 100% sure about what this does (doesn't mean 0%, mind y'all :P), but I'm pretty sure this lets the graphics card take up as much RAM as it needs from my main RAM unless the OS needs it for something else.

5 hours ago, Milton Waddams said:

Integrated Intel graphics are not supported by either PMDG or LM. That's where your issue is coming from, most lilely.

I was thinking the same. If that's the case, though, then how come other night lighting works okay, like in the default Connie? And how come it worked okay in FSX:SE? (For the latter, I would suspect that the lighting engine is different between FSX and P3Dv4)

[Nighthwk 566]

12 hours ago, 1230james said:

Yikes. Better bring a flashlight with me on the next flight...

I can indeed.

Not sure what to say about this, honestly. Went into the BIOS a year ago and I set the DVMT to max. I'll admit I'm not 100% sure about what this does (doesn't mean 0%, mind y'all :P), but I'm pretty sure this lets the graphics card take up as much RAM as it needs from my main RAM unless the OS needs it for something else.

I was thinking the same. If that's the case, though, then how come other night lighting works okay, like in the default Connie? And how come it worked okay in FSX:SE? (For the latter, I would suspect that the lighting engine is different between FSX and P3Dv4)

Indeed, the lighting engine is very different from FSX. A2A must support integrated graphics, PMDG doesn't. There's a difference between VRAM and RAM, not sure if it will affect P3D in this scenario though.

[1230james 4]

9 hours ago, Milton Waddams said:

A2A

*JustFlight; you think A2A would want to put their COTS Connie in P3Dv4 for free? :P
 

9 hours ago, Milton Waddams said:

A2A must support integrated graphics, PMDG doesn't.

I guess PMDG dropped support for it in the P3D lighting engine? It's the only thing that makes any sense at this point.

 

9 hours ago, Milton Waddams said:

There's a difference between VRAM and RAM, not sure if it will affect P3D in this scenario though.

I understand that, but I was under the impression that integrated graphics cards just ask the OS to allocate some of the RAM to use as VRAM, since CPUs don't come with dedicated graphics memory.

[Nighthwk 566]

If I recall, their 777, 737, and 747 never supported the integrated graphics. I believe they said it might work, it just isn't supported by them. Yes, LM increased their minimum specs. Again, it MIGHT work but it is the bare bare minimum.

[1230james 4]

Welp, that's a bummer. 8(

At least the panel backlighting for all the lines and stuff still works, though, so it's not a total loss.

[Samany69 41]

hey friend . I had exactly the same problem as you have . I just solved it now . in my case i had to turn the shadows on and set the interior cast and receive check box checked , which is dropping a lot of FPS on my wooden PC ... but its the only way i finally solved it with.

wish this helps you too.

Saman Mahdi Abadi

[Ephedrin 418]

James, for your information: the location where you uploded your pictures forwards me (on the iphone) to tinder and other sex sites before I can even watch the pictures.  Don't know about the other people though. But maybe another host would be good in the future...

[1230james 4]

12 hours ago, Samany69 said:

hey friend . I had exactly the same problem as you have . I just solved it now . in my case i had to turn the shadows on and set the interior cast and receive check box checked , which is dropping a lot of FPS on my wooden PC ... but its the only way i finally solved it with.

wish this helps you too.

Saman Mahdi Abadi

Great; I'll try it tomorrow morning when I've got the time.

11 hours ago, Ephedrin said:

James, for your information: the location where you uploded your pictures forwards me (on the iphone) to tinder and other sex sites before I can even watch the pictures.  Don't know about the other people though. But maybe another host would be good in the future...

Err... what? It's just Gyazo...

[1230james 4]

On 9/29/2017 at 11:34 AM, Samany69 said:

hey friend . I had exactly the same problem as you have . I just solved it now . in my case i had to turn the shadows on and set the interior cast and receive check box checked , which is dropping a lot of FPS on my wooden PC ... but its the only way i finally solved it with.

wish this helps you too.

Saman Mahdi Abadi

Hey, that worked! Thank you so much!

[1230james 4]

Side note: I found that as long as if the Internal Vehicle and Receive shadows, the overhead lighting works okay.

I've fiddled with it some more, and it seems that HDR Lighting and Dynamic Lighting can also be disabled, and the overhead lights will still work.

• Here's my current lighting settings. Note that HDR Lighting is off and Receiving shadows for the Internal Vehicle setting is on. Dynamic Lighting can be disabled too, but I like to keep it on since it looks nice and hardly adds to the FPS drop for me.
• 737 Overhead with the dome light on.
• Same thing but 777 overhead instead.
• DC-6 overhead with the cockpit flood light and the entrance light on.
• Same plane but with the captain's and F/O's red overhead lights and the entrance red light ("MAIN J. BOX") on.
  • Same plane but with NO lights on. (for the people who want to compare the white flood light with no lights, since the flood light does seem a little dark compared to the flood lights in the NGX and 777)

Glad to see my trashy iGPU pulls through once more. Thanks to everyone for your help, and good luck to anyone else who stumbles upon this thread to fix the same issue!

[Samany69 41]

On 9/30/2017 at 7:36 PM, 1230james said:

Hey, that worked! Thank you so much!

i am glad that it worked for you . Enjoy your night flights ^^.

Saman Mahdi Abadi.