My XP11 is Dull and Flat looking, how do I fix?

[Guest JustanotherPilot]

I've just started using XP11 for VFR flying and feeder airline flights and am stumbling my way around settings and keyboard commands. I use P3D for airliner and online flying, so am unfamiliar with Xplane settings, I am stuck on how to get XP11 to show bright sunlit days - no matter what adjustments I use it still looks dull and flat (see image). In Prepar3D I can adjust the HDR settings to control brightness. How do I get the same results in XP11 without having to buy any addons.

My system is an i7-4790K with Asus GTX1060 GPU and 20gig Ram

Any help appreciated

Steve

[Janov 2,383]

Hi Steve,

you will eventually get used to the more realistic look of X-Plane. To smoothen the transition for yourself try to set the visibility in the weather menu to some very high (100 miles) values without any clourds and fly at noon, where sunshine is the brightest.

Welcome to X-Plane!

Jan

 

[Murmur 3,941]

2 hours ago, JustanotherPilot said:

I am stuck on how to get XP11 to show bright sunlit days - no matter what adjustments I use it still looks dull and flat (see image). In Prepar3D I can adjust the HDR settings to control brightness. How do I get the same results in XP11 without having to buy any addons.

As Janov said, can you try setting max visibility (100 miles) and no more than scattering clouds and then report (maybe posting another screenshot)? So we can have a baseline. Do you know what clouds and visibility did you have in the above screenshot? Were you using real weather? In any case there are a couple of methods to increase brightness, if needed.

 

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

You can download the DataRefEditor, install it and choose, I think, Scenery (second selection from the top), and search or scroll for "fog_be_gone".  It is set at 1.000000.  You can reset it for 0.000000 and remove all fog, but I find that 0.200000 is pretty realistic.  This was posted by Ben several months ago and he said then that it was an experiment and may not stay, but it is working through 11.05 (11.10 may be a whole new ballgame).  Using this, you can "wean" yourself away from realism to a world like FSX and P3D give you.

John

[JLSeagull 191]

Just a thought Steve.... but is your monitor calibration ok?

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/image/GBOt

Correction on above...  the selection is "Show art controls"  instead of Scenery.  The link above shows the 0.200000 setting.

John

Edited September 27, 2017 by Old_As_Dirt
Correction

[1st fltsimguy 466]

I also have found this to be an issue. All the world is not hazy and dull. A day like today in the Pacific Northwest of NA is bright, clear, see for miles, nice bright colours.

I have found that it takes some time, lots of flying and while flying, start adjusting the graphics settings to your liking. I almost always use the max visibility.

I have tried several environment addons (freeware) can't recall which ones at this moment but there are several, and learn to install and adjust to get the look and feel that one might like.

Also there is a drop down under Developers for "show cloud colours" and it pulls up a selectable set of presets. Click on each on and see what that does to your sky colours and visibility, 2/3 down the list is one called orbit I think and it will give you bright blue sky and better distance colour visibility.

cheers.

[1st fltsimguy 466]

4 hours ago, Old_As_Dirt said:

http://fsfiles.org/flightsimshotsv2/image/GBOt

Correction on above...  the selection is "Show art controls"  instead of Scenery.  The link above shows the 0.200000 setting.

John

Jumping hares....you made this sound so easy I thought I would jump in and give it a try.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

- I pulled down the plugin, installed the plug in, launched XP11, have it in my list of plugins, switched to "show are colors", see there was a typing box at bottom which allow one to find a specific dataref....

- what does one do to edit an entry I can't figure this out, read some stuff about zero loops and whatever that is and am totally utterly confused.

Bryan

 

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

5 minutes ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

what does one do to edit an entry

 

The lines are alphabetical in the listing.  The line you are looking for is fog/fog_be_gone ... followed by the number.

Just click on the number section of that line.  It will highlight with a white box around the number.  Modify the number.  Hit "Enter" on your keyboard.  Close the DRE screen.  

This will not "hold".  It must be done every time you restart X-Plane, but only takes a minute.

John

Edited September 27, 2017 by Old_As_Dirt
Clarification

[1st fltsimguy 466]

1 minute ago, Old_As_Dirt said:

Just click on the number section of that line.  It will highlight with a white box around the number.  Modify the number.  Hit "Enter" on your keyboard.  Close the DRE screen.  

This will not "hold".  It must be done every time you restart X-Plane, but only takes a minute.

John

Oh I see, very easy, so then does this then automatically adjusted the scenery?

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

Yes...  Look back at my post as I added how to find the line.

John

[odourboy 1,289]

I use a plug-in called BLU-fx which is helpful.

[1st fltsimguy 466]

3 minutes ago, Old_As_Dirt said:

Yes...  Look back at my post as I added how to find the line.

John

Fantastic John, very helpful and much thanks. I love learning something new each day and I just gave it a go and its working.

So then each launch one would need to reenter the value required in that field.

Now I really intrigued. Where are the program datarefs stored, how does one "tweak" permanently those datarefs I wonder.

Bryan

[Old_As_Dirt 160]

1 minute ago, 1st fltsimguy said:

Where are the program datarefs stored, how does one "tweak" permanently those datarefs I wonder.

That's something I don't know..  Wish I did.  Glad you got it going.

John

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I somewhat prefer the fogged in look, it's different from P3d and very real compared to what I've seen in real flights.  The scenery blends nicely into the distance, keep in mind that Xplane used to limit visibility even further.  Take a look at my recent screenshots using Ortho4xp in the screenshots forum.  They are with 100 mile visibility, the photoreal scenery extends about sixty miles in all directions.

John