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Dynamic and legacy lighting in v4?

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If dynamic lighting is turned off in P3D v4 does the sim and all the addons function the same as in P3D v3 with legacy lighting or not? Let's take for example PMDG 737 on Aerosoft Mega Airport London Heathrow professional. Does lighting look the same as in P3D v3 if dynamic lighting is off? Does it even work? What's the difference? Probably a very basic question but I asked it a couple of times in other threads and didn't get an answer. Thanks!

  • Commercial Member
42 minutes ago, 0Artur0 said:

If dynamic lighting is turned off in P3D v4 does the sim and all the addons function the same as in P3D v3 with legacy lighting or not? Let's take for example PMDG 737 on Aerosoft Mega Airport London Heathrow professional. Does lighting look the same as in P3D v3 if dynamic lighting is off? Does it even work? What's the difference? Probably a very basic question but I asked it a couple of times in other threads and didn't get an answer. Thanks!

Nope, if you disable DL (Dynamic Lighting) the lights will not be displayed, simple as that.

The reason is simple, there two ways to represent lights in the Simulator:

1) Via the new technology called Dynamic Lighting where developers will embed into their add-on's instructions indicating were they want a source of light and how intense, the simulator takes this information and generate the light following the parameters.

2) Via the old technology using Emissive Map / Self-Illumination Map textures, these are just painted textures that looks lighter to simulate lighting conditions and when you compile the Airplanes, Airports, SimObjects, etc. developers instruct the simulator that during night the self-illumination map textures should be used.

Developers of modern add-on's are using now the new technologies available by the Sim and accordingly if you switch off the technology via settings then their configuration of light sources will not be executed by the Simulator.

Hope this helps,
S.

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Oficial Website: https://www.FSReborn.com
Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/XC82TqvKQ3

  • Author
5 minutes ago, simbol said:

Nope, if you disable DL (Dynamic Lighting) the lights will not be displayed, simple as that.

The reason is simple, there two ways to represent lights in the Simulator:

1) Via the new technology called Dynamic Lighting where developers will embed into their add-on's instructions indicating were they want a source of light and how intense, the simulator takes this information and generate the light following the parameters.

2) Via the old technology using Emissive Map / Self-Illumination Map textures, these are just painted textures that looks lighter to simulate lighting conditions and when you compile the Airplanes, Airports, SimObjects, etc. developers instruct the simulator that during night the self-illumination map textures should be used.

Developers of modern add-on's are using now the new technologies available by the Sim and accordingly if you switch off the technology via settings then their configuration of light sources will not be executed by the Simulator.

Hope this helps,
S.

Just to clarify... if I turn dynamic lighting off in P3D v4 than at night PMDG 737 NGX and Aerosoft Mega Airport London Heathrow professional will be completely dark? So there's no way to use such v4 exclusive products at night without turning dynamic lighting on?

  • Commercial Member
1 hour ago, 0Artur0 said:

Just to clarify... if I turn dynamic lighting off in P3D v4 than at night PMDG 737 NGX and Aerosoft Mega Airport London Heathrow professional will be completely dark? So there's no way to use such v4 exclusive products at night without turning dynamic lighting on?

The PMDG 737 NGX Landing Lights, Taxi Lights and Navigation lights will not illuminate any object, runway or taxiway.

Regarding Aerosoft I cannot comment as I don't have this scenery, please re-read my previous post, it all depends of how the add-on's have been done by their original developers.

Regards,
Simbol

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Oficial Website: https://www.FSReborn.com
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I think the PMDG NGX 737-700 and -600 will illuminate the ground with legacy style lights with the dynamic lights option set to off in the P3D options menu.

As far as airports ...just stay away from any airport that doesn't give you the option to disable DL. and you should be fine.

Edited by FunknNasty

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Ken C

12 minutes ago, FunknNasty said:

I think the PMDG NGX 737-700 and -600 will illuminate the ground with legacy style lights with the dynamic lights option set to off in the P3D options menu.

In my particular setup, this is not true.  With DL turned off, I don't see any effect from taxi/landing lights on the ramp/runway.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong.


Doug Miannay

PC: i9-13900K (OC 6.1) | ASUS Maximus Z790 Hero | ASUS Strix RTX4080 (OC) | ASUS ROG Strix LC II 360 AIO | 32GB G.Skill DDR5 TridentZ RGB 6400Hz | Samsung 990 Pro 1TB M.2 (OS/Apps) | Samsung 990 Pro 2TB M.2 (Sim) | Samsung 990 Pro 2TB M.2 (Games) | Fractal Design Define R7 Blackout Case | Win11 Pro x64

Just now, dmiannay said:

In my particular setup, this is not true.  With DL turned off, I don't see any effect from taxi/landing lights on the ramp/runway.  Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Yeah, I don't know from experience as I don't have the -700 -600 expansion pack, but there's plenty of discussion at the PMDG forum from users that say the models do have legacy lighting.

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Ken C

  • Commercial Member
9 minutes ago, FunknNasty said:

Yeah, I don't know from experience as I don't have the -700 -600 expansion pack, but there's plenty of discussion at the PMDG forum from users that say the models do have legacy lighting.

They don't, without DL enabled the Landing lights and taxi lights don't work, I have the PMDG so I am giving advise based on my own experience, same thing with other products like the FSL A320, Leonardo Maddog, TDI B717, etc.

Regards,
S.

Edited by simbol

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Oficial Website: https://www.FSReborn.com
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3 hours ago, simbol said:

They don't, without DL enabled the Landing lights and taxi lights don't work, I have the PMDG so I am giving advise based on my own experience, same thing with other products like the FSL A320, Leonardo Maddog, TDI B717, etc.

Regards,
S.

Don't make me have to go out and buy the 737 expansion pack.   🙂

    ROG Maximus X Apex Z370 -- 8086 @ 5.3 / NB 5.0 -- GSkill  @ 4133 c17-17-32~Cr1 1.42v  -- EVGA 1080Ti 6393 -- ROG PG279Q 1440P 150hz -- Corsair H100i V2 --Samsung EVO 850(s) -- Windows7 Pro 64 --Corsair 750X

Ken C

1 hour ago, FunknNasty said:

 

Don't make me have to go out and buy the 737 expansion pack.   🙂

Hehe... just checked the PMDG 737NGX expansion pack (-700 specifically) and there are zero landing/taxi light effects on the ramp/runway.  Although I understand technically why this had to be, it is still too demanding to use DL, so I go without landing/taxi lights.


Doug Miannay

PC: i9-13900K (OC 6.1) | ASUS Maximus Z790 Hero | ASUS Strix RTX4080 (OC) | ASUS ROG Strix LC II 360 AIO | 32GB G.Skill DDR5 TridentZ RGB 6400Hz | Samsung 990 Pro 1TB M.2 (OS/Apps) | Samsung 990 Pro 2TB M.2 (Sim) | Samsung 990 Pro 2TB M.2 (Games) | Fractal Design Define R7 Blackout Case | Win11 Pro x64

Are we talking about the aircraft lights here, or the airport lighting? I just find it difficult to believe that an airport would be completely dark in P3D v4 if the user did not have the processing power to use dynamic lighting :huh:

Christopher Low

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU / 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM / 12GB Nvidia RTX 4070 Super GPU / Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wifi 7 / 1+2TB Samsung Evo Plus M2 Nvme

UK2000 Beta Tester

8 hours ago, simbol said:

They don't, without DL enabled the Landing lights and taxi lights don't work, I have the PMDG so I am giving advise based on my own experience, same thing with other products like the FSL A320, Leonardo Maddog, TDI B717, etc.

Regards,
S.

You can add the AS CRJ to that list.

Even though DL is somewhat a better performer in P3d v4.3, it can still produce unacceptable performance on some airports with DL enabled. I've resorted to keeping DL off and opting for better fps.

MSFS

4 hours ago, dmiannay said:

Hehe... just checked the PMDG 737NGX expansion pack (-700 specifically) and there are zero landing/taxi light effects on the ramp/runway.  Although I understand technically why this had to be, it is still too demanding to use DL, so I go without landing/taxi lights.

Well I did have my doubts about the -700 and legacy lighting, hence the reason why I never purchased it after 4.0 was released. But, I think you've seen the posts on the subject over at the PMDG forum ....the reason for my confusion.

3 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

Are we talking about the aircraft lights here, or the airport lighting? I just find it difficult to believe that an airport would be completely dark in P3D v4 if the user did not have the processing power to use dynamic lighting :huh:

I was talking aircraft lighting with dminnay and Simbol.

 

My comment on airport lighting was a general performance advisory to the OP, implying that airports with modeled dynamic lighting

have a significant impact on performance.

Edited by FunknNasty

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Ken C

Yes, but are you saying that airports with "modelled dynamic lighting" do not have a "standard lighting" option?

Christopher Low

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU / 64GB DDR5-6000 RAM / 12GB Nvidia RTX 4070 Super GPU / Gigabyte X870E Aorus Elite Wifi 7 / 1+2TB Samsung Evo Plus M2 Nvme

UK2000 Beta Tester

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