NGX Nav Lights

[INeedAStamp 0]

Hello

 

I traded up to P3D v4 recently and purchased the NGX but I noticed that the nav lights seem overly bright/ too large. I'm not sure if it is supposed to be this way but in the screenshots of PMDG's website and in FSX, the nav lights were smaller, dimmer, and seemed much more realistic. If this is normal is there a way to reduce the size/brightness of the lights?

Nav lights in P3D

https://imgur.com/xpjyONJ

https://imgur.com/MvzRnNq

Nav lights in FSX

https://imgur.com/phPlrMN

 

Regards,

Bryan Harris

 

[downscc 1,327]

There is nothing in common between lighting in FSX (uses textures to simulate light) and P3D (uses light source that illuminate objects).  Just plain hard to compare.  The size and brightness is not a texture file that you can modify as in FSX.

[MarkJHarris 128]

I shouldn't laugh...l I often do night walkarounds in sunglasses with the LED equipped aircraft...

[INeedAStamp 0]

Thanks for the reply Dan, but what explains PMDG's screenshots and also the many other pictures and videos with the nav lights appearing normal?

[Olympic260 415]

2 hours ago, INeedAStamp said:

Thanks for the reply Dan, but what explains PMDG's screenshots and also the many other pictures and videos with the nav lights appearing normal?

Please sign your posts with your real name, first and last as per forum rules.

 

The PMDG screenshots you most probably referring is from FSX or P3Dv3 that are using the "old way" of doing the lights.

[JRBarrett 3,070]

14 hours ago, MarkJHarris said:

I shouldn't laugh...l I often do night walkarounds in sunglasses with the LED equipped aircraft...

All the aircraft in the fleet I maintain have been upgraded with LED nav lights. There is a 12-month maintenance inspection requirement to verify that each individual LED in the light array is illuminated. Doing this check requires that we where special “laser safe” wrap-around goggles that indeed look just like dark sunglasses. The intense light from the LEDs can cause retina damage if observed directly from close range for a protracted time.

[Steve Dra 7,588]

2 hours ago, JRBarrett said:

All the aircraft in the fleet I maintain have been upgraded with LED nav lights. There is a 12-month maintenance inspection requirement to verify that each individual LED in the light array is illuminated. Doing this check requires that we where special “laser safe” wrap-around goggles that indeed look just like dark sunglasses. The intense light from the LEDs can cause retina damage if observed directly from close range for a protracted time.

I have to admit that while the NAV LEDs are welcome...I'm going to miss the xenon strobes when that last plane is modified for LED strobes (or goes out of service).

I've grown up watching them in the night sky, wondering what exotic place that plane is off to in the night.  The LED strobes were a novelty when they first appeared on the scene, and as far as I know the 787 was the 1st to have them (I could be wrong)...so when I saw them I assumed the plane was the fancy new 787.  Those red LED beacons are another giveaway for the 787...so incredibly bright...and they don't flash...they turn on and off (as so the LED strobes).

Anyway...what I'm trying to say is that our night-spotting canvas is changing as the LEDs slowly take over the strobes and beacons on more and more models. Seeing a plane approach in the distance....the plane can now be a 787, 748, EMB, 737...any others you guys know of that have the LED stobes now?

Oh...I know a lot of planes have LED landing lights now too...will have to head to LAX in the future on a clear evening and look east to see the "string of pearls" and see if the LED landing lights are easy to distinguish from the older lighting systems.  

[downscc 1,327]

This LED technology is amazing.  My first handheld calculator was an HP-35 in 1974 and it used red LED (they only came in red for years) that ran the battery down is half a school day and you couldn't read them in sunlight. They are a near perfect light source, no heat (to speak of) just light.

[MarkJHarris 128]

Landing a 737 with the LED landing lights is like daylight compared to the older ones. 

[svfranchini 7]

There is nothing to do with LED, NEON or whatever... What Bryan says is totally true. NGX Nav lights in Prepar3d are awful. I posted this problem months ago. I noticed that the 777, 744 and the upcoming 748 have the same problem, they are like small Christmas tree balls coming out the wing. The explanation that "is a P3D lighting" is quite not correct, a perfect example is the QW787 Nav lights...

 

Hope PMDG could improve that.

 

Regards

 

Santiago Villacorta F.

Edited August 21, 2018 by svfranchini