if the "L" light button doesn't work, there's a 'flash light' of sorts that one can use to see in pitch dark vc: FSL's spotlight (free).

you'll have to set it up for each aircraft but it's pretty easy, start the spotlight manager, add a light, set the light to 'overbright' to see where it's point to, then make adjustments to pitch/heading/falloff, etc to point at the panel so you can see the light switches in the vc then save the profile for the aircraft. next time the spot light will be on/off at the state the config was saved, to turn on/off use the spotlight window within p3d.

This is what im referring to. As you can see, as soon as i go outside view, it happens, and then its pitch black.

 

4 hours ago, Flic1 said:

The problem of course in the sim is that we do not get any ambient light in the VC. You can use a quick 'time preview' in order to get some lights on first if it is too dark.  

yea exactly, leave the outside in v4.4 as it is but have a "time preview" like setting for the VC illumination.

 

3 minutes ago, Lawy said:

For years I have been reading posts about night time being too bright, now it's too dark.  Seems we are are a hard bunch to please....

No I think that the outside dark is fine and I could fly with that but it literally bleeds into the interior VC with no option or ability to light the VC in any way which is not realistic at all. I truly don't want to be on any GA plane where the pilot can't see the trim, the quadrant, runway or knobs from start to finish.

 

Oh wow, I see what you’re talking about. That’s actually pretty bad. I can’t recall that happening to me in my sim. I’ll do a night flight tonight to see if I can replicate what you pointed out. 

I see your issue, and I don't have a further solution for you.  It does appear just to be the way the light hits the aircraft, but in a limited fashion.  I know there are other threads about this, and I hope you find a solution to your particular issue.

2 minutes ago, Deltaair1212 said:

Oh wow, I see what you’re talking about. That’s actually pretty bad. I can’t recall that happening to me in my sim. I’ll do a night flight tonight to see if I can replicate what you pointed out. 

Its driving me insane. Trying different airports and scenery now. Something isnt right. After a full windows re install too.

1 minute ago, Petetech said:

Its driving me insane. Trying different airports and scenery now. Something isnt right. After a full windows re install too.

The only thing I can suggest is turn DL, and HDR off. Test out your sim. I never ran either but that could be your issue. And like another poster said, try configuring a full moon, and see if that helps. Obviously LM is trying to show off their new moon lighting feature so things won’t be perfect this build. Maybe our feedback will make P3Dv5 not have these night issues. So if that doesn’t work, roll back to V4.3 and wait for things to improve. Unfortunately that’s the only options at this point I can think of. 

4 hours ago, Shomron said:

As a workaround I enter time preview mode slide the timer for some light hit the battery and light switches and exit back to the original pitch black time 😁

Me too. And if the plane had 2D panel i cheat and use it for battery on as 2DPanels are not complet black. 

Maybe Chaseplane can make a flashlight? Its an ideer. 

Michael Moe 

13 minutes ago, Deltaair1212 said:

The only thing I can suggest is turn DL, and HDR off. Test out your sim. I never ran either but that could be your issue. And like another poster said, try configuring a full moon, and see if that helps. Obviously LM is trying to show off their new moon lighting feature so things won’t be perfect this build. Maybe our feedback will make P3Dv5 not have these night issues. So if that doesn’t work, roll back to V4.3 and wait for things to improve. Unfortunately that’s the only options at this point I can think of. 

Rolling back now. I haven't had a flight for weeks!! haha.

5 hours ago, Deltaair1212 said:

I guess it depends on the aircraft. I’m a third crew member on G5/G550’s, and whenever I’m in the jumpseat at night I can’t see a darn thing. Of course the two pilots have flood lights above their heads with dimming relays so those are technically always on (except for departures and arrivals so there’s no glare on the windshields), but if those are off its pretty dark! 

I'm doing my best to base my opinion off of getting in a cold and dark airplane at an outstation. I start a 2 day trip tonight. I'm going to see what's it actually like.

On a side note, do you have to sit in the jumpseat for an entire flight....even if it's an international one? Are there places for you guys to sleep?

UPDATE: so I did a night flight from KTNP-KIDA. I noticed that once I started my descent my scenery popped. Meaning it got lighter. About the same “light” as v4.3 at night. Before it was like super dark. Maybe this is a bug. There might actually be something going on here... 

4 hours ago, ahsmatt7 said:

I'm doing my best to base my opinion off of getting in a cold and dark airplane at an outstation. I start a 2 day trip tonight. I'm going to see what's it actually like.

On a side note, do you have to sit in the jumpseat for an entire flight....even if it's an international one? Are there places for you guys to sleep?

And generally if there are pax in the cabin I’ll sit in the jump seat. We do have a forward crew rest area you can close off but since I only do domestic trips for now there is no need to use it. The most I’m ever in the jumpseat is 3 hours tops. 

2 hours ago, Deltaair1212 said:

And generally if there are pax in the cabin I’ll sit in the jump seat. We do have a forward crew rest area you can close off but since I only do domestic trips for now there is no need to use it. The most I’m ever in the jumpseat is 3 hours tops. 

Ahhhh....I've always wondered about that when it came to the long stuff.

I had a tip from a friend ":ensure you have your NVIDIA control panel set to between 50 and 60 ( I eventually used 50) for Brightness and Contrast, and Gamma at about 1.03. See if that helps you. Also... turn off HDR in P3D (it's just not needed)." 

It worked fine for me but no pitch blackness anymore it's similar to the nigh environment of the FSX 

Try it if you like under your discretion 

On 12/9/2018 at 2:06 PM, Lawy said:

For years I have been reading posts about night time being too bright, now it's too dark.  Seems we are are a hard bunch to please....

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.  Isn't there a way with all this technology we have these days to "copy" the numbers from actual night and use those instead of someone(or worse yet, many someones) trying to interpret it?  That's what I'd be striving for in every aspect of the sim.  Who cares what users thinks look the best?  Simulate the real world down to the 1s and 0s instead.  Otherwise, if you ask 100 simmers what image looks the closest to real night time, you'll get 100 different answers.  It would be nice if we could just "copy" what's real and then tell everyone this is real, now shut up!  🙂