Hi, I'm really enjoying the new visuals that the demo gives a peak at...the world definitely feels more alive and vibrant. The night environment is a little wierd for me though. These are my observations:While the stars look great, the reflections in the water really should be toned down or removed altogether. Maybe in a millpond will you see the reflections of stars, but not at 10,000 feet in the ocean.The moon seems to cast way too much of a reflection in the water, it's almost a blinding white in a large area. I've read that there may be reflection problems.The blotchy patches of haze (Milkyway) going through the middle of the night sky really takes away from the realism of the stars and moon. It's been awhile since I've been somewhere that I could see the Milkyway, but I don't remember it standing out like that.The green glow in the water, I suppose is florecent algae? Does it really look like that at night in the Carribean? If so, that's pretty cool. It just seems overdone.All of the islands seem to glow orange at night, even though they have no city/town landclass on them...weird.I know the night environment is the last to be developed, so maybe these things will all change with the final release, and I know this is only a demo. I just really hope if they stay, we could at least have the option to turn them off.Keith

>The green glow in the water, I suppose is florecent algae? >Does it really look like that at night in the Carribean? If>so, that's pretty cool. It just seems overdone.I rather thought it's a glitch which needs fixing...Regards,http://www.bremmekamp.com/img/misc/avsim.jpg

The stars do indeed look very good. If you look carefully you'll see they are coloured. The colours are subtle, just as in the real world. The moon's reflection in the water is indeed much too strong. In fact I think someone in another thread said that the moon was triggerning the sun's reflection effect. Hopefully this will be fixed. It's great to see the moon's reflection, but it should be a lot more subtle.I disagree about the Milky Way - I think it looks great. And, just as important, it looks pretty realistic. If anything, in dark conditions when the eye is adapted, the Milky Way would actually be more extensive. Overall I think the night sky is very beautiful and realistic. Microsoft did a great job. Meanwhile, I'm hard at work on a new version of AutoStar. Now that stars are rendered in full 24 bit colour it makes coloured planets, particularly red Mars, and realistic comets possible. AutoStar X should be ready for release in a week or so. Best regards, Chris

If you like, here's a more realistic toned down texture of the milky way. It goes into Scenery/Global/texturehttp://forums.avsim.net/user_files/154163.zipRegards, Gerrithttp://members.chello.nl/g.kranenbarg/gwkh...s/bluesmall.gif

The blotchy patches of haze (Milkyway) going through the middle of the night sky really takes away from the realism of the stars and moon. It's been awhile since I've been somewhere that I could see the Milkyway, but I don't remember it standing out like that.In the real world, when it's very clear out and very dark, the Milky Way really stands out clearly. But light pollution around cities and too much haze tend to limit or eliminate that view.

>The blotchy patches of haze (Milkyway) going through the>middle of the night sky really takes away from the realism of>the stars and moon. It's been awhile since I've been somewhere>that I could see the Milkyway, but I don't remember it>standing out like that.>>In the real world, when it's very clear out and very dark, the>Milky Way really stands out clearly. But light pollution>around cities and too much haze tend to limit or eliminate>that view.>When I go out to my future in-laws farm, up in a mountain far away from cities, I see the band, but it does always seem less noticable near the horizons. What stands out to me is when it's just starting to get dark, and the edges of the sky are still hazy blues, the milky way seems out of place, while it looks good in the middle of the sky where it is darker.I think that's the only thing I've noticed about it. I can only imagine what it looks like while flying at night if it looks that good from the farm.

In the Caribbean on a dark night, you can see an insane amount of stars.

Understood about night objects looking much more vivid in a remote area like the Carribean. I just hope that it doesn't show up in populated areas. I guess the Milkyway in the sim just seems too "drawn" on the sky...like it's in front of the stars. I'll try the toned down texture mentioned above.Keith

I agree with most of what you've said, although the algae doesn't seem at all overdone on my system. Maybe it's due to differences in video cards or drivers?I haven't noticed the orange with the islands that you mention, either.James

Hi,I have a problem with night sky in FSX:There are not any star at the night sky.. even on FL350 when I flight above clouds. I tried with "clear weather", but the problem still occures.PS. I installed REX - maybe this soft causes that the stars disappeared?PS2. I also have FScene, UTX, XClass, but I don't think that these programs causes my problem.What do you think?Regards,Lucas

Hi,I have a problem with night sky in FSX:There are not any star at the night sky.. even on FL350 when I flight above clouds. I tried with "clear weather", but the problem still occures.PS. I installed REX - maybe this soft causes that the stars disappeared?PS2. I also have FScene, UTX, XClass, but I don't think that these programs causes my problem.What do you think?Regards,Lucas

Hi Lucas. Do you have the ENB bloom mod installed? The reason I ask is because if you do it has settings for night which can cause the sky to appear darker and you will not see the stars? If you are using it press Shift F12 to turn it off and see if you can see the stars.

Hi,Yes, I have ENB. But when I temporary deleted d3d9.dll and enbseries.ini files, the problem still occures.. so I again copied these two files into FSX folder...3 minutes ago, I tried Shift+F12 (as you wrote) ...but still no stars :(Maybe can I change options ENB and make the sky more brightness? ..but I don't know how?

was your stars.dat file located in the main fs directory, edited at all?

No, there isn't stars.dat file in main FSX dir....but I have copy oryginal FSX folder (I made it before I instaled all addons) ..and there is stars.dat!!I'll move this file into main FSX folder and I willl check night sky :) (I'll write if it helps..)EDIT:Ok, moving stars.dat file into FSX main folder solved my problem. Many thanks!!PS. What is possible reason, that this file disappeared?

No, there isn't stars.dat file in main FSX dir....but I have copy oryginal FSX folder (I made it before I instaled all addons) ..and there is stars.dat!!I'll move this file into main FSX folder and I willl check night sky :) (I'll write if it helps..)

That will probably fix it.Also there is a way to adjust the night time brightness if you put the EMB mod back in.Read this thread by NickN on how to adjust the settings in the ENB.ini file. http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=32482There's an entry called[colorCORRECTION]DarkeningAmountNight=value goes here. Try 20 and see how that works once you get the stars back in.BTW, Shift F12 is to turn the ENB on and off so you dont have to delete the files.