Shed some light on dynamic illumination from aircraft

[Guest jrobert]

In all the flight simulators since FS98, the only thing that was dynamically illuminated by the aircraft lights was the ground itself. This changed ever so slightly when it became possible to land upon rooftops of most buildings in FS2004; The rooftops receive illumination from aircraft lights. What I'd like to see this: All objects should receive illumination from aircraft lights. I ask this because when I'm pulling up to a gate at an airport at night, I have my taxi lights on, I can see the ground just fine but a lot of realism is lost because my taxi-lights don't light up the walls of the concourse/terminal/etc.Here's another example: First, I know that reading the altimeter in the R22 helicopter (or any other helicopter) is the best way to see how high you are but nothing beats a quick glance out the window to see how big the size of the area illuminated by the landing light is when you're flying a heli at night. It helps to quickly judge distance to the ground by the size of the area illuminated by that landing light. Now... if objects such as the sides of buildings were illuminated in the same way as they are for the ground, then I could easily judge distance to the side of that building rather than crashing into them.Your thoughts anyone?

[MD83 1]

Yes, please improve the landing lught realism! :)

[Guest TomLiAirplane]

Once again, the only light sources in FSX will be the Sun and the Moon.And we still have to rely on cheap night light texture bitmaps for our lighting needs.(Correct me if I am wrong, I sure hope so.):-violin

[Guest PC509]

Dynamic lighting is a major toll on the CPU & GPU. Look at Doom3, Quake 4, Halflif 2 and the upcoming Crysis. They use them, but they also use a lot of horsepower. Now, imagine doing that over the whole world!

[Guest TomLiAirplane]

>Dynamic lighting is a major toll on the CPU & GPU. Look at>Doom3, Quake 4, Halflif 2 and the upcoming Crysis. They use>them, but they also use a lot of horsepower. Now, imagine>doing that over the whole world!------------------------------------------------------------------Exactly !:-) :-)

[Guest jrobert]

I'm not talking about dynamic lighting all over the world... I'm only talking about the aircraft you're flying using dynamic lighting in more places than just the ground and on rooftops. Surely that shouldn't impact framerates very much at all.

[Guest Surge]

What you're wanting is hardware lighting which is very feasible if it's only for the player's aircraft. Every major brand, graphics card since the GF2 or GF3 era has hardware support for 8 or more lights.Up till now MSFS has been using a fake software approach which only works on the terrain. It doesn't actually shine any light at all so it can't figure out how to light up objects in the scenery.It would be a nice thing if they added REAL lighting (for the player aircraft only, of course).Paul

[Datalink 26]

The only improvement i'd like to see with regard to lighting is an improved look/feel of the landing light. In my opinion it looks very basic in previous versions. I really liked the look of the lights in FLY and FLYII

[Guest silentghost]

Now what I would love to see is clouds getting illuminated as you fly through them at night.

[moggel 0]

For comparison, have a look at "Lock On Modern Air Combat" (LOMAC) - http://www.lockon.ru/. When I light up a Su-25 and start taxi with it at night, the taxi lights illuminates all objects out there in the dark (cold/dark planes, buildings, jeeps and other vehicles). No frame rate hit noticeable. Surely, this can be done in FSX!?

[Guest skruer]

It ain't gonna happend in FSX. Thats just the way it is. But I hear what you're saying and I also would like it, but we will just have to wait.

[Guest cwright]

I'm greatly looking forward to Crysis, but I already have quite a lot of experience with Far Cry. I often switch on dynamic lights in Far Cry (e.g. the torch or vehicle headlights). The effect is pretty amazing. It certainly puts lighting in FS to shame. And yet there's no serious frame rate hit. I certainly hope lighting in FSX is significantly improved. Best regards, Chris

[Guest skruer]

As mentioned before the only two lightsources in FSX will be the sun and the moon. The landinglights will still be some kind of .bmp file. How the sun and moon are used/manipulated in FSX is still to be seen, but dynamic lighting from landinglights ain't gonna happend.

[Guest A32X]

Has anyone played LOMAC? It's a real struggle to run that a maximum settings but it looks awesome! I

[Guest jrobert]

>As mentioned before the only two lightsources in FSX will be>the sun and the moon. The landinglights will still be some>kind of .bmp file. How the sun and moon are used/manipulated>in FSX is still to be seen, but dynamic lighting from>landinglights ain't gonna happend.What makes you so sure? Unless you're actually on the ACES team, I wouldn't say that it's not going to happen. I don't believe that more realistic landing lights is a big request. It might or might not make it in but to simply say that a particular feature absolutely won't make it into FSX is just being negitive. Lets just wait and see, shall we?