9 minutes ago, KERNEL32 said:

Exactly! And I cannot understand why, in 2019 we cannot turn strobe lights on within the cloud and become disorientated from the bright flash all around the aircraft (like the real world) - in fact turning on lights or strobes "in a cloud" within any modern flight sim... does nothing! Unreal...

Well, in XP you have that white flash. But I don't like at all...

30 minutes ago, KERNEL32 said:

Exactly! And I cannot understand why, in 2019 we cannot turn strobe lights on within the cloud and become disorientated from the bright flash all around the aircraft (like the real world) - in fact turning on lights or strobes "in a cloud" within any modern flight sim... does nothing! Unreal...

Yeah, X-Plane does that, but I'm not sure how realistic it is. The SkyMaxx Pro weather addon for XP even shows landing lights illuminating clouds ahead of the plane as you fly through them down to decision height.. 

The problem there is how realistic the clouds themselves look. The tech for lighting them up has been done in other sims.

I agree with the OP, the night lighting seems to be the least impressive aspect for now (especially in contrast with all the rest which is superb). Runway lighting apparently looks identical to FSX. And it's not clear if it has global illumination (like XP) or not. But as others said, it's still too early to judge. Maybe it's a feature they're still working on, maybe we will gain more infos in the next months.

_ What I didn't like at all in FSX and where XPlane shines, is runway lights have to blend with the lights around the airport, they can't be seen 30mi away like someone already said, that breaks the immersion completely.

_ The runway lights look stunning when they are on sloped runways, this still concerns me because apart from the Courchevel scene, we didn't see any sloped runway. Courchevel could be handmade because it is famous but the rest of the airports runways didn't look sloped to me (Airbus takeoff scene, or the night landing scene on parallel runways)

_ The city lights have to show until the horizon in order to look realistic, not some squares of lights popping up in front of us

_ Strobes in clouds have to be visible from the cockpit, but not like in XPlane where this effect is exaggerated ( we don't have to feel we are in a rave party)

_ Finally, road traffic lights!!! The world can't feel alive without it

 

Edited August 19, 20196 yr by Noooch

Hopefully they can implement proper directional lights too like the approach lights at KSFO, when lined up for 28R you cannot see the lighting for 28L and vice versa. Hopefully they implement lighting fixtures as well because I think so far from the media the stock airport lights are still floating orbs not being emitted from a physical fixture.

From what I could see in the various bits of media so far, it currently seems to have almost the most basic implementation possible with just light globes scattered around the scene. I’m sure it will become much more sophisticated in time. 

36 minutes ago, Superdelphinus said:

From what I could see in the various bits of media so far, it currently seems to have almost the most basic implementation possible with just light globes scattered around the scene. I’m sure it will become much more sophisticated in time. 

I'm not so sure it will be improved, but I hope for that.

The more objects needed to be rendered, less performance the sim will have. In the other hand, what we are seeing in the screenshots/videos are from an alpha version, so it's possible some assets are still being worked/added to the sim. Even if they don't implement it on the v1.0, it can be added in future updates/versions. 

Night lighting specially at airports and right around the terminal buildings is so so important and is a huge factor in immersion. P3d and even XP are just so lacking in this area that I almost always avoid flying at night. Airports feel dead. Advanced lighting engine along with ray traced reflections can be a big step in right direction in this regard.

22 hours ago, 767lover said:

"Night lighting not so spectacular"

But I am not that thrilled with what I am seeing of the ground night lighting; city lights in particular. Like in previous iterations, it seems faint. They have also not shown too much of it yet, suggesting they may still be working on it. Dusk and night sky effects so far look nothing short of spectacular. I am hoping that night lighting on the ground will be equally as impressive. 

 

Clearly the sim in in an unfinished state as the building are only illuminated from ground base lighting.

What little we've seen so far looks to have excellent potential.

Shouldn't wait until the cake is baked and frosted before we pass judgment on its flavor?

22 hours ago, irrics said:

On this front in general ..

MS - Please please please get airport environment lighting correct and appropriately challenging to pick out.

In general one looks for the absence of significant light to visually locate the airport until one is much, much closer to it.

This is especially true in larger cities where urban sprawl has surrounded the airport, such as KMDW and KORD.

weather also plays a role with airport visibility.

When I was a kid, we had friends on an upper floor of an apartment building near the eastern side of Memphis,TN.  Due to the humidity and haze that often existed the approach lighting for south landings was clearly visible as bright fuzzy blobs of orange light.  It looked pretty cool.  I think we were 8 - 10 miles from the airport  and seeing it from about the 70 degree (2oclock?) point.

23 hours ago, turnandbank said:

I agree with the OP. The night lighting shown so far still looks inferior to that in Xplane which at this point is the best we have in a flightsim. The lighting in Xplane can also be tweaked for even more realism. The big difference, besides being dynamic, is that the street lights are actual objects, not just floating orbs. As such, when viewed from directly overhead, you just see the illumination on the ground and objects as you do in reality. Another thing Xplane does better are the runway lights which are are much more difficult to see from off to the side of the runway than when you are lined up with it. Hopefully the new MSFS can at least equal Xplane's accomplishment in this respect. 

I don't think we've seen any overhead views of the ground at an angle that would allow us to make that call.

Edited August 19, 20196 yr by Krakin

 

This picture is from the official trailer. What should be different here?

For me, it is ok. Sure, maybe it could be better, but it is ok.

 

 

22 minutes ago, Krakin said:

I don't think we've seen any overhead views of the ground at an angle that would allow as to make that call.

Yes, it is difficult to tell, but one thing I do not see is street lamps modeled along roads in any of the daytime shots. This leads me to believe MS is still using floating orbs to represent street lighting at night. Hopefully this won't be the case in the final product, as it looks superb in so many other respects. Also, it is clear from the trailer that runway and taxiway lights are floating orbs similar to what we have had all along in FSX and Prepar3d. X-plane's runway and taxiway lights are fully modeled objects and directional where appropriate. Of course all his may, and hopefully will, be improved during development. 

22 minutes ago, turnandbank said:

Yes, it is difficult to tell, but one thing I do not see is street lamps modeled along roads in any of the daytime shots. This leads me to believe MS is still using floating orbs to represent street lighting at night. Hopefully this won't be the case in the final product, as it looks superb in so many other respects. Also, it is clear from the trailer that runway and taxiway lights are floating orbs similar to what we have had all along in FSX and Prepar3d. X-plane's runway and taxiway lights are fully modeled objects and directional where appropriate. Of course all his may, and hopefully will, be improved during development. 

That's actually not entirely correct. That former ACES guy did the video analysis and showed that there are in fact little struts under the lights when you zoom in. Probably not the case for all of them tho.

Edited August 19, 20196 yr by Krakin