37 minutes ago, Pitbull2504 said:

MS can take a giant step forward here. Xplane is good, but very far from realistic. It uses a lot more lights in big cities, not just street lighting. many different colors, and different intensities

Yes they can do so much better! The thing that looks better about XPlane night lighting is the lights seem more "bloomy", closer to what you see in that video...  FSX/P3D/FS2020 look too "flat" and dim by comparison.

4 minutes ago, MatthewS said:

Yeah probably, for a moment I thought the OP's pic was an XPlane screenshot... anyway just have a look at any XP night shot, the lighting surpasses anything seen in FSX/P3D/FS2020 IMO.

If you can't tell the difference between a photo and X-Plane, maybe you shouldn't be so hard on the MSFS team.

FSX/P3D shouldn't even be part of the debate IMO since they don't have actual lights out of the box anyway. Looking at the media we've seen so far, I think MSFS's night lighting is pretty tolerable. When the lights bunch up on the horizon, you do get a decently nice glow from them, but individually, they're not super aggressive and distracting (they shouldn't be). The insider screenshot we got last week of the TBM930 climbing above clouds shows nice HDR/eye adjustment as well, as the lights look fairly dim in comparison to the bright sun.

It's worth noting that photos taken by cameras are somewhat inaccurate to what we see, and it wouldn't make sense to tune night lighting that way. This is something that a good tech artist would need to study/see with their own eyes.

All in all, X-Plane definitely has a bit more variety, but MSFS looks more natural. X-Plane tends to look a bit too perfect/artificial. Both are more than sufficient I'd say.

22 minutes ago, HughesMDflyer4 said:

Looking at the media we've seen so far, I think MSFS's night lighting is pretty tolerable

I would say that "tolerable" just doesn't cut it.... FS2020 needs to raise the bar and from what I've seen so far XP11 is ahead by a significant margin.

I have to ask @MatthewS, are you a pilot in real life? I ask this in reference to your criticism of the MSFS night scene. 

I don't have a problem with the way the lights are depicted. I say this because I have many hours and years flying and have seen all manner of lighting in rural areas as well as towns to large cities. These observations are from 400 agl all the way to FL390. 

As a result of this experience I cannot In  good faith criticize what Microsoft has given us at this time. I think we should withhold judgement until we get more info. 

8 minutes ago, 188AHC said:

are you a pilot in real life

No I'm not, but to my eyes FSX/P3D/FSW/FS2020 does not cut it when compared to XP11 or any Youtube video of real-world cockpit.  

XP11 seems to have more "bloom" while FS2020 looks dull by comparison.

It's as if in FS2020 there is no glass in the windscreen and thus none of the subtle visual "smearing"/distortion that seems to be taking place in XP11 (and in the real-world Youtube cockpit videos).

If you are actually flying and you get a lot of Bloom it usually means you're looking through haze or ground fog. Either has the potential of making a landing interesting under the right circumstances. 🙂

3 minutes ago, MatthewS said:

No I'm not, but to my eyes FSX/P3D/FSW/FS2020 does not cut it when compared to XP11 or any Youtube video of real-world cockpit.  

XP11 seems to have more "bloom" while FS2020 looks dull by comparison.

It's as if in FS2020 there is no glass in the windscreen and thus none of the subtle visual "smearing"/distortion that seems to be taking place in XP11 (and in the real-world Youtube cockpit videos).

Have you ever been in an airplane at night at all IRL (even as a passenger)? If not, then I don't think it's appropriate to judge what does or doesn't look right based on strictly videos. Like I said, cameras do not capture light exactly as our eyes do.

No default X-Plane aircraft I've ever flown has had proper glass refraction, so I'm a bit confused as to what distortion effect you're seeing.

13 minutes ago, HughesMDflyer4 said:

Have you ever been in an airplane at night at all IRL (even as a passenger)? If not, then I don't think it's appropriate to judge what does or doesn't look right based on strictly videos. Like I said, cameras do not capture light exactly as our eyes do.

Yes, many times, and XP11 looks far better to my eyes than FS2020/FSX/P3D/FSW. Like I keep saying, FS2020 looks dull, XP11 looks realistic. 

Re cameras, well I also wear glasses, so maybe some of the "bloom" effect in periphery in RL is due to that.

Edited August 22, 20196 yr by MatthewS

So what looks better? If you think P3D looks better then I guess we'll never agree. FS2020 is nothing like XP11 from what I've seen so far, it's more like P3D.

 

I will now finish what I started. Sorry I got interrupted.

In real life, there is no "eye candy". Public lighting means very little. The lights you are interested in are taxiways, intersections, runways, and your instruments. 

Once in the air you are looking for other aircraft, obstruction lights, and your instruments. You also should be mindful of a place to land in case of an emergency. These things along with actually flying the aircraft leaves you precious little little time to worry about how pretty ground lighting is. You better be listening to ATC, other aircraft, and your engine(s). 

I keep hearing in these topics about how, members want it as real as possible. Well my friend this is reality In it's barest form.

X Plane's lighting technique is one of it's strongest features. Breaking out of IMC close to minimums with the approach lights on even during the day is very close to what you see in real life. The only problem I have with the video above is that X Plane has the lights turned up to 11. Yes they do look realistic, but they look like they would through an over exposed camera in that video. P3D started making a little ground with the implementation of dynamic lighting. The problem with P3D is that the "lights" are still baked into the texture for the most part. I'll reserve judgment on MSFS until we see more that a couple of seconds of alpha or pre-alpha footage. Given the tremendous leap forward in the overall lighting that they have shown, I expect the night lighting will be just as impressive...but who knows.

35 minutes ago, MatthewS said:

So what looks better? If you think P3D looks better then I guess we'll never agree. FS2020 is nothing like XP11 from what I've seen so far, it's more like P3D.

You're comparing MSFS to a video of P3D/X-Plane with significant lighting mods, which just doesn't make sense IMO. If this is the direction we're going, I'm done here.

10 hours ago, MatthewS said:

So what looks better? If you think P3D looks better then I guess we'll never agree. FS2020 is nothing like XP11 from what I've seen so far, it's more like P3D.

 

XP looks better, both look kinda bad

 

9 hours ago, HughesMDflyer4 said:

You're comparing MSFS to a video of P3D/X-Plane with significant lighting mods, which just doesn't make sense IMO. If this is the direction we're going, I'm done here.

This is so sad lol. We're probably dealing with a XP fanboi.

 

Edited August 22, 20196 yr by Krakin

Well... I wouldn't base my judgement on videos/pictures of night flying, as already said above the light capture will depend on the camera settings/features.

I'd prefer to judge using my own vision when doing real flight at night and I think MSFS2020 has the best visuals for the night enviroment.

Although I think the buildings, houses, warehouses, parks etc should have some light sources attached to them (windows, gardens, rooftops etc). In that regard X-plane does a good job (the best so far in a FSim, IMO).

Edited August 22, 20196 yr by ca_metal

This is the most realistic lighting I've going right now. These are from P3D.

Of course this all done with addons to get it to this point.

Flightbeam SFO HD / Leonardo Fly the Maddog

FlyTampa Las Vegas and Taburet Night Lighting for the outer areas.

Simwest Albuquerque also with Taburet Night Lighting mixed in.

X-Plane 11 looks great in it's default form but even better with a few addons such as the extended night lighting and another that adds color and variation to the night lights.

Albuquerque in XP11 with the two addons.

 

Hopefully the new MSFS will strive to exceed these souped up versions of P3D and XP11 and do it right out of the box.

Edited August 22, 20196 yr by skully