This may have been answered. Is it in the release. I saw it in Demo 1 not sure if it was in Demo 2. Hope its still there even if its not in the right position. It just looked great.

I just checked and I couldn't see it in the retail, though the textures are still there. If Microsoft took it out then that's very disappointing. Like you, I thought it was great even if it was in the wrong position.Does anyone know if there's a cfg setting to enable this nice feature?Best regards, ChrisAutoStarX: http://www.kline.demon.co.uk/AutoStarX.zip

>I just checked and I couldn't see it in the retail, though>the textures are still there. If Microsoft took it out then>that's very disappointing. Like you, I thought it was great>even if it was in the wrong position.>>Does anyone know if there's a cfg setting to enable this nice>feature?>There may be but I don't know of it.I personally did not like the Milky Way at all, as it stood. It was not realistic at all, and yes I am in an area with few other ambient lights, so I know what the MW is supposed to look like. No, it *would* be realistic if someone would take the file and "tone it down" a little. The real world MW is subtle. Or I don't have good night vision and just don't notice it.I wonder why it was taken out completely? Performance reasons? Or was it that they got too much negative feedback about it?RhettAMD 3700+ (@2.5 ghz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (94.47), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 3-3-3-8, WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian

After another look (at night with low lighting!) I've found that the Milky Way is there after all, but Microsoft have turned down the brightness so that it's almost invisible. A great shame in my opinion.Best regards, Chris

Rhett, I thought it was great even if not totally realistic. With good conditions and eyes adapted to the darkness, the brightness of the Milky Way can be quite startling.You'll be pleased to know that the Milky Way is in fact still there but Microsoft have turned down the brightness considerably. I haven't checked yet whether it's now in the right position. Unfortunately it's now so dim as to be almost invisible. Hopefully someone will bring out a replacement texture to make it brighter! The date stamp for the textures in the demo and retail are the same so I don't think they changed the textures.Best regards, Chris

> A great shame in my opinion.And I rejoice that they listened to many original comments. The way it used to be - it was simply way too bright. I accumulated enough flight hours in real life at night and rarely could see a Milky Way (and only after a considerable effort) - yet here it was the very first thing that caught your eye at night. Highly unrealistic.Thanks ACES team :-)Michael J.

Trouble is, they've gone to the other extreme!Best regards, Chris

Yep the all or nothing fix. If its going to use cpu power I would at least like to see it.:(

>Trouble is, they've gone to the other extreme!Chris, I would not be so sure about it (I don't have the FSX yet so it is speculation on my part). FS is simply incapable of producing correct representation of the very complex light environment perceived by human eye influenced by multitude of factors like air pollution, humidity, amount of stray light, etc. All these severly limit ability to see Milky Way under normal flying conditions. Therefore it is only logical that its intensity within the FS be geared towards 'average' conditions and not the ideal ones. So your description "it's now so dim as to be almost invisible" actually has a reasonable ring to me.Michael J.

Kind of going a little away from the topic, but what I would like to see at night is the light from the ground illuminations hitting the bottom of the clouds, (this 'light pollution' is not popular with astronomers in built up areas incidentally as it inhibits star-gazing quite badly).I really like the way the stars have been done in FSX, and those inclined to indulge in a bit of navigational assistance from the stars must be well pleased with how they look.Those who are familiar with night flying will be well aware that the light from the ground when you are below any clouds is extremely bright at below about 3000 feet, which brings up another puzzler for me - that of the people complaining about the ground textures in FSX being too bright, not something I agree with, as whenever I fly at night, I find the ground illuminations over the UK to be quite staggeringly bright and I think that this is well implemented in FSX.Normally, the eye-candy aspects of a sim are less of a concern to me than the flight realism, but in this case, I have to say I'm impressed with their fidelity in comparison to the reality of flying over the UK at night.Sadly, since the ground textures are just that (textures) I suspect it would be difficult to implement then as a genuine light source in the sim, thus I'm not likely to see the glow on the clouds in FS, but there you go.Another thing that always amazes me is the fact that you can quite plainly make out ships on the sea when at airliner cruise altitudes at night (so I'm glad they've put them into FSX, as it's a really noticable feature when flying over the ocean) and I must admit that I was quite transfixed watching them far down below the last time I flew across the North Sea coming back from Finland to the UK. It was dark and they all seemed to be a little greenish for some reason, although that may have been an atmospheric phenomenon, or the cabin light playing havoc with my colour perception. Even the ship wakes were plainly visible and I guess we must have been at around 30 to 35,000 feet.Anyway, with all the cloud cover the UK normally gets, it's quite a pleasant surprise to be able to see the Milky Way, even if it is only in a simulation!