Still struggling with cloud-induced darkness in MSFS

[767lover 285]

Scattered clouds or overcast cast such a strong shadow on the ground it becomes almost dusk like, making it very difficult to see ground or cockpit details. I like to have a good cloud coverage but struggle every time getting a decent amount of light on the ground, any time of day. I find the lighting and tonality with clear skies about right though.

I wonder if this darkness has something to do with HDR and whether it will be improved on HDR displays. 

 

[turnandbank 243]

This has been an issue IMO too. If you have an nvidia card, try using Ansel in Geforce experience. Look for the HDR slider under details and try a setting of  +50 to +60. It boosts the dynamic range resulting in much better detail in the cockpit and scenery when in shadow. There doesn't seem to be any downside on performance.

[devgrp 1,233]

1 hour ago, 767lover said:

Scattered clouds or overcast cast such a strong shadow on the ground it becomes almost dusk like, making it very difficult to see ground or cockpit details. I like to have a good cloud coverage but struggle every time getting a decent amount of light on the ground, any time of day. I find the lighting and tonality with clear skies about right though.

I wonder if this darkness has something to do with HDR and whether it will be improved on HDR displays. 

 

Maybe your monitor is too dark? I've never had cloud shadows being so dark that it's ground or cockpit. That's like night time 

[Blat14 34]

1 hour ago, turnandbank said:

f you have an nvidia card, try using Ansel in Geforce experience

It's not Ansel, that is for taking screenshots.

What I think you meant was Freestyle. That allows you to add post processing effects with no performance hit to your games/sims.

I use it for tweaking the view in MSFS, does a good job. I'm running in HDR mode on an HDR 10 compatible monitor, it certainly looks much nicer with HDR on and tweaked with freestyle.

 

[OSM 683]

I have 1080Ti and the same cloud-induced darkness problem. Any fix yet?

Edited October 27, 2020 by OSM

[Mike S KPDX 597]

I will bring another item to this talk...

I have the free user mod for utilizing METARs, works very well.  When using this vs the live (or other preselects) the overall scene brightens considerable and seem much more realistic in terms of brightness.  I dont know how or why, but it does.

[TacomaSailor 191]

I have the darkness problem in the cockpit only when a bit of sky is visible above the instrument panel.  With "Few Clouds" and an inch of sky visible I cannot read the steam gauges or labels on the panel - just too dark.  If I lower my sight line just enough that NO sky is visible - then the panel instantly brightens and I can easily read all the fine print.  When I look up so even a tiny sliver of sky is visible - I cannot see the panel because it is so dark. 

Seems to be a contrast problem - at least for me.  

[desbean 357]

I ended up increasing my monitors brightness and contrast. It makes the monitor uncomfortable for use outside of MSFS but luckily I use three monitors so I use them for other work. 

[AmeliaCat 201]

3 hours ago, Blat14 said:

It's not Ansel, that is for taking screenshots.

What I think you meant was Freestyle. That allows you to add post processing effects with no performance hit to your games/sims.

I use it for tweaking the view in MSFS, does a good job. I'm running in HDR mode on an HDR 10 compatible monitor, it certainly looks much nicer with HDR on and tweaked with freestyle.

 

wow freestyle sharpen really makes a diffeerence..good tip

[Blat14 34]

42 minutes ago, AmeliaCat said:

wow freestyle sharpen really makes a diffeerence..good tip

I don't use the sharpening, but you can add various filters, the Detail and brightness/contrast filters are useful. 

Also for people having difficulty seeing the instruments don't forget you can adjust the cockpit and instrument lighting in most planes.

 

 

[Dillon 2,197]

6 hours ago, 767lover said:

Scattered clouds or overcast cast such a strong shadow on the ground it becomes almost dusk like, making it very difficult to see ground or cockpit details. I like to have a good cloud coverage but struggle every time getting a decent amount of light on the ground, any time of day. I find the lighting and tonality with clear skies about right though.

I wonder if this darkness has something to do with HDR and whether it will be improved on HDR displays. 

 

Never had an issue with this.  When there's cloud cover it should be darker than clear skies on the ground. Like other have said if it's too excessive it could be your settings.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

Ray tracing will help with this. Whilst it is not a huge issue with trackir as looking down at the panel auto-brightens, using the head torch thingie, even in daylight,  can help.

[Mike S KPDX 597]

6 hours ago, Blat14 said:

It's not Ansel, that is for taking screenshots.

What I think you meant was Freestyle. That allows you to add post processing effects with no performance hit to your games/sims.

I use it for tweaking the view in MSFS, does a good job. I'm running in HDR mode on an HDR 10 compatible monitor, it certainly looks much nicer with HDR on and tweaked with freestyle.

 

Interesting, as acording to their site MSFS 2020 does not appear to be supported, this is where I was looking:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/geforce-experience/#Freestyle

[AmeliaCat 201]

29 minutes ago, Mike S KPDX said:

Interesting, as acording to their site MSFS 2020 does not appear to be supported, this is where I was looking:

https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/geforce-experience/#Freestyle

huh  well it works cause i just used it,,,

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

One other thing I get best results with HDR turned ON in my screen settings but turned OFF in game.

For some weird reason HDR turned off completely or fully on in both settings ends up worse.

It may be because my screen is only HDR400 and the game is adjusting for HDR10 when you enable HDR in game? No idea.

Edited October 28, 2020 by Glenn Fitzpatrick