I was pretty harsch on the new night lighting introduced since Patch 8 and many seemed to agree (more than 400 votes in the official forum on this topic). Yet flying again over European cities, I must say that they feel quite alive and vibrant with the enhanced brightness. Because infrastructure is more irregular in European cities, that monotonous grid like pattern typical of American cities is not there. Perhaps with the latest patch, they improved it further by dimming the distance roads a bit. 

Overall, I like it now, at least in European cities.

I thought the same thing. It feels slightly toned down now.

The new lighting is word not allowed in the US especially Florida.  The highway lights need to be dimmed a bit at night as they overpower everything else, we have floating lights hanging in the air now, and runway/taxiways lights are on 24 hours a day.  There is no way this is acceptable.  They need to keep working on it.

I flew over rural Norfolk and Suffolk at night and it was like looking at a Pacman game with strings of blobs dotted around. Cities look a bit more convincing, though I can't tell the difference so easily.

Anything to get to the level of the far superior p3d lights! /s

Edited November 17, 20205 yr by UAL4life

1 hour ago, Dillon said:

The new lighting is word not allowed in the US especially Florida.  The highway lights need to be dimmed a bit at night as they overpower everything else, we have floating lights hanging in the air now, and runway/taxiways lights are on 24 hours a day.  There is no way this is acceptable.  They need to keep working on it.

The way I see it - users who normally fly near big cities probably like it (I don't - too bright and overdone).  Rural areas are also too bright.  Roads waaaay in the country that don't have lights are lit up for miles.  This is bad.  So bad.

Flying in rural areas can be like flying over large bodies of water at night.  VFR pilots have died at night due to disorientation, especially with a new moon phase.

I did all my private pilot in a rural area - and VFR night flying was basically "reference your instruments often" flying.

Edited November 18, 20205 yr by ryanbatcund

Agree with Dillon.  I did a quick flight into Boca Raton from Miami last night and found the street lights WAY too bright and as I crossed over I-95 (interstate/highway) heading towards the runway thresh hold, floating street lamp lights were all over the place.  

Unfortunately, the too bright street lights and floating lights aren't the only issues, as has been posted by many already.  Those lights in rural roads are not only incorrectly placed but overpowering as well.

The night lighting is the #1 issue that I have with MSFS.  I would love if Asobo would provide an option to allow the user to brighten the lighting themselves, to taste.  Perhaps asking for too much, but that would allow everyone to tweak to their personal preference.

It looks incredible on my OLED.   Other than some road lights hovering 30m above the ground.

Imo,  Vegas looks like trash for a photogrammetry city,  especially at night.

Edited November 17, 20205 yr by Waldo Pepper

The issue I see like many others is the lighting on the more rural roads once you get outside the urban areas.  For some reason they pushed the sepia mask out further which was very much needed but then lit up all the rural roads like a Christmas tree!. Reminds me of the ugly ORBX style road lighting in P3d. I think that it looked great before this patch aside from the sepia mask that was visible much too close to your aircraft.  I would say remove all that bright rural road lighting that they added and get back to the more random patches of light in rural areas.  It's really not as pretty IRL as everyone thinks.....and all the photos are exposed to show the lighting much brighter than they appear to the eyes.  Also, if these was a way to brighten up the car headlights that would be cool as many times when flying you just see the car headlights and no road lighting at all.

Edited November 18, 20205 yr by Flic1

I very much agree with Ryan.  I think the night lighting overall is poor.  Although I fly this 2020 sim more than X-plane, their night lighting is far superior in many ways.  I think if 2020 could just dim the overall output around 30% and remove the lights on country roads altogether that would be a good start. 

"Roads waaaay in the country that don't have lights are lit up for miles.  This is bad.  So bad."

Plus +1

 

4 hours ago, Dillon said:

The new lighting is word not allowed in the US especially Florida.  The highway lights need to be dimmed a bit at night as they overpower everything else, we have floating lights hanging in the air now, and runway/taxiways lights are on 24 hours a day.  There is no way this is acceptable.  They need to keep working on it.

Yes I do a lot of flights in game around KORL and X04 and some of the roads like SR 19 heading up into Salt Springs are not lit in real life, same with SR 46 around Zellwood/Apopka. In this game, they are like the Vegas strip! Not a huge deal, I still can't believe what a step up this game is from years of playing FSX stock. I played FSX the other day just to see how it feels now, and there was no SR 19 at all lol.

I landed on Attu Island this past weekend which has had 0 human habitation since 2010.

Playing with the weather presets after I landed....all the "roads" there are lit up at night....

I've noticed that night lighting in Europe doesn't seem as dense as the US. I assume that might have to do with less roads. It only seems to be highways and major roads.

Edited November 18, 20205 yr by Tuskin38

Thumbs down from me too. It looked so much better before they went and fiddled. It looks BAD. Nothing like real life. They had done a pretty good job previously and they went and broke something that was not broken. I think they did this when they fixed the issue with “terrain emitting light” bug fix.

I hope they address this as I no longer fly much at night now.

Beautiful by day, ghastly by night.