Night lights in the distance are blurry

[Virtual-Chris 682]

In the evening, lights in the distance are very blurry.  Is there any way to change this? A mod or something in usercfg.opt?

I'm finding this very distracting... to the point it makes my eyes hurt.   Let atmospheric haze impact sharpness, don't intentionally apply a blur filter to stuff. Ugh!

It is very obvious because scenery in the distance (e.g. a mountain) will be perfectly sharp but the lights around it are very blurry - it's an immersion killer and a headache inducer!

Edited March 31, 2021 by Virtual-Chris

[Virtual-Chris 682]

I guess I’m the only one bothered by this. Carry on. 

[MattNischan 3,867]

Are you rocking a widescreen setup by any chance?

-Matt

[Axis3600 50]

I agree with you !
I find the night particularly ugly on MSFS!
It was more beautiful on P3D with the more realistic ORBX Addon!
The stars are also blurry! I wish a MOD could modify this too starry pixelated sky!

And in IFR flight flying over cities at night is just super ugly there is just a circle around the city to say this is where it's lit up.

I heard that on the Alpha version the lights were more realistic ...

I don't know if ASOBO is aware that there is a lot of work to be done at night ...

But I'm amazed that there isn't a mod already to change the night sky with all it's blurry stars.

[kand 205]

yes same problem and it looks really horrible on nvsurround. I read over at MS somewhere this is a bug specifically where wider resolutions than 16:9 cause this. It was much better during TA but thats a whole other story! 

[spacedyemeerkat 421]

7 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I guess I’m the only one bothered by this. Carry on. 

Nope. It's horrendously bad on a 5120x1440 display. So bad, in fact, that I absolutely avoid flying when lights are required down below!

[Langeveldt 289]

It's so bad I no longer fly at night at all.

I guess it's way down the list though in terms of priorities?  I'm not sure how this was passed unless we're all playing a beta.

And if it looks alright to you, climb and you'll see what we mean. 

[Shack95 2,665]

7 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

I guess I’m the only one bothered by this. Carry on. 

I think that many (most?) people aren‘t happy with the night lighting either. I for one mostly avoid flying at night. It‘s been criticized since release and Asobo doesn‘t seem to be very committed in that respect, so I don‘t expect much change in the near future to be honest. I hope I‘m wrong of course. 

[Tuskin38 6,635]

The night lighting doesn’t bother me at all.

The glow on the ground texture is from a night light map. The kind you’d see if you google for a satellite image of the earth at night. Of course those aren’t super high resolution so from flying height it doesn’t look that great.

https://earth.google.com/web/data=CiQSIhIgMGY3ZTJkYzdlOGExMTFlNjk5MGQ2ZjgxOGQ2OWE2ZTc

https://www.nightearth.com/?@50,-106.346771,2z&data=$bWVsMmQx&lang=en

Edited April 1, 2021 by Tuskin38

[Tuskin38 6,635]

21 minutes ago, Shack95 said:

I think that many (most?) people aren‘t happy with the night lighting either. I for one mostly avoid flying at night. It‘s been criticized since release and Asobo doesn‘t seem to be very committed in that respect, so I don‘t expect much change in the near future to be honest. I hope I‘m wrong of course. 

They did touch it up a few times in the early patches when the complaints were louder. But they’ve died down since then.

The biggest change was to the street light rendering. There used to be a lot more of them on back roads and such. But then they changed it so they’re tied to population density, so the further out from a population centre you go, the less lights there are. Fewer side roads lit up like a Christmas tree now.

Edited April 1, 2021 by Tuskin38

[Isaiah53six 134]

12 hours ago, Virtual-Chris said:

In the evening, lights in the distance are very blurry.  Is there any way to change this? A mod or something in usercfg.opt?

I'm finding this very distracting... to the point it makes my eyes hurt.   Let atmospheric haze impact sharpness, don't intentionally apply a blur filter to stuff. Ugh!

It is very obvious because scenery in the distance (e.g. a mountain) will be perfectly sharp but the lights around it are very blurry - it's an immersion killer and a headache inducer!

no it's not just you...night lighting in the distance is blurry.  I don't remember it being this way at release though.

[Shack95 2,665]

22 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

They did touch it up a few times in the early patches when the complaints were louder. But they’ve died down since then.

Yes, I remember it, they also toned down the night light map. There has certainly been some improvements but all in all I still think it‘s none of the sim‘s strengths. I think some of the disappointment also comes from the comparison with early alpha screenshots which looked very promising.

[spacedyemeerkat 421]

There are two different issues here although connected: 1) night lighting in general, 2) the bluriness of night lighting in ultrawide resolutions. Trust me, if you've seen the latter, you *know*. It's awful.

[Bilbosmeggins 217]

If you think it’s blurry in flatscreen, you should try it in VR. I thought my eyes had died 😳

[RXP 2,338]

There is a long standing discussion about this in the FS2020 forums, you might want to vote for it.

My latest comments:
https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/night-lighting-issues-still-present-the-community-solutions/310086/1013?u=cptlucky8

Explanations and details:
Night lighting issues still present - The community solutions - Bugs & Issues / Scenery - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums

And here is the discussion exposing the problem with wide monitors:
Blurry lights on ultra-wide/4k resolutions - Bugs & Issues / Scenery - Microsoft Flight Simulator Forums
 

Edited April 1, 2021 by RXP