I've always enjoyed night flying the best clear back to FSX days and before. Hurtling through darkness plus or minus a moon phase to a lit ILS runway, clouds or cloudless. I find it even more intriguing on final when you fly over major highways, vehicles steaming by under what seems like a decent effort at highway lighting. Are the night-lit objects in MSFS 2020 better at night now then they were for FSX from the past? I guess, but I really don't remember. Night flying is the best!

United001 

You guys gotta check this out.  I guess in the true words of a millennial, this is sick!  (might be better viewed in a dark room)

I've got a break in the clouds, and can see some stars, I've got the small city lights illuminating the cloud bases, and a perfect amount of night lighting for this semi small town near KCWA.

Wow they really nailed this!  Asobo, do not change this!  (airport environment still could use work - taxiways too bright when flying the pattern.)

NLingamazing4 by Ryan Butterworth, on Flickr

 

Edited October 23, 20214 yr by ryanbatcund

Nice new background.  Thanks

bs

37 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

You guys gotta check this out.  I guess in the true words of a millennial, this is sick!  (might be better viewed in a dark room)

I've got a break in the clouds, and can see some stars, I've got the small city lights illuminating the cloud bases, and a perfect amount of night lighting for this semi small town near KCWA.

Wow they really nailed this!  Asobo, do not change this!  (airport environment still could use work - taxiways too bright when flying the pattern.)

Ryan...you are right on dude. Just did my first flight since the update (night flight in the CJ4) and it is indeed...sick (I'm a Gen X'er...I know that term!).  They have this nailed down pretty good at this point.. I have many hours logged IRL at night and this really does get it pretty close.  We just need some bright car headlights on those roads and it will be perfect.  I think they did a great job with the sepia mask on this fix....it's pushed to the right distance now IMO.

On my first post-WU6 night flight I was disappointed. Madrid at night looked just as awful as before. This morning I woke up early and couldn't sleep anymore, so I decided to fire up my computer for a short morning flight. When I took off from LFSB in the CRJ it was still almost completely dark and wow - what a difference! I'll have to check out some more places but what I saw this morning was one of the best night sceneries I've ever seen, even in VR. I couldn't take a screenshot at that moment because I was busy being amazed but here's one from a later stage of the flight when the sun was already above the horizon. Sometimes this sim looks absolutely gorgeous.

Have to agree, night lighting on the ground is incredible. I just wished I could see moving cars... It seems they only show up when I'm at like 1000ft or less. Anyone experiencing the same? It would be perfect to see the moving lights of traffic when flying above cities, instead of the static, albeit quite beautiful, views that I have today.

12 minutes ago, Jikul said:

Have to agree, night lighting on the ground is incredible. I just wished I could see moving cars... It seems they only show up when I'm at like 1000ft or less. Anyone experiencing the same? It would be perfect to see the moving lights of traffic when flying above cities, instead of the static, albeit quite beautiful, views that I have today.

Good idea. Although, it would have to be another slider/toggle option. Asobo have recently done a lot of optimisation, to leave them more headroom for more features that people are hoping for/they have been planning, over the coming years. But players will soon find the limitations of their systems -- the limitations of existing hardware, even the top-end hardware currently  the market -- and so, the more Asobo add in to please people and give a more detailed experience, the more people will have to choose between having one setting on/high and another disabled, at least until consumer hardware catches up with what's expected, demanded, and implemented.

Edited October 23, 20214 yr by March Hare

1 hour ago, Jikul said:

Have to agree, night lighting on the ground is incredible. I just wished I could see moving cars... It seems they only show up when I'm at like 1000ft or less. Anyone experiencing the same? It would be perfect to see the moving lights of traffic when flying above cities, instead of the static, albeit quite beautiful, views that I have today.

Agreed. That‘s one of the great things about XPlane. It really adds a lot. IRL cars are very visible at night.

Edited October 23, 20214 yr by Shack95

I took off last evening from Porto flying the A32N in the fine sunset flying into the darkness, but the sky wasn't dark for very long as just off to my right was the 'rising' moon which was blood red as it slowly graced the horizon. A good half hour later and the clouds, cities below and atmosphere were lit up by a bright full moon. The city streets down below clearly visible, just silently gracing the skies above Europe. Final descent into Zurich was a spectacular sight.

Edited October 23, 20214 yr by shamrockflyer

Well, at least it more closely resembles P3D now!

Agreed. Night lighting is just incredible now. Gliding over city streets at night is so realistic. Frankfurt one amazing example. 

The night lighting is great now, major improvement. 

Is the night lighting in SU6 better than what it  was in the Alpha builds that everyone was saying was the best?

10 hours ago, Shack95 said:

Agreed. That‘s one of the great things about XPlane. It really adds a lot. IRL cars are very visible at night.

If you can see the lights through the haze. 

very nice

 

Edited October 23, 20214 yr by Tuskin38