Dark cockpits and shadows

[rondon9898 84]

Hi folks,

A lot of people experience very dark cockpits in P3D v5 and I’m no exception - there are loads of solutions suggested out there but the only one that works is turning off interior receive shadows option. The problem then is that everything looks really bright, and the flight deck looks naff without shadows. Is there anything I can do to adjust shadow depiction in P3D? In the Prepar3d.cfg file or elswhere? I’ve changed the shadow thing in envshade to Low but it’s made no difference. Any suggestions?

thanks all

[psolk 3,037]

This is one of my only large complaints in P3D... My work-around is the dome light sadly.    There was a recent mod for the QW787 that does work however when you turn the dome light on with the mod it washes everything else out and is too bright.  There was also a shader announcement recently that claimed to be able to do exactly this but I think the consensus was that the impact in the cockpit was minimal.   

I wish I could help but I can't so I will empathize instead...   Hoping some more knowledgeable can comment but it is odd that it's like if the light isn't hitting the texture it's dark, there is no concept of ambient light in the cockpit... 

Edited May 16, 2022 by psolk

[rondon9898 84]

I’ve been doing it myself but I have to say, it is a highly unsatisfactory solution, going around with the dome light on during the day. 

There is some sort of problem with the way shadows are being formed but I just don’t understand what it is. You’re right it really, really spoils P3D. 

[joepoway 241]

I use ChasePlane and in the preferences section I believe is where it’s located you can override P3D HDR and set cockpit and external separate lighting settings. It’s not perfect but much better.

Joe

[willy647 193]

RDShade has a cockpit brightness setting ( + lots of others shader setting) . Works perfect.

 

 

[coastaldriver 915]

I will be honest and say this is one aspect of P3D that can be trying but it also depends on the sim model (the VC textures and modelled glass area of the cockpit itself). Some models that were fine in FSX are so dark in P3D as to be horrible. Curious aspect is that the light shading can actually illuminated the VC quite well if the sun angle is right that is to the side or slightly behind. I have found the easiest solution is to use FS Spotlights and set up lighting in the VC to illuminate in correctly (Most real aeroplanes. I flew (except those with bubble canopies left the storm or panel lighting on anyway or most of the time) I then just tone down the brightness and adjust the lumen level for those lights to what I regard as acceptable. I find that this does not interfere too much with the sunlight and shadowing generally. The pain is knowing how to use FS Spotlights properly to do it. Once that is done for a particular model you do not have to worry about it. The bonus from this approach is that for a lot of the models I have which never had sophisticated guage lighting codes but relied on effects and the dreaded day/night switch programmed into the sim that problem has gone as well. On some models a change over to different VC textures has done the job too - but that is not so easy for some or some models either. 

Now not all models need these adjustments  anyway some for some reason do not have the problem and are fine without shader mods or using FS Spotlights. 

So this is how I have dealt with the problem:

1. Changed the cockpit textures in the model. OR

2 Used FS Spotlights to lighten up the whole VC, OR

3, Turn on the cockpit lighting, 

[coastaldriver 915]

This is an example of FS Spotlights best I could find at short notice

Before normal lighting with EA on in P3d. Middle of the day not totally dark but still dingy,

Same panel but with the FS Spotlights on

Same VC now at night, 

Not to everyone's taste perhaps, As I said in the first response, I have a lot of models where the VC is just fine and has needed no adjustment or fix whatsoever,

Edited May 17, 2022 by coastaldriver
spelling correction

[Torsen 495]

Envshade is doing some correction on HDR too. At least with EA on together with envshade me not having too dark cockpits. For example Dash and pmdg 747 working nice here.

Cheers

T.

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by Torsen

[rondon9898 84]

Can you give me any idea of your settings? I have RDshade and envshade and it hasn't solved the problem. I’m predominantly flying in the FSLabs Airbuses.

[willy647 193]

11 hours ago, rondon9898 said:

Can you give me any idea of your settings? I have RDshade and envshade and it hasn't solved the problem. I’m predominantly flying in the FSLabs Airbuses.

I have RDShade and set the cockpit brightness to 0.7. That solved the dark cockpit on the FSLabs for me.

The setting is a bit strange. Lowering the value will make the cockpit brighter. One would expect a higher value to result in more brightness, but no, lower the value

Edited May 18, 2022 by willy647

[CaptKornDog 281]

Unfortunately, I absolutely empathize with the OP as well.  This is one problem I’ve never been able to solve and perhaps in my top 3 or 5 gripes about P3Dv5.  No matter how much shader or texture manipulation through ENVshade, manual editing, ChasePlane HDR, etc, I’ve never been able to come up with an acceptable solution.

 

I’m definitely tired of paying for shader tools to try and fix it with minimal effect.

 

Good luck, please let us know what you go with.

Edited May 19, 2022 by CaptKornDog

[Bob Scott 7,716]

Shader tweaks have never done the job for me.  I use FSL's freeware FS Spotlights utility. 

If you spend a little time with it, you'll discover it has a lot of flexibility in setting brightness, use of multiple sources to do differential lighting of different areas of the VC/panel, lighting color etc.  IMHO the pix up-thread are really overbright, and not tremendously representative of what the program is capable of with some careful customization.

A separate profile for day/night is usually needed, as what works well in day is a blowout at night.

[rondon9898 84]

I’ve bought RDShade and set cockpit brightness to 0.1 - it’s brighter, but still nowhere near acceptable. I don’t think this problem can be overcome easily. 

I’m mainly using the FSL Airbus - I’ve never actually used the spotlights app but I will do if necessary. What I don’t want, like having the dome light on during the day, is for it to actually look lit during the day. Is that possible with spotlights, Bob?

 

[cyyzrwy24 121]

On 5/16/2022 at 7:21 PM, joepoway said:

I use ChasePlane and in the preferences section I believe is where it’s located you can override P3D HDR and set cockpit and external separate lighting settings. It’s not perfect but much better.

Joe

I use the same...and it is best remedy so far. I created shortcuts on keyboard for lighter and darker and it really works...