I was going through the X-Plane 12 beta forum at the org, and a post from a community leader "Janov" caught my eye. 

This is his reply to one of the poster who appreciated the extremely realistic sun glare present in X-Plane 12.

" You will be dismayed to hear that Laminar is getting pushed extremely hard by the majority of (layman) users to "fix" this problem, because they can´t see inside the cockpit when flying towards the sun.

Most real pilots know that this is a real world problem - but who wants real world problems when flying around for fun on your desktop simulator😉? " 

 

To provide a bit of context here. I myself have seen people complaining about the 'nuclear sun' and 'cant see cockpit during sunset' or 'cockpit too dark when looking at the sun'. There are even 'tweaks' out which 'fixes' the sun glare. 

Now I hope that the devs do not give in to such demands. Sun glare, specifically at sunsets is a real issue that pilots face. You literally can't see your cockpit except for the digital screens. Simmers should learn to fly in such situations and thankfully v12 does simulate such physically correct conditions so simmers can learn. 

A very interesting read on this Is This An Unavoidable Danger For Every Pilot? | Boldmethod

As for the sun becoming a 'nuke' at sunsets. Well again X-Plane 12 renders this correctly. Attaching few pics.

Don't forget that "nuke" over-exposed effect is how the camera sensor capture it simply because it has way lower dynamic range than the human eye. 😉

it's often said that no two sunsets are ever the same! They're also different depending on latitude 👍

1 hour ago, Pe11e said:

Don't forget that "nuke" over-exposed effect is how the camera sensor capture it simply because it has way lower dynamic range than the human eye. 😉

I have made several approaches in real life where visibility forwards was almost impossible. I couldn't see the ground or the airport ahead. I do hope LR don't degrade reality like MSFS has in some cases, but rather includes settings to allow individuals to tune the sim for their choice.

I agree with the OP. The other day I was in the car with the sun very low above horizon, the worst possible time for glare. I really had trouble seeing the road ahead and the traffic, and the effect was worsened by the dirty windshield.

I think XP is doing the best job here. Probably even XP is underestimating the glare compared to RL! Hopefully they will not dumb down realistic features as other sims are doing. On the contrary, they should add MORE glare effects, as those listed in the linked aviation article: wet asphalt, bright snow, dirty windshield, etc.

 

 

Edited November 16, 20223 yr by Murmur

1 hour ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

I have made several approaches in real life where visibility forwards was almost impossible.

Yes, I agree. However, in X-Plane 12 the visibility towards the centre console is almost impossible, The human eye compensates for the dimmer lighting conditions, X-Plane 12 doesn't. 'Can't see anything, even if I turn on the dome light.

3 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

I have made several approaches in real life where visibility forwards was almost impossible. I couldn't see the ground or the airport ahead.

 

2 hours ago, Murmur said:

I think XP is doing the best job here. Probably even XP is underestimating the glare compared to RL! Hopefully they will not dumb down realistic features as other sims are doing.

Interesting comments indeed...

I can barely see the airport ahead, and I even had a hard time finding my screenshot key (and this is without bloom or HDR effects).

 

 

Absolute rubbish I'm afraid. Glare from a flight deck looks nothing like that. Your eyes aren't cameras, so I don't know why people post photo's where a camera with a fraction of the dynamic range of your eyes is exposing the image for the sun. 

In reality, even with the sun directly in your eyes, when you look down at the instruments your eyes will adjust quickly.

 

Edited November 17, 20223 yr by 2reds2whites

1 hour ago, 2reds2whites said:

Absolute rubbish I'm afraid. Glare from a flight deck looks nothing like that. Your eyes aren't cameras, so I don't know why people post photo's where a camera with a fraction of the dynamic range of your eyes is exposing the image for the sun. 

In reality, even with the sun directly in your eyes, when you look down at the instruments your eyes will adjust quickly.

 

Did you even bother reading the link I provided ? Sun glare IS a real problem that pilots face. It is not something that is made up. 

2 hours ago, 2reds2whites said:

Absolute rubbish I'm afraid. Glare from a flight deck looks nothing like that. Your eyes aren't cameras, so I don't know why people post photo's where a camera with a fraction of the dynamic range of your eyes is exposing the image for the sun. 

In reality, even with the sun directly in your eyes, when you look down at the instruments your eyes will adjust quickly.

 

The glare in the last photo is very authentic.  

9 hours ago, 2reds2whites said:

In reality, even with the sun directly in your eyes, when you look down at the instruments your eyes will adjust quickly.

And in reality, is why Pilots where sun glasses because irl you can't adjust the brightness of the sun. Maybe LR or some 3P can make a pair of sunglasses to work for your virtual eye sight like the they did with noise with the head set. But by no means should they adjust that sunlight.

7 hours ago, Baber20 said:

Did you even bother reading the link I provided ? Sun glare IS a real problem that pilots face. It is not something that is made up. 

Yes I bothered to read the link, and my career is flying jet airliners, so I'm acutely aware of what sun glare does, thanks - and it looks nothing like Xplane depicts.

6 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

The glare in the last photo is very authentic.  

That is absolutely not true. In my 10 years of commercial flying around the world I have NEVER seen anything which looks like that.

not sure how much of this is camera effect or actual, in my real world flying it can be hard to see sometimes when the sun is right in front of you, perhaps a little overdone in XP

 

3 hours ago, BobFS88 said:

And in reality, is why Pilots where sun glasses because irl you can't adjust the brightness of the sun. Maybe LR or some 3P can make a pair of sunglasses to work for your virtual eye sight like the they did with noise with the head set. But by no means should they adjust that sunlight.

XP already has a sunglasses option, but I think it's not beed updated to work correctly with the new photometric engine. The sun visors on various default aircraft should work instead.