Potential improvements for sky colors

[virtualstuff 759]

20 hours ago, Virtpilot said:

Yes, the exe file length is 0 

Edit: yep, not working... Well, not a big deal. I´ll wait the official change from Asobo. Thank you for your hard work though...

There is a little trick for MSFS store version to open the correct file location of the exe file.

1. Start the xbox app and at the left side you see the Microsoft flightsimulator Icon>

2. Select that icon which will open at the right pane Microsoft flightsimulator

3. You will see a green button with play at that same line at the right of the green button you see ... dots

4. Select those and a pull down menu will show with 3 options choose manage

5. This opens a window with two tabs general and files

6. Choose files and then the option browse double click on the folder Microsoft Flight simulator then on the folder content and scroll down to flightsimulator.exe

Congratulations you are at the correct location on you PC for the store version

Edited October 10, 2023 by virtualstuff

[BaronKen 144]

Ok, I managed to sort this out and it's now working. My problem was editing the ini file with Notepad++, apparently I was using the program without admininstrator rights because when I switched to Wordpad to make the coefficient value changes instead of Notepad and then started the sim everything worked, including the toggle switch.

Love the new colors, seeing them in person on my system makes a big difference. Thanks to everyone involved with this, will enjoy it going forward.

[cianpars 1,170]

Finally tried the new method on github where you simply copy the 3 files into the flightsimulator.exe folder and use the insert key to toggle o n or off.  Works great and the colours are much more realistic around dawn and dusk, though not really noticable  at other times.

Very simple and I had no problems accessing the folder.

The only minor problem is that by default the insert key is used to activate the showcase camera which cannot now be accessed other than from the toolbar.

Thanks to Bobcat for clarifying things in the tips and tricks forum and helping to make the process simple and understandable.

Edited October 10, 2023 by cianpars

[vrdubin6 184]

2 minutes ago, cianpars said:

The only minor problem is that by default the insert key is used to activate the showcase camera which cannot now be accessed other than from the toolbar.

It was discussed earlier in this thread that you can remap the binding. 

 

[Drunq 98]

1 minute ago, cianpars said:

Finally tried the new method on github where you simply copy the 3 files into the flightsimulator.exe folder and use the insert key to toggle o n or off.  Works great and the colours are much more realistic around dawn and dusk, though not really noticable  at other times.

Very simple and I had no problems accessing the folder.

The only minor problem is that by default the insert key is used to activate the showcase camera which cannot now be accessed other than from the toolbar.

Yeah that one was a big oversight on my part... You can change the key in the .ini file or set one of the following to 'true':  HOLD_ALT, HOLD_CTRL, HOLD_SHIFT

[Drunq 98]

3 minutes ago, Drunq said:

Yeah that one was a big oversight on my part... You can change the key in the .ini file or set one of the following to 'true':  HOLD_ALT, HOLD_CTRL, HOLD_SHIFT

Updated the release and changed HOLD_CTRL to true by default in the .ini

[Bert Pieke 7,585]

3 hours ago, virtualstuff said:

2. Select that icon which will open at the right pane Microsoft flightsimulator

Little detail... if you click on the icon itself, it will start MSFS, if you click a bit to the right, it will open the pane..

Tricky! 😉

[filou 2,744]

9 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

When XP12 was released I flew it a couple of times and was completely hooked with its excellent lighting. I ended up using it exclusively for nine months.  I checked in with MSFS each month, but the lighting looked as you described.  However, when I initially loaded XP12, I was jarred by the more barren landscape, but being a flight simulator enthusiast I stuck with it, getting my senses tuned in to the way XP12 displayed things.

After nine months of checking in with MSFS each month and being less than impressed (especially with the sky), it occured to me I didn't like what I was seeing because I needed to 'tune back in' to the MSFS way of displaying the world. So, I spent a few days of flying only MSFS - XP12 now became jarring to look at!  I think this is why we get so many 'my sim is better than your sim' type arguments - to truly appreciate what a particular sim has to offer, you have to be willing to 'acclimatise' to it, before you can appreciate what it does well.

I explained that because I completely disagree with your thoughts on the MSFS sky.  A flight simulator is such a huge, complex beast, no company is going to get everything right straight out the box - we have to be willing to tune it in to our personal senses.  For me I have done the following.

1..  Purchased a HDR600 monitor.  The real sky is bright, so anything we can do to maximise brightness will aid sky realism.  MSFS sky is a whole lot better in HDR.

2..  Use addons to further tune the sim. A developer focussing purely on one aspect of the sim is likely to produce more realism.  For cloud depiction I have settled on xEnviro.  It displays many more cloud types more convincingly than MSFS default - nothing wrong with default clouds of course, but xEnviro cloud types are more realistic to my eyes.  xEnviro has its limitations, but your concern seems to be with the way clouds are portrayed.

 

You can write pages and pages about this...

For me MSFS as a whole lighting/color look artificial. If we add to all that the clouds energized by the live weather forecast it's regularly a visual disaster during a complex live weather scenario. I fly 30 hours a week and at this rate since fs2004 and often find myself in similar weather, no new colors, no variations and no surprises and I'm not even talking about visibility, the shape of the clouds and all the other clouds that don't even exist .Boring. The MSFS live weather as a whole is my biggest visual disappointment.When you fly a lot like me you realize that it's extremely limited.

I have already explored everything...HDR is particularly effective at wowing you but accentuates the distance from natural realism. You can modify ( sky color etc...) or add the complements you want, it will not change anything.

The entire visual meteorological representation needs to be redone and if they improve it considerably I could forget a little about all its other weaknesses.

MSFS does not live up to what it claims to be.

[F737MAX 5,616]

Bringing this thread somewhat back on topic…

Can I add my thanks to @Biologyfor finding out how to make the dawn and dusk MSFS skies look far more realistic (on my screen at least).
And also to @Drunqfor creating a simple few files to reduce the chance of user error with hex editing/hacking the main MSFS.exe file.

I was running the hex edited MSFS file, though having a configurable .ini file provide me with the same effects was a no-brainer switch.

[MrBitstFlyer 3,876]

32 minutes ago, filou said:

 I fly 30 hours a week and at this rate since fs2004 and often find myself in similar weather, no new colors, no variations and no surprises and I'm not even talking about visibility, the shape of the clouds and all the other clouds that don't even exist .Boring

I did suggest you take a look at xEnviro.  Many, many more cloud types than default AND they have more substance to them.  Of course you have to make a choice here.  MSFS has a local weather model, but xEnviro has a global model.  For me, cloud depiction and having more cloud types is more important to me than a local weather model like MSFS default.  xEnviro also is very clever in the way it merges between weather areas.

I respect anybody that prefers a local weather model, so for them default MSFS weather is the only option.  However, if you want to be stunned when viewing the sky (more often than default!), and can tolerate a global weather model, you HAVE to see what xEnviro offers.  I haven't been succesful in taking screenshots when using HDR, otherwise I would post them.

I don't really understand your negative comment about HDR - brightness is nearer reality than SDR, so that adds some realism.  What have you done to make sure your display is calibrated correctly?  I use a ReShade filter (FinalLight.fx) to fix default MSFS over green tint which helps lighting realism.

Edited October 10, 2023 by MrBitstFlyer

[filou 2,744]

9 hours ago, F737MAX said:

Bringing this thread somewhat back on topic…

Can I add my thanks to @Biologyfor finding out how to make the dawn and dusk MSFS skies look far more realistic (on my screen at least).
And also to @Drunqfor creating a simple few files to reduce the chance of user error with hex editing/hacking the main MSFS.exe file.

I was running the hex edited MSFS file, though having a configurable .ini file provide me with the same effects was a no-brainer switch.

Is this the result after modification? if this is the case I much prefer mine 

[NZ255 309]

22 minutes ago, filou said:

Is this the result after modification? if this is the case I much prefer mine 

It looks a little orange, I’m thinking it’s still default? If you enable the toggle feature in the ini file, then you can toggle it on/off live in sim with the insert key. Or Control+Insert if you’ve downloaded it recently. 

[cianpars 1,170]

14 hours ago, cianpars said:

Finally tried the new method on github where you simply copy the 3 files into the flightsimulator.exe folder and use the insert key to toggle o n or off.  Works great and the colours are much more realistic around dawn and dusk, though not really noticable  at other times.

Very simple and I had no problems accessing the folder.

The only minor problem is that by default the insert key is used to activate the showcase camera which cannot now be accessed other than from the toolbar.

Thanks to Bobcat for clarifying things in the tips and tricks forum and helping to make the process simple and understandable.

As well as Bob for creating the simplified tips and tricks post, can I also thank Biology, Drunq and Alvega for their incredible work on this too.

Edited October 11, 2023 by cianpars

[Virtpilot 152]

Does that change of exe location by Xbox App affects the settings and bindings I have made to the yokes and throttles? I hate if I have to configure everything from the start... Otherwise I could try that to get this to work.

[turbomax 3,286]

54 minutes ago, Virtpilot said:

Does that change of exe location by Xbox App affects the settings and bindings I have made to the yokes and throttles?

no, only sky colors, as explained several times here. settings and bindings are store in the microsoft cloud, not on your pc. so that when you re-install the game from scratch or crash 🤣, or even on a completely new pc, it will be loaded back from the cloud, as it was before.