One of the areas of MSFS that disappointed me the most, and didn't really get a lot of press, was the weird sepia blotches that passed for night lighting when looking at distant cities.  (I'm not talking about the perfectly adequate night lighting close to the aircraft).  Flying into Dubai the whole desert seemed to have this ugly glow.  Alpine towns seemed to just be a yellowy-brown mush going up the valleys. It annoys me you can't even turn it off.  (And I am aware it is affected by LOD).  On a flight to Copenhagen last night I found it so ugly that I just had to look inside the cockpit.  For a sim with such astonishing daytime views, surely there has to be a better solution?  And I am wondering if we are going to be plagued by this in FS2024, or if there is a better way.  Even crisper blobs would be a win!  

Some night footage came out of the press demo, but I don’t remember who showed it

According to Youtuber Obsidian Ant, the lighting system has been overhauled, and night lighting is much improved.

Unfortunately it wasn’t mentioned when they discussed night lighting in the last Q&A. And as far as I know they haven’t shown any high-altitude nighttime screenshots or videos. Maybe some content creators who were at the preview event and are here on Avsim know more? 

Yeah, "Improvements" could mean the close up low level stuff is better, and we are still left with all the sepia blobs. 

It really surprises me how it's not higher on people's lists.  It looks SO bad, all night.  

Just now, Langeveldt said:

Yeah, "Improvements" could mean the close up low level stuff is better, and we are still left with all the sepia blobs. 

It really surprises me how it's not higher on people's lists.  It looks SO bad, all night.  

I agree with this. I avoid flying at night because it looks terrible in fs2020 even with improvements over time. 

I like how the sim looks at night. Doesn't bother me at all.

 

Here's a night shot from 2024 from Squirrel's video

Edited September 27, 20241 yr by Tuskin38

1 hour ago, Tuskin38 said:

I like how the sim looks at night. Doesn't bother me at all.

 

Here's a night shot from 2024 from Squirrel's video

Yeah the closer stuff doesn't bother me either, and if you fly GA you would never notice it being bad.

Try flying a tubeliner at FL380 into Dubai at night and see if you think it's up to scratch.  I enjoyed Squirrels video, but I need to see from higher up.  

2 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

I like how the sim looks at night. Doesn't bother me at all.

Here's a night shot from 2024 from Squirrel's video

Thanks for the screenshots. The problem, as Langeveldt said, is that when you're flying in an airliner at cruising altitude, all you see are these blurry sepia blobs scattered around in the dark because the draw distance of the streetlights is so limited. If you look straight down, the blobs are much more defined and it's not so bad, but if you look towards the horizon, as you normally do, it's a blurry mess.

The map in your second screenshot looks very similar to the current version. I hope I'm wrong, but that could be an indication that they haven't change the sepia masks. So unless they've revamped the streetlight LOD system, I guess we'll have to live with the blobs for a few more years.

Apart from that, the night lighting looks very good, I agree. Especially at dusk/dawn the new sim looks absolutely spectacular.

This has nothing to do with the lighting, but that space nebula or whatever it is in the first picture looks pretty menacing.

5 hours ago, Shack95 said:

Unfortunately it wasn’t mentioned when they discussed night lighting in the last Q&A. 

Improvements to night lighting were talked about in this weeks Q & A.

Its being changed and improved as part of the whole lighting engine revamp. I can’t remember exactly what was said but there was talk of light temperature and photo-voltaic….something, something….

My personal gripe with the night environment is the ridiculous amount of street lighting on out of town minor roads, main roads, motorways, etc. that simply does not exist in the real world.

No sign of any change to that unfortunately.

 

 

From the preview event and then on this week's livestream they once again confirmed about the lighting engine revamp, and use of photometric lighting with each light source in the sim (from the sun all the way down to street lamps) being set with the actual physical light properties like intensity in lumens, temperature/color, etc.

So this should definitely make night lighting even better but ya not sure if it'll fix the sephia mask thing at high altitude. Also the issue about locations like the Dubai desert are the incorrect placement of street lights along dirt paths/roads where there aren't any IRL.

And the Milky Way showing up at night is a common issue in sims, IRL it won't be visible in any areas with light pollution, and to the naked eye it is all white (hence the name).. the colors of the galaxy only show up on camera long exposures, due to the different surface temperatures of stars and other interstellar objects 

 

Edited September 27, 20241 yr by lwt1971

• Sepia blobs at distance
• Streetlights on every large road
• Potato resolution night sky

Even some small changes to address these issues would make night flying appealing once again.

6 hours ago, DD_Arthur said:

Improvements to night lighting were talked about in this weeks Q & A.

Yes, I know, and the improvements look very promising. I was solely referring to the sepia mask system. 

One thing  you should remember when flight at night in unpressurized airplane at night . You more susceptible for oxygen starvation and your eyes perceive things dimmer ! So don’t trust YouTube videos shot my hidef cam.

The biggest thing that  bothers me a lot in MSFS are not cities, or roads that uniformly lit (in real life 80% roads don’t have lighting pols ) but actual airports.

Flying  at night is challenging to start with. Single pilot IFR at night in IMC is the most stressful flying one can ever get ! Spatial disorientation, oxygen deficiency, electrical failure or any other emergency  can easily overwhelm even experienced pilots.

What’s is wrong is MSFS is the way airport depicted at night !You can’t see approach lights 7 miles away from the airport! The blue runway/taxiway lights until you literally touching wheels . The first thing you see from a distance is rotating beacon that should be lit at night or anytime airport becomes close to IFR weather in a daytime 

During night VFR is actually a bit challenging to spot airport even when you look straight at it!  In situations when towered is closed or airport is uncontrolled pilot controlled lighting is your best friend ! You want high intensity to spot airport and lower intensity when you land !

I wish MSFS 2024 will address that first before other things !

13 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

During night VFR is actually a bit challenging to spot airport even when you look straight at it!  In situations when towered is closed or airport is uncontrolled pilot controlled lighting is your best friend ! You want high intensity to spot airport and lower intensity when you land !

I remember my first night "cross country" with my instructor from MWC to RFD. We were approaching RFD on a clear night and for the life of me couldn't see the airport. Asked the tower to turn up the runway lights and when they went full power Oh! there it is! haha