9Hi all,

For some time now I have been noticing that the sunrise and sunset does not match with reality. I use Flychrono, but it doesn't correct anything either.

To explain myself better, when there is still light at dusk, in the simulator it is already night. There is a delay of approximately 30 minutes. 

Back in FS9 times I used FsrealTime, which was really good. I dont know if still available for P3D5.

Does anyone knows a better program to correct?

 

Thanks in advanced

Edited February 8, 20251 yr by juaness

I'm wondering if TimeZoneFixer will work. I'm not aware of the problem you describe.

https://secure.simmarket.com/simelite-solutions-time-zone-fixer-fsx-p3d.phtml

I've found auto exposure and hdr settings can play havoc at dawn /dusk too. 

20 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

I've found auto exposure and hdr settings can play havoc at dawn /dusk too. 

I completely agree with you, I also noticed that hdr settings together with Dynamic lighting affect the lighting at dawn and sunset.

I've been using Time Zone Fixer from SimElite Solutions since FSX. And if you don't enable hdr in Prepar3D v4.5, then during twilight periods of the day everything is more or less normal with lighting. And this +/- coincides with real time. But will Time Zone Fixer work in v5, who knows...

@juaness, it might help if you mention your hardware and what settings you have for Lighting and World.

Thanks all for your help.

 

I use NO EA, but using Auto Exposure and HDR. Sometimes I disable HDR, specially in rainy days. Looks really unreal HDR in rainy dark days.

Ill give a try with HDR and Auto Exposure at dusk.

 

Thanks

1 hour ago, juaness said:

I use NO EA, but using Auto Exposure and HDR.

Auto Exposure is awful. Try it off. Leave HDR on. I still don’t know your hardware. CPU? GPU?

The GPU is especially critical.

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Auto Exposure is awful. Try it off. Leave HDR on. I still don’t know your hardware. CPU? GPU?

The GPU is especially critical.

Ray,

Running i7 6800k with 1080Ti. Bit old but still running good in P3D5.3

only problem at night. I change from 4xSSAA to 4xMSAA during night when in the airport. 

17 minutes ago, juaness said:

Running i7 6800k with 1080Ti.

That’s the problem. My previous card was a 1080Ti admittedly running in 4K but it struggled with EA enabled. I avoided dusk, dawn and night flights like the plague.

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

EA enabled

Sorry, what's EA? I thought you guys meant AEexp but I see it listed as well as AE.

47 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

Sorry, what's EA? I thought you guys meant AEexp but I see it listed as well as AE.

Enhanced Atmospherics.

Another TimeZoneFixer user here on P3D4. I recommend it, especially if you are interested in longhauls/crossing many time zones.

Somewhat related, but I also use a P3D.cfg tweak so that night lighting is activated earlier in the evening, and is disabled later in the morning, though skimming some of the comments in this thread suggests that might behave differently for v5 compared to v4. I personally use DAY_THRESHOLD=55000.

 

On 2/8/2025 at 7:00 PM, juaness said:

9Hi all,

For some time now I have been noticing that the sunrise and sunset does not match with reality. I use Flychrono, but it doesn't correct anything either.

To explain myself better, when there is still light at dusk, in the simulator it is already night. There is a delay of approximately 30 minutes. 

Back in FS9 times I used FsrealTime, which was really good. I dont know if still available for P3D5.

Does anyone knows a better program to correct?

 

Thanks in advanced

Hi Juan, i think we have to take two different parts into account. One is the time at when the sim starts the change from day to night and the other part is the duration of dusk and dawn within the transition from day to night. Tools like timezone fixer etc. can handle the first part, though the moment when it´s getting evening or morning is in sync at the part of the world where you are in the sim. 

But it can´t fix the duration of dawn and dusk as this is something hardcoded in the athmospheric model. This was an issue in the Sim eversince, that the duration of the "twilight phase" was not as long as in the reality. Once the Sun went under the horizion it took maybe 10 to 20 min max until the sky turns totaly dark, which is way to short. 

The first time ever in P3D, this has changed with the new athmospheric model used since V6, because it´s based on coding of the Unreal engine athmospheric model. It´s not perfect, but way more realistic as in the former Versions. Now it takes more or less up to 45 min until the sky is getting black, once the sun went down. 

So it´s up to you, what you preferences might be. To change to V6.1 only for that reason has to be payed with a lot more other small issues, since there is no real developer assistance for the add-on compartibilty anymore.   

10 hours ago, BerndB said:

Hi Juan, i think we have to take two different parts into account. One is the time at when the sim starts the change from day to night and the other part is the duration of dusk and dawn within the transition from day to night. Tools like timezone fixer etc. can handle the first part, though the moment when it´s getting evening or morning is in sync at the part of the world where you are in the sim. 

But it can´t fix the duration of dawn and dusk as this is something hardcoded in the athmospheric model. This was an issue in the Sim eversince, that the duration of the "twilight phase" was not as long as in the reality. Once the Sun went under the horizion it took maybe 10 to 20 min max until the sky turns totaly dark, which is way to short. 

The first time ever in P3D, this has changed with the new athmospheric model used since V6, because it´s based on coding of the Unreal engine athmospheric model. It´s not perfect, but way more realistic as in the former Versions. Now it takes more or less up to 45 min until the sky is getting black, once the sun went down. 

So it´s up to you, what you preferences might be. To change to V6.1 only for that reason has to be payed with a lot more other small issues, since there is no real developer assistance for the add-on compartibilty anymore.   

Thanks for your help.

I won't move to 6.1. Some addons won't be compatible with 6, but again thanks  for you useful info!