They are not bright . Here are examples

12 minutes ago, sd_flyer said:

They are not bright . Here are examples

 

 

 

Those are great pics!  And you can see with that last pic how the lights are brighter because it appears to be day IFR.  That's when lights will be at their brightest setting.  Of course Palomar ATC would set those if they are open.

Edited April 7Apr 7 by ryanbatc

4 hours ago, sd_flyer said:

They are not bright . Here are examples

Thanks for the pictures. That's my experience too. PAPI lights have low visibility in MSFS. RW pilots and simmers can disagree with each other until they are blue in the face about the luminosity of PAPI lights but in the end a picture is worth a thousand words. 

Wishing someone would also post pictures of PAPI lights showing PAPI lights which are too bright from 5-10 miles away from the threshold on a default airport.

It would be great if MSFS provided a direct setting to tweak PAPI light intensity, rather than forcing simmers to jump through a series of workarounds (see below). All I want is to practice Fokker F27 landings with PAPI lights that are bright enough to be helpful.

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AI:
You’re running into one of the most common visibility issues in MSFS 2024 right now: PAPI/VASI lights are noticeably dimmer and don’t “bloom” at distance the way they did in MSFS 2020. There’s no single slider that fixes it, but there are several ways to make PAPIs significantly brighter and visible from farther out.

Below is the complete set of methods — from in‑sim settings to config edits — arranged from easiest to most effective.

⭐ 1. Increase PAPI visibility using in‑sim settings (most reliable)

A. Turn OFF HDR (if you’re not using a true HDR monitor)

HDR in MSFS 2024 reduces the perceived brightness of small light sources.

• Options → Graphics → HDR10 → OFF

This alone makes PAPIs pop more at distance.

B. Increase “Lens Correction” and “Light Bloom”

These don’t change the actual light intensity, but they make PAPIs appear larger and more visible.

• Options → Graphics → Post‑Processing
  • Lens Correction: ON
  • Bloom: ON
  • Light Shafts: ON

Bloom especially helps PAPIs stand out from the runway environment.

C. Raise “Terrain LOD” and “Objects LOD”

At low LOD, MSFS reduces light draw distance.

• Terrain LOD: 150–200
• Objects LOD: 150–200

This increases the distance at which PAPIs are rendered at full brightness.

⭐ 2. Fix PAPI brightness using the aircraft’s camera exposure settings

MSFS 2024 uses a new auto‑exposure system that darkens bright objects when the cockpit is visible.

Try this:

• Switch to External View → PAPIs appear brighter
• Switch back to Cockpit View → PAPIs dim again

If this happens, adjust:

Options → Camera → Cockpit Camera → Exposure Compensation Set to +0.3 to +0.7

This makes PAPIs noticeably easier to see on approach.

⭐ 3. Developer Mode tweak (safe and reversible)

If you want a stronger effect:

A. Enable Developer Mode

• Options → General → Developers → Developer Mode ON

B. Open the Lighting Debugger

• Dev Menu → Options → Lighting

Increase:

• Emissive Intensity
• Point Light Brightness

This affects all lights globally, including PAPIs.

You can save the settings as a preset and turn Dev Mode off afterward.

⭐ 4. Community mod fix (most effective)

Several modders have already released “Brighter PAPI/VASI Lights” packages for MSFS 2024. These typically:

• Increase PAPI emissive intensity
• Increase draw distance
• Increase bloom radius
• Fix the “washed‑out at distance” issue

If you want, I can find the best‑maintained one and check compatibility with your setup.

⭐ 5. Manual config edit (advanced but powerful)

You can manually increase light intensity in the sim’s lighting configuration files.

File location (MS Store / Xbox App install):

Code

 

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache\

Look for:

Code

 

LightingSettings.json

Increasing values like:

• RunwayLightIntensity
• PapiLightIntensity
• LightBloomScale

…will make PAPIs much more visible.

If you want, I can walk you through the exact values to change.

⭐ 6. The “real pilot” trick — use approach angle to force earlier visibility

MSFS 2024’s PAPIs are most visible when:

• You’re slightly above the glidepath
• You’re looking down toward the lights instead of across them

Try:

• Flying ½ dot high until 3–4 NM
• Then re‑capturing the glidepath

This forces the PAPIs to render at a brighter state earlier.

✅ Best combination for most users

If you want the simplest, most effective fix:

1. HDR OFF
2. Bloom ON
3. Exposure Compensation +0.5
4. LOD 150–200
5. (Optional) Install a Brighter PAPI mod

This gives the biggest improvement without touching config files.

 

19 hours ago, Matt Sdeel said:

Wishing someone would also post pictures of PAPI lights showing PAPI lights which are too bright from 5-10 miles away from the threshold on a default airport.
 

 

No it's when you're on short final.  The problem is I can't hardly find any real pics that would be accurate to the naked eye.  Many cameras either blur the lights cause it's difficult to take a pic while landing or they are way to overexposed.  Some do this on purpose to make the lights really bright.  Or the camera does it by itself.

Also some airports have their lights set really high (I honestly hate when they are so bright).  Step 1 is all that is required by the FAA.  I personally set step 2 (2 of 5) when I worked at the tower, at it provided just a little more brightness.  This real life pic is about what I recall from night flying with lower intensity runway lighting.

It appears that Asobo has used a reference from a camera through the lens (with maybe a star filter lol) and duplicated that.  I would be totally blinded by these lights irl if the sim was real life.  I would immediately ask the lights to be lowered.  I probably would have went around earlier on final if they couldn't turn them down.

(I did double the size of the real life pic so we can see stuff - but now the lights appear a bit larger... and the papi's are still blurred pretty bad which makes them also appear brighter)

EDIT:  I found another pic that's closer to real world - but I edited it and dimmed it to simulate what my eye would see irl - cause as I stated, camera pics always show lights too bright at night because it's metering (or gathering) all the black areas and since they are so dark it increases the exposure. (the second pic)

 

And the sim lol - comical how wrong this looks - it's the stupid word not allowed bloom that ruins night flying.  It's fine in the daytime...but it needs to be toggleable so we can disable it if we want.  Literally disabling bloom would make everything so much more realistic.  The bloom is so fake it even makes the moon and city lights cast a large glow in clear air.  NO!  WRONG!

 

 

Edited April 8Apr 8 by ryanbatc

I don't use bloom and the default MSFS PAPI'S seem spot on day, night or IFR.

dd

Edited April 8Apr 8 by Sky_Pilot071

12 minutes ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

I don't use bloom and the default MSFS PAPI'S seem spot on day, night or IFR.

dd

Bloom is enabled by default there's no way to turn it off in 2024.  

8 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

No it's when you're on short final.  The problem is I can't hardly find any real pics that would be accurate to the naked eye.  Many cameras either blur the lights cause it's difficult to take a pic while landing or they are way to overexposed.  Some do this on purpose to make the lights really bright.  Or the camera does it by itself.

Also some airports have their lights set really high (I honestly hate when they are so bright).  Step 1 is all that is required by the FAA.  I personally set step 2 (2 of 5) when I worked at the tower, at it provided just a little more brightness.  This real life pic is about what I recall from night flying with lower intensity runway lighting.

It appears that Asobo has used a reference from a camera through the lens (with maybe a star filter lol) and duplicated that.  I would be totally blinded by these lights irl if the sim was real life.  I would immediately ask the lights to be lowered.  I probably would have went around earlier on final if they couldn't turn them down.

(I did double the size of the real life pic so we can see stuff - but now the lights appear a bit larger... and the papi's are still blurred pretty bad which makes them also appear brighter)

EDIT:  I found another pic that's closer to real world - but I edited it and dimmed it to simulate what my eye would see irl - cause as I stated, camera pics always show lights too bright at night because it's metering (or gathering) all the black areas and since they are so dark it increases the exposure. (the second pic)

 

And the sim lol - comical how wrong this looks - it's the stupid word not allowed bloom that ruins night flying.  It's fine in the daytime...but it needs to be toggleable so we can disable it if we want.  Literally disabling bloom would make everything so much more realistic.  The bloom is so fake it even makes the moon and city lights cast a large glow in clear air.  NO!  WRONG!

 

 

Nice pictures and explanation. Thank you.