Thanks for all the speedy help opn the other questions I've posted. This looks like a friendly and helpful forum. My next question has to do with testing whether or not it's "night" outside. Is there a token variable I can include in my XML file?I'm making a gauge that displays two different bitmaps:1. Daytime bitmap2. Nighttime bitmap3. Nighttime bitmap with Bright="Yes"The third condition simulates turning on the gauge's lights. But how can I tell that the sim knows it's dark outside? I found the GMT variables in the SDK, but I'd really hate to go calculating for all the possibile time zones...---Will

Nevermind!---Will

>Nevermind!>---WillNevermind what?TIME OF DAY, enum is "broken..." It doesn't work... ;(

http://forums.avsim.net/dcboard.php?az=sho...ing_type=searchJan"Beatus ille qui procul negotiis..."

Oh boy, do I remember that from several years ago... We tried that in one commercial release, and frankly were very disappointed in the actual performance, or rather the often unpredictable performance.We decided at that time - never again! ;)

If anyone's interested, they can give the attached a try.Gauge syntax is:gauge19=dsd_time_of_day!time_of_day, 457,328,20It will dump the time of day into(L:time_of_day, enum)with the following values:Day 1Dawn, Dusk 2Night 4Not tested with anything other than FS9...Doug

Bill, That formula , what I call "Sun Elevation Factor", was one of the first things I've learnt from here. And indeed works great in XML so far I tested (and after a slightly change made by myself).Tom

>Bill, That formula , what I call "Sun Elevation Factor", was>one of the first things I've learnt from here. And indeed>works great in XML so far I tested (and after a slightly>change made by myself).It was the sometimes unpredictable performance that eventually became excessively annoying. We had too many "complaints" about it, so went back to providing a 'switch' for daytime floods the user can use - or not - whenever they wish... ;)