Gauges and/or panel flood lights too dim in some a/c.

[Guest Radiant Zer0]

This may seem a silly question to some, and yes, I did spend considerable time reading here for help before I posted this. It's only that this issue has annoyed me for so long now that I felt I just had to ask. I'm certain that there's no better bunch to whom I might pose this question. My problem is, in many freeware and payware a/c the panel lights are too dim. Yes, sometimes the lighting within the gauges is acceptable, some more, some less, but more often it's the cockpit flood lighting overall that's inadequate. Sure, when I fly in a direction which allows sunlight to illuminate the cockpit it's fine, but when I need the floods, I haven't nearly enough to see. I guess, in short, what I need is a quick few words of advice. I'm willing to edit the aircraft.cfg, if that'll fix it. Some aircraft.cfg's have an 'electrical' section, others simply 'lights'. I used to think I was halfway smart, 'til I decided to try finding a solution to this on my own. After some trial-and-error I'm, if anything, more befuddled. Thanks for your help, folks. I'll try to ask a smarter question next time.

[Guest Van]

Hi,Changing the panel lighting is done in the panel cfg. You will see the section (Color) usually at the bottom of the cfg file. The line Night= adjusts panel lighting and Luminous= adjusts background gauge lighting. The higher the number the brighter the lighting. Be aware that in some payware aircraft, the panel and gauge lighting are built into the gauge, but in some cases you can still adjust the above settings as you have a couple of lighting options, ie; The LDS 767 has two panel flood lights, one is built into the gauge and the other (full lighting) is done via the panel cfg.Hope this helps.Regards,--Van

[old_doggie 0]

These are snips from my default 737-400 using a home made panel but should work with most.Try these changes to the files listed below but please backup your original files b4 doing so.aircraft.cfg *** please note the numbering*** light.7 light.8 etc *****[LIGHTS] //Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing 6=taxi, 7=recognition, 8=wing, 9=logolight.7 = 4, 44.41, 0.00, 3.50, fx_vclighth ,light.8 = 4, 44.40, 0.00, 1.50, fx_vclighth ,light.9 = 4, 44.40, 0.00, -1.50, fx_vclighth ,panel.cfg *** located at the bottom of the panel file.Day=255,255,255Night=194,140,134Luminous=230,136,147 ////195, 3, 53 //225, 149, 88hope it hlps ya.Douglas

[Guest Patrick_Waugh]

You may want to download GaugeGlow (you can get it here at AVSIM or on my Benchmark Avionics site) which will allow you to find the best panel lighting for your panel/gauges with a WYSIWYG display without having to load up FS and check it. With the registered version it will even make the edits for you.

[Guest Radiant Zer0]

Excellent, Van! Thanks much for the advice. I found the panel.cfg alright, and the section to which you refer. There are three numbers there, "Night=50,20,10". Which of those three is the brightness/level? I'm guessing one may be colour, one is brightness, the other... ? I apologize for having to ask such questions as this, it's just that I've grown so ^$( frustrated by the darkness of some of these panels. Don't the developers test these things before they release them? I'm truly puzzled, perhaps they've something in/on/about their systems that makes it look OK. If so, perhaps that's what I need. Heh... Well, in the meantime, thanks, you're a good egg. May your landings always equal your takeoffs. ;) -S.

[Guest Radiant Zer0]

Thanks Pat- I'll check it out. And to all of you that offered advice, thanks a lot. ;) The replies currently posted should be sufficient for my needs. To any developers reading this, please, take a few minutes to make sure that you can read the panel easily when the panel's in shadow when flying in daytime. And, of course, at night. Alpha, check your Neptune. -S.

[Guest Vorlin]

The info I've read in the replies here primarily deals with the 2-d, except the cockpit lighting. There is another factor in panel / gauge lighting that hasn't been touched upon yet.Note: This info only applies to night lighting, FS9 won't allow this to function during the day...*If*, big if here, the model was created with an emissive texture property in the panels then you will find L bmp's in the texture folder. The name of these has a _l in them. These each control the intensity of the light that is emitted from one single flat panel. You can alter the shading and even the color of the lighting through that but ONLY if the model was created with the ability to utilize them. Not all models are.Check out the MD-500E "Customized", a re-working of Peter and Tamas Nemeth's MD-500E by Chris Gaeth and yours truly (available at Hover Control and a few other places as well).I did the L bmp's on that one for night lighting and learned a lot along the way. Feel free to take a look at them and play with the colors, shading, etc. to get a feel for what's possible.Vorlin / Scott

[n4gix 4,947]

> Excellent, Van! >> Thanks much for the advice. I found the panel.cfg alright,>and the section to which you refer. There are three numbers>there, "Night=50,20,10". Which of those three is the>brightness/level? I'm guessing one may be colour, one is>brightness, the other... ? Good guess, but totally wrong... ;)Night=R,G,BLuminous=R,G,BR,G,B are values for Red, Green, and Blue colors. Valid range is 0 (fully dark) to 255 (fully bright).You can find RGB Color Charts using google.com easily. Here are a couple:http://www.tayloredmktg.com/rgb/http://www.web-source.net/216_color_chart.htmhttp://www.pitt.edu/~nisg/cis/web/cgi/rgb.htmlhttp://web.njit.edu/~kevin/rgb.txt.html

[Guest Mathias]

>[LIGHTS] >//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit,>5=landing 6=taxi, 7=recognition, 8=wing, 9=logo>light.7 = 4, 44.41, 0.00, 3.50, fx_vclighth ,>light.8 = 4, 44.40, 0.00, 1.50, fx_vclighth ,>light.9 = 4, 44.40, 0.00, -1.50, fx_vclighth ,This is indeed the best way to easily get well-illuminated VC panels - simply install as many cockpit lights (4) as you like and place them carefully to get the effect you want. It will take some experimenting concerning the best location but it works extremely well.