Hi,

first of all I would like to say that I really like the F14 and with the new update it got even better. Thanks for all the work to create and update this great aircraft.

 

Today I started operating the F14 at night and loaded the corresponding night operations flight. However I have two issues:

 

• The checked items in the checklist are very hard to identify, as the check mark is colored nearly the same as the background. The font for the text is very good visible. At daylight the check marks have the same color as the text.
• The carrier is very dark. FLOLS works but no other lights are turned on. Especially the runway is completely dark. I checked some Youtube videos of real night approaches and there were lights on the runway. This makes it very hard to do a proper landing (at least for me). Alignment is ok as I am using the ILS indicator on the HUD. But I am not able to align the velocity vector to the end of the runway as I can't see it.

 

I am using P3D 3.2. Is this an issue with that simulator (similar to missing runway lights in other addon airports) or might it be a configuration issue in my simulator?

 

Regards,

Uli

 

Update: I just checked FSX and P3D 2.5. In FSX I do not have runway lights at night as well. However in P3D 2.5 the lights are visible. What could be the cause that the lights are working in 2.5 and missing in FSX and P3D 3.2?

I was also surprised to see how dark the Kitty hawk was compared to Javier's Nimitz. Then I googled some pictures and realized it's quite close to reality:

 

 

I imagine they wouldn't want to light up the ship like a Coca Cola truck only  to be seen from 10-20 miles by everyone.

Check out this video:

 

 

 

Thanks for your replies. I made two screenshots to illustrate the differences between my simulators. Both shots are taken after loading "F14A Night Practice (C&D)".

 

P3D 3.2 (FSX looks the same):

 

P3D 2.5

 

The image from P3D 2.5 matches your photo and the video and this is what I would have expected. I wonder what is wrong in FSX and P3D 3.2. Is this a common issue or is there something wrong in system? I have installed the same addons in P3D 2.5 and 3.2 so I guess this might not be an issue. Next thing I will compare are the configuration files.

 

Regards,

Uli

 

I could solve the issue with the unreable check marks: when turning on the panel lights, the check marks are perfectly readable, so this not an issue.

 

I just flew the night practice in P3D 2.5. When I started to taxi the carrier lights vanished. Is it possible, that the light issues relate to the following post?

 

http://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/topic/91182-lights-on-carrier-deck-and-flols/#comment-651080

 

Regards,

Uli

Will take a look at these effects and see if there are consistent results. The issue with the FLOLS light was from changes between FSX->P3D, so that should not be the issue here. P3Dv3, they are most likely related to this thread:

 

 

On 20/03/2016 at 4:52 AM, reflected said:

Check out this video:

 

 

 

that is cameras footage, and cameras always take low light(make low light video) this is not real eye viu - I can drive bike at night only with moon light
 

On 19/3/2016 at 11:42 AM, Anxarces said:

I wonder what is wrong in FSX and P3D 3.2

 

In FSX I have the carrier lights, they are visible from 1.5 miles, do you use REX textures?

I had a lot of trouble with the latest Nvidia drivers, rolled back to 347.88 and graphical problems went away.

 

Yes, I am using REX textures. Are the carrier lights affected by the runway lights of REX?

 

Rolling back the Nvidia driver is no option for me as I profit in other games from the improvments of the latest updates.

I just did a few tests regarding REX. I restored the original textures which did not solve the issue. I tried different runway lights from REX afterwards with no success.

 

To verify that the REX lights are working I loaded a flight on an airport I do not own as addon to ensure that the REX lights are being used. The night lighting on that default airport was ok. Btw, I do not have light issues in general. It is just the Kitty Hawk.

 

One positive effect of the missing lights is that my landing skills using the instruments and FLOS have improved :-D

REX affecting the lights was only an hypothesis, some testing revealed that they are independent from REX... That remains a mystery. In the Effects folder do you have  the fx_CV63 and fx_CVA63 (blue green red white) .fx files?

Meanwhile... Happy scary landings!

Thanks for your answer. I do have all these files located in the effects folder for all three simulators (FSX, P3D 2.5 and 3.2). Modification date is 18/03/2016 and sizes match your screenshot.

So, I did a little bit of testing. I replaced the Kitty Hawk light effect files with an other light effect I found in my effects folder: fx_taxiBlue.fx. I don't know if it is a P3D file or if an addon installed that file. I replaced all fx_CV63*.fx (blue, green, white, red) and all fx_CVA63*.fx (blue, red, white) with this file.

 

After loading the night filight I could see the lights. Of course they were all blue as I just copied the blue light, but they were clearly visible. Even after taxing the lights were still there. So it seems that it is an issue with these effect files.

Finally I could get the lights working. I edited all fx-files ( fx_CV63*.fx and fx_CVA63*.fx) and changed the following values:

 

Old:

[Particle.0]

Type=25

[Particle.1]

Type=25

 

New:

[Particle.0]

Type=19

[Particle.1]

Type=19

 

 

Btw, where are the files "fx_CV63" (without A in the name) being used? To change the runway lights it was sufficient to change the files "fx_CVA63" (with A in the name).

Wow, good work, and I'm sorry we couldn't come up with it. We'll make sure this is included in the next patch.

Anxarces, I'm glad that you've found the solution... So, no more "scary landings"?!  I'm doing some night practice... This Tomcat is awesome!
Cheers

On 29.3.2016 at 17:33, Enrico Bj sagte:

So, no more "scary landings"?! 

 

Well, the landings are still kind of scary. But the missing lights realy improved my landing skills. Perhaps an option to turn off the lights to practice the landings might be an idea.

 

Regarding the missing lights I experienced them again one time. I looked into the effect files and found out that in fx_CVA63RED.fx some entries in the properties section were missing. I added them and did not get the missing lights again.

 

Old:

[Properties]
Spot=1
Tower=1
Map=1

 

New:

[Properties]
Cockpit=1
VirtualCockpit=1
Spot=1
Tower=1
Map=1

 

When looking into the documentations of both FSX and P3D these parameters are not implemented and thus it should not matter if they are specified in the effects file or not. But I am not sure if a missing parameter could cause some problems.

 

Regards,

Uli

After a bunch of fooling around, here is where it's at:

 

On ‎3‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 0:33 AM, Anxarces said:

Finally I could get the lights working. I edited all fx-files ( fx_CV63*.fx and fx_CVA63*.fx) and changed the following values:

 

Old:

[Particle.0]

Type=25

[Particle.1]

Type=25

 

New:

[Particle.0]

Type=19

[Particle.1]

Type=19

 

 

Btw, where are the files "fx_CV63" (without A in the name) being used? To change the runway lights it was sufficient to change the files "fx_CVA63" (with A in the name).

I found out it doesn't work with Kittyhawk spawned via Tacpack

Finally I found out, carrier lights doesn't work when I spawn carrier more than 8.1 Nm away. If I spawn it less than 8.1 Nm away, lights work fine. Anybody knows how to extend this distance?