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Night Lighting in VC


ryanbatc

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I thought I saw some nice blue gauge backlighting in the screenshots during the preview period, but I can't find any switches in the VC. I have map light (which appears to have no effect), instrument light (which lights up radio stack), and the variable knob on the far left of the cockpit which puts out just a bit of light over the main gauges. Is this how the real one looks too?

katanannight.jpg

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I must say that color banding (On the panel) does look rather awful..... dry.gif and for me too there is no map light.

Craig

True, the map light effect doesn't seem to illuminate anything in the cockpit. At dusk the variable lighting knob seems to be much brighter (probably just another FSX lighting bug), but this thing is really hard to fly at night without seeing the gauges. Where's my flashlight (or torch as they say)?

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True, the map light effect doesn't seem to illuminate anything in the cockpit. At dusk the variable lighting knob seems to be much brighter (probably just another FSX lighting bug), but this thing is really hard to fly at night without seeing the gauges. Where's my flashlight (or torch as they say)?

It is a compromise because you either can have FSX effect lights or bumpmapping, not both at the same time... a FSX bug. :(

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Could you at least make the map light functional? Maybe you can you a 3-D light effect????? (I know nothing about FS aircraft design unsure.gif)

Craig

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It is a compromise because you either can have FSX effect lights or bumpmapping, not both at the same time... a FSX bug. :(

So will settings FSX standard lights in the settings window enable better VC lighting at night?

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So will settings FSX standard lights in the settings window enable better VC lighting at night?

No, if you ever use a FSX standard light in the virtual cockpit, you will get serious graphic errors as FSX has a bug with bumpmapping and effects in virtual cockpit view.

A map light would be much work and could make the switches on the center console unusable. Perhabs I will have a crazy idea what to do with that light switch in future... :D

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Whats bump mapping ? How do we turn it off so the flood light works ?

Bumpmapping are kind of dynamic 3d effects on textures as you can see on the surface of the glareshield, scratches and structures on the panel and on the gauges faceplates, the knobs and switches, labels, carpet on the floor and the seats , the holes of the stall warning etc. They can't be switched off.

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Bumpmapping are kind of dynamic 3d effects on textures as you can see on the surface of the glareshield, scratches and structures on the panel and on the gauges faceplates, the knobs and switches, labels, carpet on the floor and the seats , the holes of the stall warning etc. They can't be switched off.

Gotcha. Ok so why not add back lighting for the gauges ?

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  • 3 months later...

i'm having the same issue- I guess as explained it's an FS bug... Although I wish we could add some sort of light to brighten things up. Has anyone tried any of the shockwave stuff?

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i'm having the same issue- I guess as explained it's an FS bug... Although I wish we could add some sort of light to brighten things up. Has anyone tried any of the shockwave stuff?

on youtube is a number of videos taken very late afternoon/early evening.. There is no backlighting in the real plane. Check the videos and even when the guy landed in total darkness you cannot see the panel gauges.. This plane has not been created for night flying... it is a daylight VFR plane

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I'm not sure I understand what this thread is all about. My Katana has a light that illuminates the gauges, not just the GPS and radio. the knob for it is on the left of the gauges, a black round knob with a white curved arrow on it. I use the mouse wheel to turn it up brighter. Is this not what you guys are talking about?

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I'm not sure I understand what this thread is all about. My Katana has a light that illuminates the gauges, not just the GPS and radio. the knob for it is on the left of the gauges, a black round knob with a white curved arrow on it. I use the mouse wheel to turn it up brighter. Is this not what you guys are talking about?

Yes I know about that and it rather light it up nicely the instrument panel as a whole, so you dont really need backlighting.. but I think the other posters want MORE like backlighting

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Yes I know about that and it rather light it up nicely the instrument panel as a whole, so you dont really need backlighting.. but I think the other posters want MORE like backlighting

I guess some people are never satisfied laugh.gif I quite like it personally smile.gif

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I guess some people are never satisfied laugh.gif I quite like it personally smile.gif

There's hardly any light at all. You're probably seeing the effect near Dusk which looks nice. But try flying in the dead of night and it's tough to read.

The point is moot because apparently it's not for night flying anyway.... bah!

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There's hardly any light at all. You're probably seeing the effect near Dusk which looks nice. But try flying in the dead of night and it's tough to read.

The point is moot because apparently it's not for night flying anyway.... bah!

Did you turn the light switch on the left side of panel all the way up. You also need to switch ON the lights at the switches between the seats. Even with this bad screenshot you can clearly see the two lights lightning up the left and right side of cockpit instruments

katana.jpg

here is switch between seats. If youd ont switch them on you can cranck up the lights on panel it will not illumunate the panel

Sorry for poor quality. This is 22:00 at night..

katanaa.jpg

for me it is more then enough to help myself around the instruments if I have to fly at night/after dark

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I did look at mine late at night, and it looked fine. I'll take some shots later and post them here for you to see. Providing I don't find a problem of course :)

Okay I'm going to concede the point on this one. I put myself at a strip in British Columbia at 00:15, where I knew it would be pitch black, and no airport lights to speak of.

You are right, finding the switches to turn the lights on in the first place is near impossible. I feel it would be the same in real life though. The advantage in real life is "feel", you can feel your way around the cockpit, whereas in the sim you don't have that.

My on screen view wasn't as bad as the pictures showed it, although dark, I could still just about see most of the switches. But even with the flood lights on the instruments at full, it still wasn't that great. But in a built up area, like my home airfield, there is enough "ambient" light to see everything without any problems at all.

As this aircraft is not designed to be flown at night, I'm inclined to let things be, and not push for this to be modified. Yes that means I wouldn't be able to fly in British Columbia at night in this plane, but then who would do that anyway, in a plane that wasn't designed for that?

Incidentally, I did notice the GPS was much easier to adjust the brightness when in the dark environment. I don't mean the knob was easy to find, I couldn't find that one very easy at all. I mean that it had more increments of adjustment before the colours distorted. In the day time, I can only turn it on one click on the mouse wheel before it gets too bright, but night time, when it's a dark environment, I could rotate the mouse wheel 5 clicks before it was distorted, and it was much clearer in the night because of that extra adjustment. Just my findings after inspection :)

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