AI lights

[chumley]

I am a bit mystified as to how to reduce the glow that completely covers AI from the landing lights.

 

Any ideas on how to reduce this effect without losing the lights completely?

[chumley]

So far 25 people have viewed this thread and no comments.

 

So, on that basis either nobody else has this problem or others have it and haven't noticed it or others have it, have noticed it but don't care or have a solution.

[Sylvain Delepierre]

Hi Andy,

 

I have no idea but maybe you will get more answers in the Tips, tricks and techniques forum.

[jmorvay1971]

I am a bit mystified as to how to reduce the glow that completely covers AI from the landing lights.

 

Any ideas on how to reduce this effect without losing the lights completely?

From your statement, are we to assume that you are talking about how you can see AI aircraft from a distance and the glow of the lights makes them look like UFOs?  In what sim are we discussing, FSX, P3D or X-Plane?  I do know that in P3D, there is a significant glow, but more realistic as far as the light emitting from the aircraft.  In FSX, the default lighting is a bit unrealistic, but overall, those two sims pretty much represent what you would see at night and a little over the top during the day.  Perhaps somewhat related, in P3D the PAPI lights can become overwhelming, when using 3rd party add-ons, but there is a lighting tweak you can include in the cfg file to scale the lights down, but I am not sure if there is a tweak for AI aircraft lights.

 

Personally, I think this is a good question and worth investigating.

 

-Jim

[jmorvay1971]

So far 25 people have viewed this thread and no comments.

 

So, on that basis either nobody else has this problem or others have it and haven't noticed it or others have it, have noticed it but don't care or have a solution.

Andy,

 

You will find that this is often the case in forums.  You will get a bunch of views without anyone replying straight away.  The title of your posts gets people curious but after reading your dilemma, they probably fall into all three categories at some point and you have to wait for someone who cares enough to offer advice, although in this instance, I don't have anything particularly useful except for this:

 

Do you own A2A Shockwave lights?  If so, those lights should have injected themselves into your sim and from past experience using A2A Shockwave lights, they do an excellent overhaul of the lighting and they seem very realistic.

 

In P3D v2.5, they have done significant changes through the versions, to address environment lighting and as of the newest release, the lighting is a lot better, but as far as accuracy, it may still be argued.  Be aware that for the lighting to show up, an Ai aircraft needs to be about 8.5 miles in view and as the aircraft gets closer, the other lights kick in (ex. landing lights show first, followed by strobes, then nav lights).

 

As far as scale goes, again, those lights are dictated by their respective bmp files buried deep in your sim's directory.  Shockwave lights overhaul the lighting by replacing the default light files to A2A's own files, giving off that realistic casting of light.  I've heard chatter online about some freeware lighting, and even people who have been able to edit the lighting files to scale them up or down, depending on user preference.  To be honest, this could be a laborious task.

 

Since you stated that the lights cover the aircraft, You must be speaking about the default lighting, which tends to have an orangish redish glow and yes, I have seen this all too often and it's ugly, imo.  Your best bet is to either purchase the A2A shockwave lighting or try your hand at editing the lights to get them the way you want.

 

Hope this helps.

 

-Jim

[Sammy H]

I have no clue on this one either, something that always made me wonder but in 13 years of simming have never seen a solution for.  Shockwave lights do change some stuff around but I have noticed there are still many A/C that it does not tend to mess with.