Turning down airport lights in FS2004

[Marc]

I notice in a number of flight simultors that the airports tend to be lit up
far brighter than they are in real life. In FS2004 you can pick out the
airport pretty easily by the spot green light or runway lights that kind of
jump out of the scenary. In real life it is much more subtle, especially in
an urban area where the airport can get lost among the thousands of city
lights nearby.

Any method for making the airport lights less distnictive or just turning
them down?

[David G. Bell]

On Wednesday, in article <un_9b.489270$uu5.84118@sccrnsc04>
"Marc" wrote:

> I notice in a number of flight simultors that the airports tend to be lit up
> far brighter than they are in real life. In FS2004 you can pick out the
> airport pretty easily by the spot green light or runway lights that kind of
> jump out of the scenary. In real life it is much more subtle, especially in
> an urban area where the airport can get lost among the thousands of city
> lights nearby.
>
> Any method for making the airport lights less distnictive or just turning
> them down?

In my experience, there's a lot which can be done, for both games and
other graphics-intensive work, by properly setting up the monitor (same
for a TV playing DVDs). Get the brightness and contrast right, and some
graphics drivers also have utilities to adjust the gamma curve.

It might not be your problem, but since you see the same with more than
one simulator this could be a common cause.

--
David G. Bell -- SF Fan, Filker, and Punslinger.

"History shows that the Singularity started when Tim Berners-Lee
was bitten by a radioactive spider."

[Mark Cherry]

In news:un_9b.489270$uu5.84118@sccrnsc04,
Marc wrote:

> I notice in a number of flight simultors that the airports tend to be
> lit up far brighter than they are in real life. In FS2004 you can
> pick out the airport pretty easily by the spot green light or runway
> lights that kind of jump out of the scenary. In real life it is much
> more subtle, especially in an urban area where the airport can get
> lost among the thousands of city lights nearby.
>
> Any method for making the airport lights less distnictive or just
> turning them down?


This is interesting. In another newsgroup <cough> I've seen at least two
different threads started by people asking how they can get the runway/taxiway
lighting BRIGHTER. What gives?


--�
regards,

Mark

[Anonymous]

Mark Cherry wrote in message ...
>In news:un_9b.489270$uu5.84118@sccrnsc04,
> Marc wrote:
>
>> I notice in a number of flight simultors that the airports tend to be
>> lit up far brighter than they are in real life. In FS2004 you can
>> pick out the airport pretty easily by the spot green light or runway
>> lights that kind of jump out of the scenary. In real life it is much
>> more subtle, especially in an urban area where the airport can get
>> lost among the thousands of city lights nearby.
>>
>> Any method for making the airport lights less distnictive or just
>> turning them down?
>
>
>This is interesting. In another newsgroup <cough> I've seen at least two
>different threads started by people asking how they can get the runway/taxiway
>lighting BRIGHTER. What gives?

I think the problem with FS2002 and 2004 is that the city lights aren't bright
enough.

Fly over Vegas or London at night; they don't look as bright and city-like as
they should - whereas the runway light effects look perfectly bright. This
makes the runways look too bright to people like Marc who like landing in urban
airports.

I normally fly from EGPC (Wick, Scotland) or EGPD (Dyce, Scotland) where there
is either little or no city surrounding the airfield.

Some airstrips with LIAL (Low-Intensity Airport Lighting) are too dark, IMHO; I
once flew right over Stornaway airport while looking for the runway, and didn't
spot it until it was too late... TO/GA time !!

Cheers
Graeme

[Bump Ditty Bump]

"Anonymous" > wrote in :

>
> Mark Cherry wrote in message ...
>>In news:un_9b.489270$uu5.84118@sccrnsc04,
>> Marc wrote:
>>
>>> I notice in a number of flight simultors that the airports tend to
>>> be lit up far brighter than they are in real life. In FS2004 you can
>>> pick out the airport pretty easily by the spot green light or runway
>>> lights that kind of jump out of the scenary. In real life it is much
>>> more subtle, especially in an urban area where the airport can get
>>> lost among the thousands of city lights nearby.
>>>
>>> Any method for making the airport lights less distnictive or just
>>> turning them down?
>>
>>
>>This is interesting. In another newsgroup <cough> I've seen at least
>>two different threads started by people asking how they can get the
>>runway/taxiway lighting BRIGHTER. What gives?
>
> I think the problem with FS2002 and 2004 is that the city lights
> aren't bright enough.
>
> Fly over Vegas or London at night; they don't look as bright and
> city-like as they should - whereas the runway light effects look
> perfectly bright. This makes the runways look too bright to people
> like Marc who like landing in urban airports.
>
> I normally fly from EGPC (Wick, Scotland) or EGPD (Dyce, Scotland)
> where there is either little or no city surrounding the airfield.
>
> Some airstrips with LIAL (Low-Intensity Airport Lighting) are too
> dark, IMHO; I once flew right over Stornaway airport while looking for
> the runway, and didn't spot it until it was too late... TO/GA time !!
>
> Cheers
> Graeme
>
>
>

I agree, usually while night flying in highly lighted city areas I look
for the airport by beacon and a dark piece of landscape, it is very easy
to miss the low intensity airstrips and also quite difficult to find
lower lighted approaches in a bright city setting. I once did a night
flight to KABE and had to have the runway lights turned up twice on base
before I could see them. At that time I didn't have many flight hours
and felt rather insecure in my skills. However while taxing to the GA
ramp. I overheard a US Air Shuttle request brighter settings twice also,
needless to say that made my night and dispelled my lack of self faith.
I guess the tower troller just had sore eyes that night or the electric
bill was killing them :)

As for the FS side of it would be nice if we could click out the
intensity low medium or high from a panel :))

We do our clicks from radio to non towered runway lights ......

Safe Flying out there.

[Dave Erb]

"Marc" > wrote in message
news:un_9b.489270$uu5.84118@sccrnsc04...
> I notice in a number of flight simultors that the airports tend to be lit
up
> far brighter than they are in real life. In FS2004 you can pick out the
> airport pretty easily by the spot green light or runway lights that kind
of
> jump out of the scenary. In real life it is much more subtle, especially
in
> an urban area where the airport can get lost among the thousands of city
> lights nearby.
>
> Any method for making the airport lights less distnictive or just turning
> them down?
>
Go to the AVSIM downloads section , and look under FS2004 Scenery for a file
called rlights.zip. A quote from the AVSIM description: "
File Description:
reduced the oversized green and blue taxiway lights and also the big red
lights on parking ramps. The runway lights are now a little bit smaller but
clear and bright. By: Holger Busekros (CB)"

I tried this file and it performs as descibed. The lights are smaller and
don't appear as bright but are intense enough to be distinct from the
general background

David



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[Marc]

"Dave Erb" > wrote in message
...

> File Description:
> reduced the oversized green and blue taxiway lights and also the big red
> lights on parking ramps. The runway lights are now a little bit smaller
but
> clear and bright. By: Holger Busekros (CB)"
>
> I tried this file and it performs as descibed. The lights are smaller and
> don't appear as bright but are intense enough to be distinct from the
> general background
>
> David

that sounds good. I will check it out. thanks.

Marc