Torso

This is where ED needs to step in and demand the Dev fix this crap right away. This is where ED needs to show a little leadership for their title and reach out to the dev, who are obviously purposely ignoring the issue. This would take probably a very small amount of time to address( an hour, a couple?) but for some reason these devs act like they cannot hear the customers. ED needs to step up as they have the ability to force them to address this. But does not seem that is ED's take on it. Hmm how can that be? DCS is THEIR title. They should be able to demand a 3rd party dev address such module breaking issues right away.

After watching the live stream today it really makes me hope the ED team is gonna make some headway into their night lighting issues. This map and the cities in it could look just amazing lit up at night IF they can ever get their engine to render lights correctly. Dubai should be dazzling at night. Such huge potential if only they could fix their issues. It will be a real shame if these cities are eternally dark from lack of engine ability. I hope if in the current engine(T4 or T5 whichever it is) they just cannot achieve the proper look/function of water and lights they look at improving their core engine to make such things possible. Those should have been part of it's design mandate from the start. I really worry as it appears these things were not really considered much when it was being designed from the outset from all appearances.

Awesome, please do! This could be a real nice addition to DCS control options.

+1 I really wish ED would give VR users the same zoom level they give monitor users. I was pretty disappointed when I 1st found out it is not.

Currently this is still an issue, but I will say it is better than it was prior to 2.5, but then again, the banding might be just benefiting from the other issues that seem to have grown. So, once they put out the 'moonlight' fix, we might see the banding and orange horizon(which still occurs but is less prevalent) return to it's unfortunate former glory. Hope not of course. I have inquired about dither testing as well, because DAY sky would even benefit and have never once had the question addressed. No clue if just outside the engine abilities. But all you gotta do is watch any of the YT vids, even the latest out and banding often shows up in the sky so not just night flying would benefit. The whole other crazy variable in the mix is the gamma setting I find. I have done countless tests and you can mitigate one issue a bit with the gamma slider, but exasperate another at the same time. I mean at gamma 2.4 I get something that fixes one problem kinda, but then need to use Gamma 1.0 to address another, again, kinda. It is like if we had just a few more picture controls(contrast/saturation/brightness..etc) you might be able to tweak away a few of the issues, but you can't. The DCS ground/object lighting view distance and scaling issue is a whole different ballgame and needs a complete overhaul and new approach taken(IE:copy XP11, it is the best out there currently). I fly only in VR and have both a Rift and a Vive and am a backer for the Pimax 8k. I get same perf in and see same issues in both the Rift and the Vive. I know VR has a different pic quality vs a monitor and I am hoping that the Pimax closes that gap just a tad at least. Hopefully ED can figure out their night lighting issues by the time the Pimax arrives. Fingers crossed as always. :smilewink: Sorry so long, but night lighting in DCS is my white whale....okay, maybe one of them ;)

I think the other maps have the same issue. I know there are screenshots around showing the water with color variation but after some update it all went away.

Very sad news indeed. R.I.P and my thanks for all his contributions to this community. I wish his family, friends and associates strength through this very sad time.

To be honest, it doesn't sound like you have really read what the issues are. Nothing you said addresses the problems with the night environment. A light in a pitch black world still projects light. The main issue is that in DCS, lights do not project light. At least not in anything close to what is realistic. I suggest you take a look at aerial photos or videos of what it looks like to fly over a city/town/oilrig/boat...car..or simply anything that has a light on it and then compare that to DCS and then say it is all good. I am fairly confident if you are honest, you will see the kinda big issue here. Lights should be visible for miles..not meters. In addition to the actual physical object lights, moon lighting and just normal night ambient lighting needs to be overhauled. No way is it close to being accurate or even really functional currently.

Oh and as for the A-10 lights..no, still fubar'd.

Sadly I feel you may have hit the nail on the head. While some things it can do well, others seem completely out of it's realm of abilities such as night time and other weather/env circumstances which it should have been created with the ability to do as well from it's inception. However it appears it simply is incapable of achieving a decent, let alone a high quality, env effects for anything other than day lit hours in the world env. Hopefully ED can get there one day. But to do so, I think it is gonna take a major update/upgrade/overhaul to their engine to give it abilities it currently is just not capable of. Ones it needs to be able to do and should have been part of it's design mandate when it was being created. Seems no one thought users might want to fly in 'off hours' or non-golden hour sunlight moments. Not sure how that was not considered. I really hope one day to be able to look back on a post such as this and say to myself, "I was wrong, they nailed it finally!"

I can't tell you how much I agree with every point and note you've made Cake. I have been chasing this seemingly lost cause for ages. Made threads, posted pics, screenshot..etc. Nothing ever came from them. I at this point think that the engine that ED has created is just not capable of achieving anything close to XP11 and possibly just any kind of a decent night env. Which is real sad if so. GA/CA or MIL aircraft focus, the world environment needs to be able to decently create the atmosphere being called upon. I hope I am wrong. It just doesn't seem so from what has been stated so far. We might be looking at close to the best DCS can achieve. I keep my fingers crossed though. It's free to do. Oh and Cake, I did buy XP11 just for it's usable night env. It is amazing and there are mods that make it look even better than out of the box. Wishing the ED team luck with this hole in their game. I hope with some focus it can be filled and have an env they can stand up against the others out there in the genre. There should be someone on this full time. I can't imagine the same guy/gal who handle environment also be one coding weapons systems and ac/fm code....right? I mean who isn't looking forward to trying to land on a carriers pitching deck at night in crappy weather in your newly acquired Hornet once they start showing up in our hangars. We need the correct env to be able to do that! I mean how can you call the ball when you cannot even see it because it does not render and is visible at a usable distance :)

They have been improved.... very little at best. I just got done doing a series of night flight tests and the lights unless within a few hundred meters go way way way too dim into a faded pee color that is just not bright enough at all. Even after the mentioned tweaks to them. It is as if there is an invisible fog between you and the lights always and past that and out at around a few nm the lights go awol pretty much completely due to this 'fog'. And even prior to that none have the focused sharp pointed brightness lights have when you see the actual light source and not the ambient light it casts on the surroundings. If you go 4-10mn above Vegas the lights are non-existent at least in VR, maybe the race track lights can be made out a little at best and the same for a large building on the strip or two and when I check the monitor image they cannot be made out either.But no way does it look like it should still. It seems the terrible ground lights that DCS has had for years, you know, the halo ball lights, are a big part of the issue. At distance the muted halo is what is being used as the ground light and not the actual 'bulb' of the light and that is what can be seen for miles. Not the muted halo that DCS ends up using for lights. It is starting to appear that the engine itself was just not designed with night lighting in mind or considered when being developed and is just limited as a result.

As someone who has flown over airports before at night several times, and has airports close by locally, no, this is not how it is supposed to look. Nothing at night currently looks how it should look. At least compared to the real world. I mean, the literal black hole that is circled in 2nd set of pics that has RW written next to it. That is supposed to be an airport at night. It looks like the entrance to the abyss. I mean the space is completely void of lights...completely. :huh:

Can someone explain why the night lighting fixes were not included in this update when it was claimed weeks ago they were fixed internally already and just waiting to be deployed? I know the mem leak issues are ongoing and still being worked on, but more than one ED staff member said the night lighting fixes were done, not ongoing. So why did we not get them in this update? Were they included and just for some reason not included in the fix list? I am dl'ing the update now but so far seems like they are not included from all accounts. So why not ED?

Well, 1st update in weeks and none of the fixes for night time that were claimed to already be done were included in it. Does that make much sense? So, the fixes were just left on the shelf apparently. When will WE actually see the fixes?

Henry is the main protagonist in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. A recently released game that is doing very well. No update this week really is unfortunate. Had hopes for some fixes to be deployed this week.

I have never seen ships lit up like you would expect them to be. They seem to operate in blackout mode as if lights do not exist for them. Which I am guessing they don't.

ED continues to use the terrible physical glow ball and cone halo effect on their lights. Hopefully they will abandon them soon. All lights in DCS need to be overhauled.

Per a Wags comment on a YT vid and supported by Sith on Hoggit it seems they are looking to address the night time lighting issues.....hopefully to improve and not just restore to previous functionality....which was in serious need of overhauling prior to 2.5 and it's newly introduced issues as it stood. If they can achieve close to the GA sim you are referencing achieves in their night lighting that is yet to be seen. But dangit I sure hope so. Be so nice if so. If they can do it why can't ED..ya know :)

Really great vid. Also shows clearly how ground lighting in 2.5 is pretty much non-existent currently. Throughout entire vid but at 1:00-1:15 it is like they just deleted them in 2.5 compared to 1.5. Really useful video. Thanks for it.

+1 These would be nice to see for sure.

You just keep spilling out the awesome work Rick. Looking forward to the air-battle tested dirty versions once ready.

+1000 Everything you said was spot on. Night lighting in DCS is my chosen cause to champion. I have tried to bring attention to it several times. I have had issues with it since day one through all iterations. And the issues are even worse now with VR, 2d doesn't suffer from some of it's issues..It is like only getting half the sim world potential with night being so poorly done. I truly hope they focus on this. The world could be so beautiful if done to the standard of the one I am guessing you are referencing. Imagine Vegas/cities/airports/carriers..etc lit up as they could be and should be versus what they are currently if no change is made what Dubai..etc will be when the new content is released. Someone at ED needs to champion a night lighting env overhaul and push for it internally. PS: Please add dithering to remove banding. :)

121GB here and there are a couple modules I do not own....hmm..but so far I am in the lead!

Thanks so much for these Rick. Grabbed em last night and got to check em out. Really gorgeous liveries. Will try to put my creative hat on and get some screenshots out. But real nice. Please keep makin them.