Aircraft lights/strobes viewing distance is way too low

[howie87]

At night it's almost impossible to keep an eye on your wingman.

 

Even with lights and strobes turned on the viewing range is less than 1nm before they are completely invisible.

Edited October 6, 2015 by howie87

[Cake]

At night it's almost impossible to keep an eye on your wingman.

 

Even with lights and strobes turned on the viewing range is less than 1nm before they are completely invisible.

 

Agreed. Normally, its much easier at night to spot an ac with nav and anti-collision than during the day. Here, you can see an airplane’s shape during late twilight before it’s lights. Should probably be able to see the lights first.

 

Overall, the distance at which lights on all objects can be seen needs major attention. I think depending on the type of light, you hould be able to see, say an aircraft landing light, at distances far beyond where you could spot the entire aircraft during the day. For a stobe, maybe an individual strobing white pixel should appear before the corresponding red or green nav light, and certainly the white on an airport beacon should be visible a little before its corresponding green.

 

Please give this some love.

[AJaromir]

Also aircraft landing and taxi lights in the night are useless.

[Trojan]

Yeah aircraft lighting is almost useless in its current state. Can’t see aircraft strobes beyond about a mile.

[1130]

up for this

[Wing]

Bump. Especially when it comes to seeing airfields at night from a distance

[Discus177]

Bump x 2, what is the point of landing lights, can see externally. But not whilst in the cockpit and can't see where you're going?

[Why485]

Aircraft lighting is incredibly inconsistent across all different aircraft. It seems like every single module has its own custom implementation on how light should work. A handful are visible from a distance (e.g. Hornet) while others just can't be seen unless well within visual range.

[Dragon1-1]

Missed that one earlier. Aside from the Hornet, aircraft lights are not visible at a distance. This makes them practically useless and also makes night rejoins a huge pain. Hornet has its problems, but it's much better than lights not working at all, except up close.

Likewise, landing lights and AAR lights. The former should illuminate the runway when on approach, the latter should light up the whole tanker when closing in. This needs to be looked at, and should be a priority, given the impact it has on night ops.

[Bazz_Mulder]

Bump

It has been reported 9 years ago, and it's still valid... 

Edited September 11, 2024 by Bazz_Mulder

[twistking]

8 minutes ago, Bazz_Mulder said:

Bump

It has been reported 9 years ago and still valid... 

that other combat sim will get realistic visibility distances for external lights with their next major update, so maybe that will motivate ED to finally fix that big problem of DCS.