SC Landing Area Lights Almost Invisible at Night

[Stearmandriver]

I know this has been raised previously, but I never saw any resolution to the issue or acknowledgement from ED. I just wanted to share what I'm seeing, and clarify that either it's only a problem on certain setups like mine, or that ED is aware and addressing it?

 

Basically, in the dark, the landing area edge lights and centerline light are almost invisible until I am literally at the ramp. Conversely, they are clearly visible in the middle of the day on an overcast day from over a mile out!

 

Here are three screenshots from a 720p stream, so yes they are lower res, however you'll note how visible both the ball and LRLS are, compared to no drop lights or landing area edge lights at all until at the ramp (and this accurately reflects what I'm seeing at 1080p in game).

 

Referencing the tacan DME in the HUD, you can see that the three shots are taken from .1, .2, and .3 DME respectively.

 

Also note that the landing area lights ARE on; they are visible in the .1 DME shot and are visible with the rabbit strobing once I'm on the deck, and then visibly turn off shortly after trapping, so this isn't a matter of improper comms failing to get the lights turned on. All comms are made properly, and the lights ARE on - they're just almost invisible.

 

 

If you're interested in seeing the raw stream, it's here:

 

...with a trap at : 31:23

 

To summarize, I find that the IFLOLS brightness is ok at night, but could be better during the day... while the landing area lighting is the opposite. Is this the case for most people? Is it being addressed?

 

Thanks!

[Stearmandriver]

Just a bump. I'm really surprised no one has chimed in, from ED or otherwise. Am I the only one with this issue? The only one who flies at night lol?

 

I've seen YouTube videos of hud footage of actual night traps, and the landing area and drop lights are pretty clearly visible at around 2 miles. Here's one example:

 

I'm getting about 1/20th that visible range on my landing area lights ;). A bug on my system, or is this really the current state of the software?

[victorlima01]

Same here. Feels that after I land on the deck the vapour lights are really bright but the LA lights I can only make out roughly when I'm at 1 nm or less, as opposed to the alignment light which I can see from outer space.

[Xxx]

I know this has been raised previously, but I never saw any resolution to the issue or acknowledgement from ED. I just wanted to share what I'm seeing, and clarify that either it's only a problem on certain setups like mine, or that ED is aware and addressing it?

 

Basically, in the dark, the landing area edge lights and centerline light are almost invisible until I am literally at the ramp. Conversely, they are clearly visible in the middle of the day on an overcast day from over a mile out!

 

Here are three screenshots from a 720p stream, so yes they are lower res, however you'll note how visible both the ball and LRLS are, compared to no drop lights or landing area edge lights at all until at the ramp (and this accurately reflects what I'm seeing at 1080p in game).

 

Referencing the tacan DME in the HUD, you can see that the three shots are taken from .1, .2, and .3 DME respectively.

 

Also note that the landing area lights ARE on; they are visible in the .1 DME shot and are visible with the rabbit strobing once I'm on the deck, and then visibly turn off shortly after trapping, so this isn't a matter of improper comms failing to get the lights turned on. All comms are made properly, and the lights ARE on - they're just almost invisible.

 

 

If you're interested in seeing the raw stream, it's here:

 

...with a trap at : 31:23

 

To summarize, I find that the IFLOLS brightness is ok at night, but could be better during the day... while the landing area lighting is the opposite. Is this the case for most people? Is it being addressed?

 

Thanks!

 

Agree 100%

 

I recently bought SC and find the night lighting a great disappointment! No it's worse than that it's terrible! I use a 32" monitor at WHD, but the only light, on approach, I can see is the laser approach light, which is barely a couple of pixels! The HUD velocity vector and the needles obscure the dim rabbit lights on centerline. The FLOLS on the carrier is obscured by the HUD symbology and the FLOLS pop up is the only thing I can see!

 

The lights on the Tarawa are far superior and permit a reasonable approach. But I'm approaching at 100 knots slower!

 

So please ED, address this issue. Increase the luminosity of deck edge and rabbit on approach. Once on deck, it's all far too dark. The deck crew can barely be seen. None of the crew have any Scotchlite strip's. You are taxying in a murky dark world. The lighting on the Georgian runways and pans is fine at night, the SC needs that level of illumination.

 

 

Here's my little video, catch the lighting at 8.35.

 

 

Thanks.

Edited July 1, 2020 by Accipiter
video link added

[Stearmandriver]

Glad to hear it's not just me. Anyone from ED? BIGNEWY? Is this considered a known bug? Is it being worked on?

[TonyG]

Have you called into the carrier for recovery? I’ve done a fair number of CaSE III (and CaSE II bad weather) and the lights are more than sufficient. They look pretty awesome in VR, usually becoming visual around 1-1.5nm.

[Stearmandriver]

Have you called into the carrier for recovery? I’ve done a fair number of CaSE III (and CaSE II bad weather) and the lights are more than sufficient. They look pretty awesome in VR, usually becoming visual around 1-1.5nm.

 

Oh absolutely... they ARE on (you can see them in my screenshot at 0.1dme), and they go off a few seconds after the trap. They're just FAR too dim.

[TonyG]

I’ve looked at your pics and the video Accipter posted and it doesn’t look like the carrier Approach lights are turned on. I see the sodium deck lighting which is not on when the approach lights are.

 

If you have a mission that starts during the day and transitions into night, the SuperCarrier doesn’t transition to a different CASE and if you call in, it’ll send you instructions for CASE I which I assume doesn’t turn on the lights. Accipter’s video looked like a transition into darkness.

 

Did you get the LSO call for a CASE III recovery? If I follow the radio steps with ATC, I get proper lighting behind the boat everytime. It looks as though no one called into ATC to have the lights turned on. I would recheck your ATC steps.

[Stearmandriver]

I do appreciate the the input, and the lights are so very dim that I can see why you'd think that. But they ARE on. If you're viewing my screenshots on a mobile device, you may have to turn up your screen brightness to see them. They're only visible in the top photo, at 0.1dme, at the ramp. You can see the rabbit (the brighter, sequenced strobing portion of the centerline lights) in the HUD, with the 5L pitch ladder line cutting through the middle of the rabbit (I've gone high in that shot, which is why only the IFLOLS datums are visible, the ball has squirted off the top).

 

This mission begins at midnight with me behind the boat, so no transition from day to night, though that was a good idea.

 

I thought I mentioned in the first post, but all comms were performed correctly. Request inbound, report established in Marshall, report commencing, check in with approach, call platform, get the "3/4 mile, cal the ball" from the LSO, make the Hornet ball call and get LSO calls to the deck because the pass is ugly because I have no visual reference lol.

 

It's NOT a comms problem. After the trap, the LA lights are visible for about 5 seconds and then visibly extinguish. They're there all right, just FAR too dim!

[RAF_JAGUAR]

Agree that the lighting is terrible at night. For me if there are aircraft on deck all I see is great blobs of red lights from i presume there Nav Lights until about 1/2 mile out when a lit but very dim landing area finally appears.

 

I'm also fed up of getting rammed on deck by errant AI aircraft but that is another issue.

[pete_auau]

yep those bright red blobs of red lights i gather are from the tower which makes it even harder now i just focus on my ils making sure i put the cross in the retical till i can see the carrier lights

[Furia]

From what I see on most RL videos, carrier lights are fairly attenuated and dimed and you do not see them like if you are landing in Los Angeles International.

 

I have never approached a carrier in real life but I have done hundreds of approaches in helicopter to comercial vesels and in many cases we had to ask then to dim their lights because in the black night a too much lighted ship surrounded by an absolute black could generate optical illusions or vertigo.

Also the factor that if you have to go-around (bolter) this would place you from a highly ligted area together with the go around acceleration into the very deep black. Not a good combination.

 

You want the runway lighted so you can clearly see it at 1 mile and not too much bright.

 

This is what I found on some RL videos

 

 

DCS still needs a bit more "bright light" on deck but just a very little more in my oppinion.

 

Also bear in mind that how we do see the light here may have much to do with our own Gamma settings

Edited July 13, 2020 by Furia

[Stearmandriver]

I wondered that, but look at this HUD video of a super Hornet trap. The camera exposure is such that you can only barely read the HUD... but look how bright the LA lights are. You can just make out the DME on the HUD, and can clearly see the LA lights from over 2.5nm out.

 

 

EDIT: same video you posted, that I posted back on post two lol. But yeah, you can clearly see the centerline lights from over 2nm out, well before you see the ball.

Edited July 13, 2020 by Stearmandriver

[dawgie79]

+1.

[RAF_JAGUAR]

Re Gamma settings I have tried letting Nvidia control the settings and the Sim itself, and changing settings in both modes, with no success. The lighting was fine both in module and game for me up until the first carrier update, that broke it.

[fagulha]

I fly just in VR and i think the rabbit lights are on spot. If they were brighter i think it will overshadow and be less useful. (gama 1.6).

 

EDIT: one of my techniques is to bring the HUD brightness down until barely visible. Try it.

Edited July 14, 2020 by fagulha

[Stearmandriver]

You can see in my screenshots that all my HUD and panel lighting is very dim. It's definitely not over powering the landing area lights. However, I flew a night mission last night, and strangely enough all my lighting seems to have changed. There was no update to the game that I'm aware of, just the updater, and yet all lights in the game are much brighter. The boats landing area lights are now visible from a normal distance astern. And I see the glow that everyone else has complained about around nav lights and the meatball. I'm not sure what changed. I'll post some screenshots later, if I get time.

[fagulha]

You can see in my screenshots that all my HUD and panel lighting is very dim. It's definitely not over powering the landing area lights. However, I flew a night mission last night, and strangely enough all my lighting seems to have changed. There was no update to the game that I'm aware of, just the updater, and yet all lights in the game are much brighter. The boats landing area lights are now visible from a normal distance astern. And I see the glow that everyone else has complained about around nav lights and the meatball. I'm not sure what changed. I'll post some screenshots later, if I get time.

 

I understand. I dimmer my HUD more than yours but that´s not your issue of course, it was more a hint for anyone else.

Yup, that glow of over the meatball in VR it´s not the best idea. I can use the FLOLS overlay but i rather use the visual Meatball.

[Stearmandriver]

I understand. I dimmer my HUD more than yours but that´s not your issue of course, it was more a hint for anyone else.

Yup, that glow of over the meatball in VR it´s not the best idea. I can use the FLOLS overlay but i rather use the visual Meatball.

 

Gotcha; it is a good point, thanks for raising it. Yeah, I've taken to using the ICLS until roughly in middle even on Case 1s... I know some may consider that heresy, but it feels less disruptive to me than the pop-up FLOLS overlay. But I agree, it would be best if the ball on the ship were clearly visible at the start!

[Sierra99]

Are either of you using reshape or other post render effects?

[Stearmandriver]

In today’s “wtf” news, I’ve learned that the extremely dim carrier landing lights occur on one of the two maps I own, but not the other. It’s Caucuses that has the nearly invisible landing area; in the Persian Gulf, the LA lighting is visible over a mile out. Everything else is much brighter as well; nav lights are downright ridiculous with the glow they have around them.

 

Here’s 2 screenshots. 1st one is on Caucuses from .3 dme... no visible LA lights. Second one is in Persian Gulf at .7 dme... you may have to zoom in because of how small the deck is at 3/4 mile, but you’ll see the lights are nice and visible.

 

http://imgbox.com/sQLW8oFM

http://imgbox.com/FXL4N5Yo

 

Same boat, same weather. Just different maps. And no reshade or any other effects here; my install has to be as vanilla as it gets.

[RAF_JAGUAR]

nav lights are downright ridiculous with the glow they have around them.

 

Exactly what i came to report as not being fixed (and a game breaker for me as you cant have any other aircraft on the deck at night) in the latest update. Just huge blobs of white and red for me. Surprised it has not been addressed. Fix the basics for me before you delve deep into the mechanics of FA18 electronic warfare. Before anyone says it, it has nothing to do with Gamma, the lights were fine until the first update that contained changes to the SC, that update broke them.

[norman99]

Anyone else having this problem? I literally cant see the landing area deck lights till 0.1nm. I guess ACLS is barely still usable (when it works), but any manual landing is impossible. No shaders or changes to DCS lighting made, so it's all default settings.

P.S. The standard ACLS "---: (EGIW)" grade too....

[Sideburns]

Same for Forrestal on Syria. 1440p flat screen, no reshade or after effects. Lights less than a mile out unless you zoom in

[Golan Trevize]

It was ok for me on the previous build, but now they are barely visible from 50ft. Didn't change anything in the settings and all the view distances are set to max, graphics on highest, drivers updated. The deck crew are missing their glowsticks as well.