reported Internal Lights very Dim.

[alfredo_laredo]

Hi, Internal Light in the Mi8 are very dim, the flood red and white are very dim and the instrument panel backlight are very dim..

 

Thanks

[sLYFa]

+1

While the instrument lights are ok (once you get at least the APU generator running), the flood lights are practically non existent. I think thats a result of the lighting engine changes we saw some time ago and ED didn't adjust the lights in the Mi-8 to work with the new engine properly.

[Rudel_chw]

+1

 

I'm learning the Mi-8 in anticipation to getting the Mi-24, and while I loved the system's detail and the extensive manual, the same can't be said about the interior lighting. The instruments backlighting can't barely be seen, they are invisible on day and very dim at night. 

 

I sincerely hope that ED can divert a few man-hours from the Hind and fix this, as it's the only Mi-8 aspect that detracts from the experience of flying it.

[admiki]

Very dim at night? Are you sure you are using all 6 of rotaries for Mi8 lighting?

[Rudel_chw]

59 minutes ago, admiki said:

Very dim at night? Are you sure you are using all 6 of rotaries for Mi8 lighting?

 

Yes, all light rotaries are ON, as well as the dome lights .. Gamma 1.5

 

 

This is the pilot's console:

 

 

So, for now I'm only doing daylight missions 

 

Otherwise, the Module es excellent ... I truly enjoyed the very complete manual.

[admiki]

Well, I'm not really sure what the issue is. I can see instruments just fine with that lighting

[Northstar98]

I actually have the most issues during the day, with the sun behind me; this means the panel is completely in shadow, leaving it very dark and difficult to read. 

 

Before the successive lighting upgrades this wasn't a problem; the lights would behave properly, they'd illuminate in shadow, and when the sun shines through they would appear dim.

 

It's not a gamma issue or a time of day thing, if I upped the gamma any more I would have a very washed out DCS, and let's face it; in reality these lights should be much brighter and more noticeable when in shadow, but at the moment they're barely visible during the day, even though the panel they're illuminating is in shadow.

 

All lights off:

 

 

 

All lights maxed:

 

 

The difference is imperceptible, even though the panel is completely in shadow.

Mi-8_Interior_Lights_Dim.trk

Edited January 30, 2021 by Northstar98

[Rudel_chw]

1 hour ago, admiki said:

Well, I'm not really sure what the issue is. I can see instruments just fine with that lighting

 

Just compare ... same mission, same Gamma, different helo:

 

 

See the difference?

 

 

[Rudel_chw]

2 hours ago, admiki said:

Well, I'm not really sure what the issue is. I can see instruments just fine with that lighting

 

Here is a video from April 2020, where the red backlights operate like one would expect ... they are clearly much more bright than on the current version of DCS:

 

 

 

[scoobie]

Yeah, lighting is a mess, currently. I saw... on Youtube, I think, a version of Mi-8 in which those plafonds on the ceiling literally flooded the interior with light (it was a version prior to my purchase of Mi-8). I think someone thought it was too bright (on Youtube it actually did look artificial, overdone), so apparently they came and fixed this... and now the flood lights are way too dim My standard joke is that those plafonds give "short wave" light - a wave one or two feet short, then the light stops They do illuminate the overhead portion of the cockpit, but lower down you can't see a thing. Instrument backlight was brighter, too.
(In Huey, flood lights are nice and bright - both the yellow and the green light. Instrument backlight and those lamps shining down from the top of the dashobard - they're all good, you can tune interior lights exactly as you want).

 

So... for night flying I always use NVG, but it requires dimming the instruments, so that you can comfortably see both the ground/cockpit and the pointers/arrows/needles in instruments through NVG, more or less at least. NVG gives rather cr*ppy quality picture, but you can see more or less where the vertical velocity pointer, air speed pointer are - judging from the angle of the pointers. However, "hover gauge not working" light bulb cannot be dimmed and burns your eyes terribly in NVG.
I've composed a whole "symphony" of settings in Joystick Gremlin so that I can tune ALL 6 backlight knobs with a single potentiometer, but still - it's just a workaround attempt.
Moreover, NAV lights, depending on time of day/night (or perhaps weather, too, but I'm not sure) may flicker when set to dim or at least they used to flicker sometimes when I last checked that. When set to bright, they don't flicker, but bright is/was no brighter than dim. And sometimes dim NAV don't flicker. (No, I wasn't looking through the rotor, that's not why they flicker).

 

The only better light as compared to Huey at least, is search lights. In Huey the search light is virtually non-existent (unless they've fixed it recently, haven't checked). This makes it impossible to play through a few missions in Argo campaign (those where you are forbidden to use NVG and have to use search light instead). Anyway, in Mi-8 you get two spots of yellow light on the ground that you can "steer" to wherever you want. If the spot from a single light is still too dim for somebody (it was for me), than - again - Joystick Gremlin works wonders, I use a button to "slave" left search light to the right one (or vice versa, whatever), so I can slew them together with a coolie hat. If you direct both lights at the same piece of ground below, you get a really bright light spot and you can actually search for something.
Taxi light seems okay to me in Mi-8, does the job.

 

Meh... it's a pitty, those lighting issues, because otherwise Mi-8 is a goddess. Oh, and weapon effectiveness quirks (cannons less effective than 12.7 mm guns against armor etc.). Othewise - truly a wonder of nature, both the module and the RL helicopter.

 

[jozeffff]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the information!

 

Just bought the mi8 this afternoon.... I find the lights rather dark do I started googling and found this thread.

 

Would it be wise to install a previous version of dcs (April 2020 or so) to get the brighter lights? Or is it the mi8 itself that is the problem?

 

Thanks for help

 

Cheers

 

Jozeff

[Rudel_chw]

19 minutes ago, jozeffff said:

Would it be wise to install a previous version of dcs (April 2020 or so) to get the brighter lights? Or is it the mi8 itself that is the problem?

I don't think its a good idea, for one we don't know exactly when the lighting was broken, and two: you would miss on all the updates the remaining modules have had. I hope someone from ED will check this thread and do something to fix this, in the meantime I will avoid night missions and concentrate on learning to fly it.

[admiki]

@scoobiehow did you manage to slave the lights? Most of my bindings in JG are single key, because a lot of times DCS won't recognise modifier and key press at the same time. Same reason I couldn't bind both left and right search light to my hat.

Edited January 31, 2021 by admiki

[scoobie]

@admiki I'm happy to help, but I'm not at my home PC now, so for now I'll give you just a basic idea:
1. In DCS I assigned my coolie hat to, say, left search light (up/down/left/right) - that's no magic. Normal stuff.
2. In JG I... I'll give you exact procedure when I'm home... when I press the "slave/unslave search lights" button the first time (it's a function I made in JG, it doesn't exist in DCS), coolie hat starts being "repeated" or "shadowed" on 4 buttons of the vJoy jostick (a virtual joystick that is being "pressed" by JG software). When I press the button again, the virtual joystick stops repeating presses of the real coolie. Thus when I move my coolie, I have either only a physical throttle's ("TM Warthog Throttle" something in DCS) button presses, or I have them PLUS "shadow" presses on the virtual joystick at the same time.
3. Now you assign such "virtual coolie" to the right search light (under the column for "vJoy something device" in DCS).
 

You actually need this "slave/unslave" button, because, unfortunately, the lights have a bad habit of getting "out of sync" over time. When you move them a lot (and that's exactly what you do with search light, right?), then the single bright spot of light (i.e. two lights illuminating the same place) gradually separates into two displaced spots. As, say, "crossed eyes". So every now and then you need to "unslave" and reposition one light to where the other is shining. Then slave again. It's a bit wonky, yes.
(Of course one may use those lights separately or use just one of them, but that's not what we're talking about here.)

 

I'll give you the exact "recipe" for JG when I get home.

 

To answer your question 100% directly: DCS won't let you have one hardware button assigned to more than one "function" in DCS, just as you noticed. So... you can "cheat it" by making a virtual copy (or copies) of a hardware button and assign each copy to a different function in DCS.

If, when you're trying to make assignment of such "multiple button", DCS shows a different button or doesn't recognize your button at all (because all "copies" of the button are pressed at the same time), you just need to revert to MANUAL assignment method - choose your button from those drop-down boxes in this window. People are so used to "automatic" assignments, that they just forgot what those drop-down boxes were there for. You can click them and choose a button from a list. Or, sometimes, you HAVE to do it that way.

 

I wish I spoke more English, really! I hope you understand. If not - ask.

 

 

Edited February 2, 2021 by scoobie

[scoobie]

Alright... it turns out that in reality my Mi-8 JG setup is more complex, so I created an example profile that depicts only the thing in question.
I used "modes" for that.

Damn... I don't know how to intertwine text and pictures in the post...

Create an additional mode - I called it "Slaved search lights".

I chose "Button 1" as a mode switch button. In one mode it has to switch the mode to the other one, in the other mode - to the first one. OK? That way it toggles between modes.

Now the main part:

In "Default" mode I have no mappings for "Hat 1" (which is the coolie hat on TM Warthog throttle).

In "Slaved search lights" I made a "copy" of coolie hat on the vJoy virtual joystick.

Now, depending on the mode, either only the former or both of them work (in the pictures I kept the coolie up).

Once you've got it done in this or whatever similar fashion you like, go to DCS, assign real hat to - say - left light, and that "copy vJoy hat" to the other light.

That. Is. All.

[shake307]

Bumping this topic.  I have not changed anything as far as graphics settings or display brightness.  The only thing different is DCS updated not too long ago.  I have almost no lights in the Mi-8 cockpit now.  It was recent, whatever they did, as I fly the Mi-8 almost exclusively.

[admiki]

@scoobieI just saw that I never thanked you for your help. Both lights are working. Thanks man

[scoobie]

Glad it works! Happy searching!  Actually, when I get more free time I'll see if I can get rid of the "crossed eyes effect". I was thinking about it and came up with two "theories" why this effect may be happening. If my "theory number 1" is correct (tests are needed), getting rid of the effect should be pretty straightforward and lights should always work in unison. Hopefully!

 

[paco2002]

On 3/16/2021 at 5:19 AM, shake307 said:

Bumping this topic.  I have not changed anything as far as graphics settings or display brightness.  The only thing different is DCS updated not too long ago.  I have almost no lights in the Mi-8 cockpit now.  It was recent, whatever they did, as I fly the Mi-8 almost exclusively.

Lights still broken... Maybe after half a  year of no dome lights, would be a great idea to fix this don't you think Eagle Dynamics?

[Hiob]

Is this an issue of textures or of lighting settings...

Maybe this can be adjusted in some .lua?

Unfortunately I can't figure out this .lua-magic on my own.

[paco2002]

On 4/8/2021 at 10:47 AM, Hiob said:

Is this an issue of textures or of lighting settings...

Maybe this can be adjusted in some .lua?

Unfortunately I can't figure out this .lua-magic on my own.

Neither I, I think this is a core issue not fixeable by individuals 

[River]

hope 2.7 fixes the lights, it's a complete mess atm. 

[sunwukong]

For me not fixed but got worse....I was ok before in daylight but now can’t read the instruments....so difficult in keeping the right heading


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[sunwukong]

Ok....I’m flying in VR....I’ve reset VR setting to default and the gamma goes up to 2.2.

It’s better now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[FoxTwo]

It's still not what I'd call good. 2.5.6 really globally broke in cockpit instrument/panel back lighting and I guess the MI-8 is just too old of a module for them to give it much attention.