Does the aerial refueling light actually illuminate external objects now?

[Torbernite]

I tried to do night AA refueling with no NVG and find it impossible to fine the basket in totally dark condition. It seems the refueling light casts no light on any external objects except the nose of own aircraft. 

Maybe the red light is naturally dimmer than white lights, so I put the aircraft in hangar towards the backwall, and when refueling probe extends I see no light on the wall at all at gamma 2.2. While the white lights on other aircrafts work fine. Even the position lights on the wing gloves cast some light on the ground but the refueling light illuminates nothing.

Is it a known issue, technical limitation or as it should be?

[JupiterJoe]

I agree.  Refuelling at night is incredibly difficult (unrealistically so), due to a combination of glare from the tanker's lights (using NVG) and the lack of illumination coming from the refuelling probe's light.  You would see the whole side of the tanker and wing bathed in red light in real life.  Giving you a fighting chance at a sense of depth. The lighting for the F-14 Tomcat has always been an issue, including the fuelling probe light.  If you look at the Hornets for example, they have much more impressive lighting at night, including shimmering bloom on the green 'slimes'/formation lights.  I doubt it's a coincidence that the Hornet is DCS's own product and gets preferential treatment.  I suspect in order to correct the lighting issues Heatblur may require DCS to do something on their end, particularly regarding light blooms.  Watching Hornets come into land on the Carrier at night is a thing of beauty and the F-14 should be no less impressive.    

Edited May 27, 2022 by JupiterJoe

[Torbernite]

12分钟前，JupiterJoe说：

I agree.  Refuelling at night is incredibly difficult (unrealistically so), due to a combination of glare from the tanker's lights (using NVG) and the lack of illumination coming from the refuelling probe's light.  You would see the whole side of the tanker and wing bathed in red light in real life.  Giving you a fighting chance at a sense of depth. The lighting for the F-14 Tomcat has always been an issue, including the fuelling probe light.  If you look at the Hornets for example, they have much more impressive lighting at night, including shimmering bloom on the green 'slimes'/formation lights.  I doubt it's a coincidence that the Hornet is DCS's own product and gets preferential treatment.  I suspect in order to correct the lighting issues, Heatblur may require DCS to do something on their end, particularly regarding light blooms.  Watching Hornets come into land on the Carrier at night is a thing of beauty and the F-14 should be no less impressive.    

In fact JF-17 and AV-8B also have a normal probe light as 3rd party works, but all they have are white lights.

I wonder if it's because the red AAR probe light of F-14 is made in another way more similar to the position lights for signal use (in order to show correct color), instead of those white lights for illumination.

[Callsign JoNay]

I agree, it's not possible in zero illumination and 2.2 gamma without NVGs. 

The probe light definitely functions though. If you plug the basket at night you will see the light reflecting on the bottom edge of it. I think the fall off distance of the light is too short though. And so is the fall off distance of the tanker lights. There should be some ambient light cast from the tanker position lights, etc. 

Don't even get me started on the draw distance at which tanker lights become visible. You can only see their lights at the highest LOD model which is only visible at something like 0.1 NM. Lighting in DCS is a complete trainwreck.

[IronMike]

It is tracked and we'll see if we can increase it. Thank you.