Randomly becoming blind while flying at night. Can't see instruments.

[MAXsenna]

32 minutes ago, audiman said:

Ok here is a track file, i just hopped on PGAW at night and flew around for a few minutes until it happened. didn't happen as frequently but it did happen several times towards the middle and end of the flight.

Persian Gulf At War 1.0.0_evening-20230824-192905.trk 23.33 MB · 2 downloads

Saw you shootdown two Su-25TMs, but I had no graphics issues like you describe. Sorry!

[Loukuins]

1 hour ago, audiman said:

I haven't deleted anything shader related to the game. I do not have any shader mods installed and I'm not familiar with the fxo and metashaders2 folder you're referencing. is it a known issue that those folders need to be modified or something?

That might fix the issue then, those folder are in your saved game then DCS(.openbeta), those files are pre-compiled shader files, for some reason those files if they are deleted will fix a lot of issue, specially with visual issues, it is recommended to delete those folder at each update, and at each update of your GPU drivers, it will just make a long loading time for the first time then it won't bother you anymore. 

This can really fix your issue, try it when you can, and let us know if it did or not! 
I'm crossing my fingers that this will fix it. 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Loukuins

[audiman]

12 hours ago, MAXsenna said:

Saw you shootdown two Su-25TMs, but I had no graphics issues like you describe. Sorry!

Ah, well damn. That's interesting. I was wondering if it would show up for anyone else via the track file or not.

Well I really appreciate you taking the time to look into it! Thanks for the effort!

12 hours ago, Loukuins said:

That might fix the issue then, those folder are in your saved game then DCS(.openbeta), those files are pre-compiled shader files, for some reason those files if they are deleted will fix a lot of issue, specially with visual issues, it is recommended to delete those folder at each update, and at each update of your GPU drivers, it will just make a long loading time for the first time then it won't bother you anymore. 

This can really fix your issue, try it when you can, and let us know if it did or not! 
I'm crossing my fingers that this will fix it. 

 

I'll research the shaders and try that, it'll be a couple days before I can do it but I'll give it a go. Thanks for your input.

[Loukuins]

5 hours ago, audiman said:

I'll research the shaders and try that, it'll be a couple days before I can do it but I'll give it a go. Thanks for your input.

No problem, take your time and don't mind asking for more informations if you don't know where it is. 
I'm really hopping this will fix the issue!

I will give you a screenshot to show what those two folders looks like:

[MAXsenna]

@audiman
Do yourself a favour, and get Skatezilla's GUI Updater/Launcher. It has many features, one of them is cleaning out the shaders folders. Even if it's very easy to do it manually/the DCS updater empties the metashaders on every update.

Cheers!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[Loukuins]

Did a long flight in the night and I can say that I reproduced the issue, it's very random, I have also another issue that instead of going black it goes FULL White.

For me it happen a lot with the F5 view, I will give my DCS.log here can't give a track, but the issue is there!

(I flew on syria in a F-15E).

dcs.log

[audiman]

On 8/25/2023 at 4:57 PM, MAXsenna said:

@audiman
Do yourself a favour, and get Skatezilla's GUI Updater/Launcher. It has many features, one of them is cleaning out the shaders folders. Even if it's very easy to do it manually/the DCS updater empties the metashaders on every update.

Cheers!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk
 

interesting. I'm assuming that is meant for the stand alone version of DCS?

I have the Steam version, and don't see anything that indicates steam compatibility.

[MAXsenna]

4 minutes ago, audiman said:

interesting. I'm assuming that is meant for the stand alone version of DCS?

I have the Steam version, and don't see anything that indicates steam compatibility.

Ah, apologies. I keep forgetting it's not for Steam.

[firefox121]

En 15/8/2023 a las 0:48, audiman dijo:

So I can't reliably fly at night, not because idk how to navigate with instruments but because my entire screen randomly goes black to the point that i can't see the instruments. I actually don't mind flying at night and can do case 3 recoveries in the Hornet and Tomcat, but when I'm on final to the carrier and looking between instruments and the HUD and all of a sudden I randomly can't see literally anything in the cockpit, that's a bad time. This has also gotten me killed while trying to lock someone on the Radar at night and my screen goes black to the point I can't see the radar anymore. 

I haven't been able to pinpoint what specifically causes it. but it appears to be an issue with my game trying to balance contrast between the cockpit and the pitch black exterior of the jet

This has happened in the Hornet, Tomcat, and the Apache. Both in multiplayer and campaign missions(both default and DLC campaigns), and has happened on the Georgia map and the Persian Gulf map.

I will say that it happens the most in the Hornet on Hoggit's GAW, but that is mostly because that is my primary jet and multiplayer server.

I attached a Track file from the last time it happened. I hope the track file isn't too large. it took a few minutes of flight for it to occur, but it happens pretty reliably, although seemingly random to me as far as the cause goes, every time I fly at night.

If anyone has any tips or has experienced this please chime in. I really love DCS and don't want to be restricted to daytime servers because I can't see at night.

Note, I have the Steam version running the Open Beta MT preview. it should be noted that this has occurred on stable version as well as non multi-threading in both 2k and 1080p resolutions. 

PC:

Ryzen 7 5800X

Asus TUF RTX3080

32GB RAM 3600mhz

DCS installed on 1TB Samsung 980 Pro

Windows 10

All drivers up to date.

I run triple 32" 2k monitors in my "sim racing rig" which now doubles as my flight sim rig as well.

Georgia At War v3.0.24_evening-20230812-130136.trk 32.5 MB · 8 descargas

Don't know if this could help , but I think in two other reasons :

- 1 :- maybe you have an axis binded to the cockpit lights? .......Dcs some times assign axes to new joys with no reasonable matches.......

- 2 : - Did you use enable g-forces at dcs options? could be a black out?

- Sorry if this are stupid solutions , but can't figure out other triggers

Edited August 27, 2023 by firefox121

[Loukuins]

2 minutes ago, firefox121 said:

Don't know if this could help , but I think in two other reasons :

- 1 :- maybe you have an axis binded to the cockpit lights? .......Dcs some times assign axes to new joys with no reasonable matches.......

- 2 : - Did you use enable g-forces at dcs options? could be a black out?

- Sorry if this are stupid solutions , but can't figure out other triggers

 

I had the issue in exterior view so no, all of those don't work... 
And that's okay that's always good to have questions

[firefox121]

hace 1 minuto, Loukuins dijo:

I had the issue in exterior view so no, all of those don't work... 
And that's okay that's always good to have questions

Try to disable g-force effects and see if the problem appears again, can't remember if when blackout the external view works.

Also , could be a gpu cable conection to monitors that is not well fixed and moves in some way..... 

[audiman]

14 minutes ago, MAXsenna said:

Ah, apologies. I keep forgetting it's not for Steam.

ah all good.

 

2 minutes ago, firefox121 said:

Don't know if this could help , but I think in two other reasons :

- 1 :- maybe you have an axis binded to the cockpit lights? .......Dcs some times assign axes to new joys with no reasonable matches.......

- 2 : - Did you use enable g-forces at dcs options? could be a black out?

- Sorry if this are stupid solutions , but can't figure out other triggers

 

all good, no stupid questions here.

no, I clear assigned key binds when I assign new buttons and Axis binds, I do not have any binds for lights. If you see the pictures and video, it's not simply instrument lights specifically going dim (I mean they are...but) it's more of a global illumination issue within the game. because I can have NVG's on and look at the moon and the whole screen still gets very dark.

 

But yes, I have G-forces enabled, but this happens when I'm simply cruising around navigating. not when I'm pulling higher G's

[Loukuins]

20 minutes ago, firefox121 said:

Try to disable g-force effects and see if the problem appears again, can't remember if when blackout the external view works.

Also , could be a gpu cable conection to monitors that is not well fixed and moves in some way..... 

Black out doesn't work in external view, also the issue is linked to a another one that make lightning when there is no clouds

[audiman]

The problem MIGHT be fixed...

So, I deleted the Shader files as described in the screenshot, and I flew PGAW at night for about an hour without issue.

However I want to test a bunch more before saying this was causing my issue for sure.

[audiman]

I'm going to call this one FIXED. After deleting the contents of the FXO folder and Metashaders2 folder, I've been able to fly at night for hours without any lighting/contrast issues.

Thanks for all of the questions to double check that I didn't miss anything simple and for all of the recommendations!

[audiman]

Well unfortunately it happened several times again yesterday evening while flying at night on Hoggits GAW.

It was exceptionally dark with no moonlight and some heavy cloud cover. So the contrast between the cockpit instrument lights and the exterior of the jet was pretty extreme. After I deleted the contents of the FXO and metashaders2 folders previously, I flew for hours at night on several different days I thought for sure it was fixed. But it wasn't as dark as it was last night on GAW.

I flew around for a bit, shot down some planes, and then logged off and exited DCS. I deleted the contents of the FXO and metashaders2 folders again. 

Launched the game again and hopped back into GAW at night, launched off the carrier and still had the random blindness/dimming of the game.

I want to note that I'm running triple monitors on my Sim Racing Rig that now doubles as a flight sim rig. Still using Track IR.

But I had the thought yesterday that while the center screen is normally the cockpit/HUD view two peripheral screens on each side are essentially seeing complete darkness. So I wonder if DCS just doesn't know how to handle such severe contrast between the center monitor/cockpit instrument lights and the peripheral monitors seeing complete darkness. The issue seems to be independent of where I'm looking with track IR. I can already be heads down looking at the Radar and the screen goes very dim. I can look outside with NVG's and the screen goes very dim. 

I unfortunately removed the "mark as solution" from the shaders folders suggestion for now.

Here are some pictures from a few months ago of what my setup looks like. Unfortunately don't have any similar pics of night flight, but I'll try to remedy that next time I fly at night. But just picture the side monitors being pitch black and the center monitor full of instrument lights. Just makes me wonder if I tried running it on just the single center screen if I'd still have the issue?

Just thinking out loud, it might not even make sense

[Loukuins]

22 hours ago, audiman said:

Well unfortunately it happened several times again yesterday evening while flying at night on Hoggits GAW.

It was exceptionally dark with no moonlight and some heavy cloud cover. So the contrast between the cockpit instrument lights and the exterior of the jet was pretty extreme. After I deleted the contents of the FXO and metashaders2 folders previously, I flew for hours at night on several different days I thought for sure it was fixed. But it wasn't as dark as it was last night on GAW.

I flew around for a bit, shot down some planes, and then logged off and exited DCS. I deleted the contents of the FXO and metashaders2 folders again. 

Launched the game again and hopped back into GAW at night, launched off the carrier and still had the random blindness/dimming of the game.

I want to note that I'm running triple monitors on my Sim Racing Rig that now doubles as a flight sim rig. Still using Track IR.

But I had the thought yesterday that while the center screen is normally the cockpit/HUD view two peripheral screens on each side are essentially seeing complete darkness. So I wonder if DCS just doesn't know how to handle such severe contrast between the center monitor/cockpit instrument lights and the peripheral monitors seeing complete darkness. The issue seems to be independent of where I'm looking with track IR. I can already be heads down looking at the Radar and the screen goes very dim. I can look outside with NVG's and the screen goes very dim. 

I unfortunately removed the "mark as solution" from the shaders folders suggestion for now.

Here are some pictures from a few months ago of what my setup looks like. Unfortunately don't have any similar pics of night flight, but I'll try to remedy that next time I fly at night. But just picture the side monitors being pitch black and the center monitor full of instrument lights. Just makes me wonder if I tried running it on just the single center screen if I'd still have the issue?

Just thinking out loud, it might not even make sense

I had the issue on my end too, and I since I did reproduice the deleting of shaders won't fix it sadly, I also did the same but I don't fly often on night missions sadly... And waiting for internet for my new place makes even more difficult to test and fly on DCS, let's hope the devs will see this issue and fix it since it happen even on exterior cameras too...

Can you add to the post that it has been reproduced already ?

Edited September 9, 2023 by Loukuins

[MAXsenna]

I had the issue on my end too, and I since I did reproduice the deleting of shaders won't fix it sadly, I also did the same but I don't fly often on night missions sadly... And waiting for internet for my new place makes even more difficult to test and fly on DCS, let's hope the devs will see this issue and fix it since it happen even on exterior cameras too...
Can you add to the post that it has been reproduced already ?

The "reproduced" tag is usually added by the ED moderators, to show that the issue is acknowledged and tracked by the development team. It's important that ED themselves can reproduce the issue in house, if not, how will they be able to fix it?

Cheers!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[Loukuins]

18 hours ago, MAXsenna said:

The "reproduced" tag is usually added by the ED moderators, to show that the issue is acknowledged and tracked by the development team. It's important that ED themselves can reproduce the issue in house, if not, how will they be able to fix it?

Cheers!

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk


 

Oh you got a point indeed, it's pretty random but it can happen 4-5 times during a flight in pitch black with clouds... Let's hope they will reproduice the issue without a track file...

[MAXsenna]

1 hour ago, Loukuins said:

Oh you got a point indeed, it's pretty random but it can happen 4-5 times during a flight in pitch black with clouds... Let's hope they will reproduice the issue without a track file...

Yup! I cross my fingers. I can imagine how annoying it must be. 

[Tom Kazansky]

A shot in the dark: Are there clouds and do you fly below or above those?

I.e. does this issue also occur without clouds or when flying above them?

Certainly clouds should not make cockpits dark at night but I'm just trying to sort out strange new lighting errors.

Edit: just read that clouds have already been mentioned several times, so disregard my post.

Edited September 10, 2023 by Tom Kazansky

[Lasko]

The only thing I can offer is that I have encountered this also and don't know how to cause it.  My setup is super simple with an RTX 3070 and one monitor displaying DCS and the second monitor displaying Chrome, Discord, etc.

I just played about 3 hours on a PGAW night mission and it didn't happen at all.  My feeling is it must be related to the brightness problem when switching views, like F11 back to F1, but what triggers it when not switching views I have no idea.

[audiman]

So how do you set the weather/lighting in a private mission to be absolutely pitch black with no moon light? I tried to make a dedicated mission to reproduce this issue, but I can't make the weather/sky dark enough regardless of the cloud layer or time of night I select. I must be missing a setting somewhere. 

It's most noticeable for me when I fly GAW at night, but when there is a VERY thick cloud layer at multiple altitudes, so no Moon light is visible. I can't seem to recreate this in a private mission.

[virulosity]

I have this issue too, I thought it was my OLED TV causing it.  Hitting ESC and viewing the briefing page resets it for a while for me.

[Flappie]

On 9/11/2023 at 2:37 PM, audiman said:

So how do you set the weather/lighting in a private mission to be absolutely pitch black with no moon light?

Here. Run this track using the Replay feature, then press Escape and click "Take control".

pitch black Su-25T.trk