make night sky more realistic, including milky way

[BIGNEWY]

folks before you runaway with this thread, currently we have no plans to redo the milky way in the night sky, even if we did accept this task it would be extremely low priority.

I will pass on your feedback to the team, but please remember this forum area is a wish list, not a to do list. 

thank you 

[Hiob]

Why do I have to think of a bucket of cold water suddenly....

Describe DCS in one word: Eventually. 

(I do support the wish though)

[BIGNEWY]

5 minutes ago, Hiob said:

Why do I have to think of a bucket of cold water suddenly....

Describe DCS in one word: Eventually. 

(I do support the wish though)

Happy to help  

lots of wishes come true here on the forum, this section is for making requests. But sometimes I have to bring things down to earth 

[Hiob]

Well, a bit of expectation management doesn't hurt. Appreciated.

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Some adjustments to the default gamma curve would go a long way. Making the Milky Way clearly visible at night over populated areas is indeed not realistic.

[Kang]

On 10/22/2025 at 9:58 AM, BIGNEWY said:

folks before you runaway with this thread, currently we have no plans to redo the milky way in the night sky, even if we did accept this task it would be extremely low priority.

I will pass on your feedback to the team, but please remember this forum area is a wish list, not a to do list. 

thank you 

Sorry, I had to.

[Lixma 06]

Smart Scaling™ the sun and moon would be great.

[draconus]

5 hours ago, Lixma 06 said:

the sun and moon

They should stay at correct angular size.

[nir]

On 10/22/2025 at 10:58 AM, BIGNEWY said:

folks before you runaway with this thread, currently we have no plans to redo the milky way in the night sky, even if we did accept this task it would be extremely low priority.

I will pass on your feedback to the team, but please remember this forum area is a wish list, not a to do list. 

thank you 

why no plans ? i'm sorry, I really appreaciate DCS - it is a fantastic software and you did a great job - so don't get me wrong but this particular answer sounds either stupid or ignorant - why bother with weather ? with clouds ? with waves ? with terrain ? with rain ? "folks currently we have no plans to do clouds or rain in our flight simulator..." it is the frigging night sky - if you fly at night it is up there - up - there. by which I mean, you look up and it is ... up there ! and currently it looks stupid. at least to anyone who bothered looking at the night sky in real life outside the city. is that your problem ? that you simply don't know how the night sky actually looks ? 

[Hiob]

50 minutes ago, nir said:

why no plans ? i'm sorry, I really appreaciate DCS - it is a fantastic software and you did a great job - so don't get me wrong but this particular answer sounds either stupid or ignorant - why bother with weather ? with clouds ? with waves ? with terrain ? with rain ? "folks currently we have no plans to do clouds or rain in our flight simulator..." it is the frigging night sky - if you fly at night it is up there - up - there. by which I mean, you look up and it is ... up there ! and currently it looks stupid. at least to anyone who bothered looking at the night sky in real life outside the city. is that your problem ? that you simply don't know how the night sky actually looks ? 

Dude, relax. Do you expect them to do everything everywhere all at once? That‘s not realistic. Many people are already concerned ED is spreading thin with their tasks. 

Also, you can‘t expect them to have the same priorities as any random user in the forum. Put just ten of us together and we couldn’t agree on the right order of priorities if our life depended on it….

The answer was neither stupid or ignorant, just factual. At least we can relax now and see what is actual coming. (I can think of a lot of things that are magnitudes more important than some eye candy at night btw.. .)

[Ornithopter]

28 minutes ago, Hiob said:

Dude, relax. Do you expect them to do everything everywhere all at once? That‘s not realistic. Many people are already concerned ED is spreading thin with their tasks. 

Also, you can‘t expect them to have the same priorities as any random user in the forum. Put just ten of us together and we couldn’t agree on the right order of priorities if our life depended on it….

The answer was neither stupid or ignorant, just factual. At least we can relax now and see what is actual coming. (I can think of a lot of things that are magnitudes more important than some eye candy at night btw.. .)

In fairness, Eye Candy is important for realism and immersion.  I mean, that's kind of the point of a simulator.  Imagine flying 100s of miles across the Iraqi desert on a moonless night, and what the sky would look like.

[Minsky]

17 minutes ago, Hiob said:

Dude, relax. Do you expect them to do everything everywhere all at once? That‘s not realistic.

A DCS newcomer got their rose-tinted glasses shattered. Never happened before.

1 hour ago, nir said:

why bother with weather ? with clouds ? with waves ? with terrain ? with rain ? "folks currently we have no plans to do clouds or rain in our flight simulator..."

Well, they didn't particularly bother with anything you mentioned. Many things that are considered fundamental for a flight simulator are either not implemented, or implemented at a very basic level (moving clouds, icing, slippery runways, thunderstorms, etc).

Give it a thought, and maybe you'll see why your request for a picturesque, heaviliy photoshopped Milky Way looks kinda ridiculous. What are you gonna do with it? Practice celestial navigation in a flat world?

[Hiob]

27 minutes ago, Ornithopter said:

In fairness, Eye Candy is important for realism and immersion.  I mean, that's kind of the point of a simulator.  Imagine flying 100s of miles across the Iraqi desert on a moonless night, and what the sky would look like.

Absolutely agree. I‘m a sucker for eye candy myself. I would absolutely love a beautiful milkyway.

However, there are many strengths and weaknesses in DCS. Getting so worked up because a particular one is currently not on the todo list seems a bit off to me…..

[Czar]

I'm all for improving the night sky and star lighting but I wish the community couldn't base their desires from long exposure photography of a night sky above a mountain range. Other simulator based their art on that and forever got criticized on how the night time is so bright.

Also, there is and should be a massive difference between 30k ft to 90k. Majority of the earth's atmosphere is closer to the ground. Anyone interested in aviation and on a aviation based simulator should know this. An SR-71 pilot's experience were always one of a kind.

Please, don't ask for DCS to look like that other major flight simulator. The eye candy for pure art and not accuracy only goes so far in dynamics. It turns all samey and every night flight the sim will seem to try to wow you for the 60th time. It will get old fast. I'm all for art and all into that eye candy stuff but effects should be grounded in reality.

ED could look into atmospheric systems to simulate many different weather stages based different atmospheric conditions. I'd guess this would come from a weather system overhaul as DCS only emulates the thinning of the blue hue as you go up and cloud layers afaik.

Cant it be improved? Certainly. DCS is also an already gorgeous sim.

Edited 22 hours ago by Czar

[nir]

1 hour ago, Czar said:

I'm all for improving the night sky and star lighting but I wish the community couldn't base their desires from long exposure photography of a night sky above a mountain range. Other simulator based their art on that and forever got criticized on how the night time is so bright.

Also, there is and should be a massive difference between 30k ft to 90k. Majority of the earth's atmosphere is closer to the ground. Anyone interested in aviation and on a aviation based simulator should know this. An SR-71 pilot's experience were always one of a kind.

I am not asking for a long exposure photography of the milkyway above my head as some have suggested here. that would be silly. I, and it seems many others too, are asking for a more realistic night sky, instead of randomly distributed silly white dots. you don't need to be 90k up in the air to know what I am talking about. it is enough that you get out of the city and look up. Anywhere the light pollution is low you would see a marvelous night sky above your head from ground level, certainly if you are flying 10k-20k up over a middle east desert or over the mediterranean sea or the ocean - all of which are quite common in DCS. the only reason I can think of for a DCS player to dismiss this request is if they have no idea what I am talking about.

And BTW, I am super relaxed.

Edited 20 hours ago by nir

[Ironhand]

14 hours ago, nir said:

...I, and it seems many others too, are asking for a more realistic night sky, instead of randomly distributed silly white dots...

Ummm...they're not random. The stars are the Spring star field. Unfortunately, they don't follow the seasons. It's always the same star field visible. So Orion and the adjacent constellations are always setting in the west (you need to set the date/time to late December just after sunset, for example, on the Caucasus map). Set the time to just before dawn and you'll have Pegasus, Pisces, Perseus, etc rising in the east. And the various constellations as they would be in the Spring traveling through the night sky. The planets are there, too, though too far off the ecliptic and not showing as they would at the ME set date/time.

EDIT: Something that I started working on but never finished, using Arttu’s Night Sky mod:

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Ironhand

[Art-J]

1 hour ago, nir said:

The only reason I can think of for a DCS player to dismiss this request is if they have no idea what I am talking about.

You haven't thought it through very well then. When you're here as long as many of us and explore DCS further, you'll find out that there are FAR many MORE important things for combat flight sim to get improved by dev team, before tiny (in the grand scheme of things) aspects like stars on the night sky should be looked at.

Players do have a better or worse idea of what you're talking about, but most of us would just rather see limited resources spent elsewhere first, especially given the slow pace of  development of environmental part of DCS.

Take a look how many single- and multiplayer missions / campaigns, free or payware, are set at night. It's a low number, as in real life, and so will it be positioned on priority list.

 

Edited 19 hours ago by Art-J

[Czar]

1 hour ago, nir said:

I, and it seems many others too, are asking for a more realistic night sky, instead of randomly distributed silly white dots.

1 hour ago, nir said:

the only reason I can think of for a DCS player to dismiss this request is if they have no idea what I am talking about.

I also make the same requests. Read my recent post history and you'll find it very quickly.
What I made a remark about was the expectation of an absolute gorgeous sky having referenced a long exposure photography piece, which many takes minutes to complete. That's a wrong reference for the artist. If you put a HUD glass with an emitter turned on in the field of view of a long exposure photograph, you'll end up with a blob of glowing light.

I'm sure you know that. I'm just completing my point against being a dismissive post. Sorry if I came that way.

Lighting is a very complex subject on our home screens (VR included) if a developer aims for realism which is DCS case.

Yes. DCS night sky could use more exposure but I believe the visual system still is too rudimentary. Overhauls are needed.

Edited 19 hours ago by Czar