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Night Environment - British Isles


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Sure looks nice, thanks for the shot Brian. :)  Have you noticed if NE add a brighter light to the lighthouses that dot Scotland?

I'll check it out Brett.

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Sure looks nice, thanks for the shot Brian. :)  Have you noticed if NE add a brighter light to the lighthouses that dot Scotland?

I'll check it out Brett.

 

 

Hey Brett,

Just had a quick peek at two lighthouses close to me. Chanonry Point and Tarbat Ness, neither had improved lighting for the actual lighthouse light. But they both have enhanced street lighting around them. A shame. It would have been great to have more powerful lights emanating from the lighthouses. Ah well, a project for another time  maybe. :thum: 

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Very nice, I love night flying, puts a whole new perspective on your environment. You sure as hell have to watch your instruments though as it's all too easy to get drawn into those lights when going VFR.........Just like a moth does!

 

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Hi Chris,

I am using Triple Head 2 Go.

I have 3 x 23" screens and what you see is what fsx sees.

Simply press the 'V' key or use Fraps to record the screenshots.

There is no editing apart from removing the task bar.

I hope this explains the wider than usual shot.

Would it be possible in the future to enhance the light shown by various lighthouses, not just around the UK. but around the world also?

It would just add a further dimension to fsx night flying. I know so e airports have a rotating beacon that can be seen for miles, so I would imagine lighthouses could be addressed a similar way, maybe?

Cheers for now,

Brian

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If you have downloaded my FSX Power Project (now at v4.2) you may, or may not have done the following for increasing the distance at which effects are visible  - I spent a lot of time figuring this fix out! Still trying to do the same fix for FS 2004. Here it is as published within the FSX Power Project readme.txt, particularly useful for contrails effects, so probably the same goes for lighthouse beams:

 

An optional change to the effects configuration file is recommended, which will extend the distance at which the steam & smoke effects can be seen by over 2.5 times (up to 18-20 miles), allowing the effects to be visible up to the point at which the cooling towers or chimney stacks disappear. This will also increase the distance at which any default or third party effects can be seen & may adversely affect frame rates if it results in more effects visible at one time. Probably very useful for contrail effects.

Before you do this, MAKE A BACKUP COPY of the effects.CFG file!!!

To implement this change, open the effects.CFG file (find it in the Effects folder) with a text editor, e.g. notepad, & edit the 'Very Far' setting in the [Emitter Detail Distance] section from 15000 to 40000 as follows:

Default:
[Emitter Detail Distance]
Medium=5000
Far=10000
Very Far=15000

Change to:
[Emitter Detail Distance]
Medium=5000
Far=10000
Very Far=40000

Save modified file, then exit FSX (if still running) and re-start FSX.

 

Cheers,

 

Ray.

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Thanks Brian

thats does explains those amazing shoots

 

as for lighthouses

technically speaking, the answer is yes!

and here comes the but...

we don't go into creating other objects as far as Night Environment goes; we only do road lighting, atm.

there may be enhancement in the future as many suggestion piping in we may enhance NE's vector scope

 

in the picture above

we enhanced a landmark around an airport vicinity; this is true to real world for that area;

a very large section dedicated to greenhouses; also makes a very notable landmark from the sky

which pilots reporting crucial for that area; that was enhanced as you from the pic above

with additional lights to define the greenhouses shape from the air

 

 

 

cool find Ray!

Thanks for sharing

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Sure looks nice, thanks for the shot Brian. :)  Have you noticed if NE add a brighter light to the lighthouses that dot Scotland?

I'll check it out Brett.

 

 

Hey Brett,

Just had a quick peek at two lighthouses close to me. Chanonry Point and Tarbat Ness, neither had improved lighting for the actual lighthouse light. But they both have enhanced street lighting around them. A shame. It would have been great to have more powerful lights emanating from the lighthouses. Ah well, a project for another time  maybe. :thum:

 

 

Thanks for checking Bri. Who's better than you. :thum:

 

After finding so many lighthouses around Scotland I was going to make a crack about Scottish sea captains not being able to read a chart. After some research I found that the US has the most lighthouses in the entire world, go figure. :huh:  I gather it's because we had to keep Scottish sea captains from crashing into our shores. :P  :rofl:

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Sure looks nice, thanks for the shot Brian. :)  Have you noticed if NE add a brighter light to the lighthouses that dot Scotland?

I'll check it out Brett.

 

 

Hey Brett,

Just had a quick peek at two lighthouses close to me. Chanonry Point and Tarbat Ness, neither had improved lighting for the actual lighthouse light. But they both have enhanced street lighting around them. A shame. It would have been great to have more powerful lights emanating from the lighthouses. Ah well, a project for another time  maybe. :thum:

 

 

Thanks for checking Bri. Who's better than you. :thum:

 

After finding so many lighthouses around Scotland I was going to make a crack about Scottish sea captains not being able to read a chart. After some research I found that the US has the most lighthouses in the entire world, go figure. :huh:  I gather it's because we had to keep Scottish sea captains from crashing into our shores. :P  :rofl:

 

 

Hey Brett,

You may suggest there's no one better than I, but you are the very best at wise cracks. Proof.....You crack me up. :rofl: :rofl:

Good job I'm a lowly Englishman residing in Scotland. (In my opinion, the very best part of the UK) Let's hope it stays the UK.

 

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And another one, this time in a more rural location where I grew up (and where I know the lighting inside out)

SouthAnstonComparison_zps96be3739.jpg~or

This isn't a Mutley's review, just some quick observations of mine from flying it for a couple of hours.

In urban areas the lighting is fabulous. I could make out every major street in and around Liverpool and identify my house without any of the ground texture.

In a countryside location its a bit more hit and miss I'm afraid. I can understand why it may be difficult to get street lighting on roads 100% accurate, but there are many back lanes without any lighting out in rural England, and NEUK doesn't really reflect that. What is more difficult to fathom is that there are lights all the way along a canal, and on footpaths through a wood, and on paths through farmer's fields? They tend to be the white ones, so the NE series may benefit from reviewing some of the data used to generate the light paths? Perhaps just removing paths outside urban areas would produce an acceptable result?

On a highly positive note, NEUK does get rid everywhere of the horrible GenX 'night lighting' which showed headlights along railways and every road, which was the 'feature' that made night flying in the UK unacceptable. NEUK, although not perfect, has opened up night flying in the UK to me for a very modest price, and not so much performance impact. It is a big step up from basic GenX night textures, and for me, if it could be refined a little to be a little less inaccurate in the obvious places it would be even better :)

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One final shot for today..heading east following the Woodhead Pass towards the M1 over the Pennines (Manchester in the far distance). This is a SERIOUSLY dark place apart from headlights in the night, one reason there are so many accidents there :(

Would there be any way you could rework algorithms to not produce lights in desolate uninhabited stretches of road like these please Chris? Would I find the same over Exmoor, Dartmoor and the Lake District etc? Not intending to be overly critical, just wondering what the scope for not too difficult improvement would be? Cheers K

WoodheadPass_zps56b584c9.jpg~original

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Thank you Kevin; great shoots

i appreciate you taking the time to look over the little details

you’ve brought up many valid point; which were all considered during rendition

the white light you see in rural areas; are what i refer to as service roads lights

these are small roads sometime to the back of your house; or to the end of the village where a factory is located

these are everywhere; and add quite allot to the overall view

i categorize these and deploy white light; to give little contrast to the yellow/orange look

foot paths, pedestrians and many of other features carry the white light (in small dosage)

it’s also extremely difficult to address each of the road categorized as service; for obvious reasons

with that said there are many techniques to handle the final results

which have spent countless hours comparing view and "feel"

the issue i couldn’t live with and is somehow tied to the white lights

is the overall orange/yellow "feel" you get

the current balance you see now; may not be 100% accurate to real world color spread (positioning always is perfect)

but it looks better when you fly through it; so there is some consideration for aesthetics look than just blunt accuracy

i have control over the features, their spacing, and many other parameter

out of the box i think the immersion currently NE adds is decent

not to say it cannot be further improved or tweaked; just out of the box i think its a good balance

we are doing something very different now for France region

when it comes out; if this is something you guys tell me is better for the UK; i will re render UK accordingly

it will be significantly different; and we are trying to get those rural roads with no lights; while keeping the ones that do have lights

it’s a very interesting process going on with that team

but we all enjoy the creative process; i don’t hold them back with their requirements

i accommodate to fullest; so let’s see what come out there and what you guys think of a more extreme view

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I am looking forward to France, It would be cool to fly up the channel on a clear night and see the lit-up coast of France to the right and England to the left.

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Me too John, I'm looking forward to NE France too

 

Thing is, I like to fly RW time, (and RW WX). With these lighter evenings I'm flying later into the night. It just seems odd night simming in RW daylight.

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Thanks Chris,

I'm very much a fan of Vogel69, having used his agn merge and VogelTree utilities more than a few times :)

For me, I have to say I prefer the more realistic version. Perhaps you could also run a thread where people could throw in local knowledge and from that update products once in a while incorporating that information into the lighting packages to further benefit realism? That would very much have to be a balance between effort and reward, and I understand it may not be feasible, but I'd certainly be willing to contribute, even if it involved a little additional cost.

But back to the central choice, realism over aesthetics, realism wins every day. Having said that please don't eliminate all the white lights in cities, because I very much did like the urban look and the variation in colours worked really well! ... the only other thing I could add would be that the orange light splashes seemed to me (only one opinion) a little too saturated, and may benefit from being a little softer?

Chees K

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so far you know half my team; Vogel69 name is Kevin as well ;)

i have contribute to Kevin’s work and been a big fan and follower with both AGN and Tree tool

i think he needs to rephrase slightly

it’s not realism vs esthetics

more like blunt accuracy vs visual esthetics

with both results the realism is very much the same!

i definitely intend to update NE releases based on feedback we receive

i thank you for you offer; i may very well take you up on it soon

as for orange light wash goes; here's a more subtle rendering

is this something closer to what you’d like to see?

2014_2_6_22_24_19_81.jpg 2014_2_6_22_48_23_708.jpg

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