Spot view of aircraft appears dark FS9

**Tiberius1701** · 10-23-2009, 01:17 PM

Hi all!
Need some help here. When I first view the aircraft in the selector it has very bright textures, once I select it both the view in the selector window and in the sim spot view appear dark. There is no difference in any angle of view regardless of lighting-hence no reflections, etc. I have tried to search this site for help, but was not able to find any. I have also checked all my settings and have not been able to correct this anomaly. Perhaps someone has had this occur as well? Thanks in advance!

**Raptor22** · 10-23-2009, 02:36 PM

Tiberius1701,

Sounds like a texture problem, try and re-install the plane again. take the
one that's already there and delete it. that way you'll have a fresh install.
see if this doesn't fix the problem.

**Tiberius1701** · 10-23-2009, 09:15 PM

Raptor,
Thanks for the response, however I should have added the fact that all aircraft behave in the same manner, whether they came with the sim or third party. They all do the same things-perhaps removing and performing a fresh install?

**alitalia2010** · 10-26-2009, 07:19 PM

i have the same problem too

all my aircraft come up dark after i select them . when i start a flight i get no dynamic shine on any of them, not default or addons

and my water textures look light light blue grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr i have plenty of ram. im running 1.5 gigs now( but i might add another gig) on windows vista 32 bit( and they say you can run it on vista 32,,, but no dynamic shine at all . all the buildings look darkertoo. i tried on safe mode and when i do that , i only get half of my aircraft lighting effects

can someone help?

**Tiberius1701** · 10-31-2009, 12:29 PM

I am glad (sort of) that I am the only one with this problem. I too am running Vista 32bit...help anyone?

**Avechelice** · 10-31-2009, 02:09 PM

Hello,

If I can ask ...
Graphic card settings ?

Regards.

**Jim Robinson** · 10-31-2009, 04:32 PM

The darkness/lightness of objects displaying in the sim is controlled at least partially by the sky textures, in particular, the first 2 pixels in the upper left hand corner of the .bmp. Try swapping out your sky textures and see if that cures your problem. Here's an experiment I just did. I batch processed a set of sky textures, lightening the first 2 pixels by a factor of 70%, here's the before and after:

I'm not saying you have to edit your own textures, there are hundreds of modified sky textures out there you can download, but do try something else and see if it improves your situation.

Jim

**StringBean** · 10-31-2009, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by Jim Robinson

The darkness/lightness of objects displaying in the sim is controlled at least partially by the sky textures, in particular, the first 2 pixels in the upper left hand corner of the .bmp.
Jim

How did you figure that out?

Could the envmap.bmp play into this?

Anytime I see a comment about reflections, this file springs to mind as I installed an addon "plane" (car actually) that replaced this file causing me problems.

BTW, the original envmap.bmp can be found in MSGAME3.cab on FS9 disc #2 if you want to try it.

peace,
the Bean

**Jim Robinson** · 10-31-2009, 06:49 PM

I didn't figure it out. If you have GEPro you can manipulate these pixels and several others to create a custom sky texture set that'll make your sim look pretty much however you want it to look.

envmap controls what alpha reflections "look like" on the aircraft only. I suppose it could affect the brightness/darkness of the aircraft but it won't have any effect on the ground textures, buildings, etc. Basically the envmap is what you see "sliding" over the surface of the aircraft when you're looking at it from close up, generally most visible from the darker side of the aircraft. Ideally it would be an accurate reflection of the environment around the aircraft, blurred trees, mountains, water, etc.

I never cared much for any of the addon envmaps people have come up with, I've always gone back to default, however currently I am liking the envmap supplied with FSElemental somewhat.

BTW, the original envmap.bmp can be found in MSGAME3.cab on FS9 disc #2 if you want to try it.

Yeah I know, I wrote the tutorial you likely got that info from

Jim

**StringBean** · 11-01-2009, 01:43 AM

Originally Posted by Jim Robinson

Yeah I know, I wrote the tutorial you likely got that info from

Jim

As a matter of fact you did, and I just put 2 and 2 together.

Thank you for that, it has come to the aid of many, many simmers.

Countless times I have seen Opa, and others, point people to that resource to help resolve issues they were experiencing.

I had that page bookmarked for so long that , I have to admit, I kinda forgot who had published it (he says while quietly skulking away to hide his embarrassment).

Thanks again Jim.

peace,
the Bean