Hello everyone. I have created an third party addon, where I put lights to many of the airports around the world, currently there are more than 400 airports with lights and counting, you can visit the page where I have the addon, currently I update it every week, so there are always new airports added.
I hope enjoy it.
https://flightsim.to/file/8614/airports-lights
Thanks for doing the work on that, Andres!
It would be nice that the sim would just do it, and you could spend more time flying…
This is a monumental effort, man… I really appreciate it. Thank you…
But you shouldn’t have the need to do this. Because to be honest, this can be done a lot faster if the Sim itself adds just one more parameters to the AI Generated default airports. By adding a single Light pole and lights on a specific parking type:
GA Ramp Small = No Light
GA Ramp Medium = No Light
GA Ramp Large = Light
Gate Small = Light
Gate Medium = Light
Gate Heavy = Light
If this logic applies to every parking type template, the AI could just generate lights at the entire default airports around the world in one go, since it will only load the parking spots for those aircrafts, and since the parking spot template is specified to load the single light pole with lights, then there would always be lights everywhere.
I agree with Neo.
But until that day happens, and someone in MS/Asobo says its time to turn the lights on in this place, we at least can see where to park at night. God forbid you can approach the gas pumps properly. I think they go boom?
This is a topic that to me is hilarious! Everyone who complains there is not enough light at the airports in the sim have obviously never spent a moment on a flightline at night. I say this having spent years on various flightlines around the world at night, both civilian and military. These ramps can be very dark and foreboding. And it is like that for a reason - to not ruin the night vision of flight crews. As groundcrew our flashlights had red lenses on them for that same reason. People say they want this sim to be as real as it can get, and then complain that the ramps are too dark. This is laughable.
I don’t think they’re complaining about small airport parking ramps at night. The complaints are more on International Airport Hubs, like Hong Kong International Airport for example, at night it’s pitch black. I don’t think it’s even realistic if you are taxiing an A380 into a gate and you have to manoeuvre that huge quad engine jet into a pitch dark apron.
That’s why in my suggestion post above, that the lights should be assigned to a specific type of parking. Where small to medium parking ramps do not have lights at all on them. But larger ramps and any gates with a jetway that can fit A220/B737 or larger should have lights on them.
Because I’ve never seen an international airport hub, with heavy airliners attached to the gates where the apron is pitch dark.
As a civilian I’ve worked at KCVG, KMEM, KJAX, KBNA, and KJAN. All five are international airports with KBNA and KJAN being the only small ones. Ramp lighting is almost nonexistent at all four. And that is true everywhere, and for the reason stated above. Flight crews rely on ground personnel for safe maneuvering at the gates. Even at the automated gates there are ground personnel present who are in direct radio communication with the flight crews for safety reasons. I will admit, however, it is virtually impossible to simulate on a computer true human night vision.
Hmm, that’s strange… Based on these night photos, these ramps seems to be pretty well lit on the ones that you mentioned:
KCVG | Airport | Ramp | steve | JetPhotos
The area shown in the KCVG photo is of the NEW dhl/Amazon cargo ramp which is extremely well lit because of the sheer tonnage of freight being moved through that airport. The same is true of the KMEM FEDEX ramp shown in that image. I don’t recognize the image from KBNA. I’m guessing that picture is of the new terminals that were built after I transferred to KJAN in 2008. I retired in 2018 after 25 years with Delta, and 9 years in the Navy. The interesting thing about all of these airports today is that they are all virtually unrecognizable to me due to the transformations that have occurred because of all the expansion each has received. That is, except for KJAN, which has remained pretty much unchanged since the 1970s. And it is about the ugliest and most poorly laid out airport you can imagine.
What most people complain about night lighting is something like this. This is a flight I made a few days ago, departing from WIII Terminal 3. See how dark it is at night in this video in the sim.
And compare how the Terminal 3 looks like in real life here.
We are not asking for a sunny day. Just “some” light.
Flying the TBM and stopping for more fuel: None, and I mean none of the fuel stops/pumps in this sim have a light over them. Is that true in real life? I think not.
I and others have been asking for this since launch.
Asobo are so obsessed with VFR/GA that they cannot be bothered to make the effort.
In fact, imo Asobo have been absolutely pathetic in this regard, making taxiing at night in an airliner almost impossible.
You are correct that the AI could introduce lights for all airports but, as I said, Asobo cannot be bothered. Giraffes and elephants (nothing against them) are apparently more important in a flight simulator than proper airport lighting.
My thanks and admiration to the OP for his brilliant work.
Tell that to London Heathrow or Gatwick…or Schipol…or Paris Charles de Gaulle…or…well you get the point, I hope
I totally agree with Neo4316 Airport lighting for most Large airports in the Sim is very poor. some Pay ware airports have better lighting but a lot of default airports need much improvement. Default landing lights in sim also needs to be looked at terrible and useless.
Is this compatible with Xbox??
No, only addons from the in-sim Marketplace are.
