I have been playing the sim since March and love it. I have a handful of fights at night from autogen airports and have always thought, “man, seems kinda dark around the gates and what not”.
Tonight, I wanted to take a screen shot while at the Gate loading luggage and it really set in, “this is way too dark”.
I haven’t seen anything yet but is this at all on the horizon of being fixed?
This should be a priority to be corrected. Very unreal and annoying.
Here is a good example with a mod what a difference proper airport lighting makes and how Asobo should implement it for all airports, if possible (hopefully with better automatic placement than the taxi lights. 
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If the time marker doesn’t work, the relevant part of the video starts at 3:08.
Is it only the autogen airports? I was at the Heathrow(EGLL) the other night (I ve baught a full version) , and it was completely dark. I was so disappointed to see how dark the aiport was whereas on the other hand, the citry around it was lit like a Chrimsas Tree!! I am disappointed, provided the kind of hupe this sim was given.
Hoping some prioritization for this…
Many major airports in complete darkness. Some of them look like a black hole in the middle of cities. This is very frustrating, I hope this subject gets more votes and attention.
I reported the lack of airport lighting shortly after the sim was launched. The ticket was ‘solved’, meaning it was passed to the devs. Nothing has been done to even acknowledge the problem and they won’t address the question in the live q&a sessions.
Imo, Microsobo assumed that most users are scenery watchers and therefore will not fly at night.
On that basis the devs didn’t bother to include airport ramp/gate lighting in the procedural algorithm that creates airports.
All Microsobo care about is eye candy and I for one don’t think that will ever change as that is where the money is.
Its tragic - you are probably spot on in that assumption…
Still too dark after the latest hotfix but no floating ghost city at least other than a random floating taxi light. Is it normal for some terminals to be blacked out during the night as if that particular field is outside business hours? The parking and all other areas are often pitch black and landing /taxi aren’t as powerful as they probably should be.
Definitely too dark. IRL, I have done numerous nighttime landings in GA aircraft. Went to a couple of airports at night that I frequent and they’re far too dark. I believe it has something to do with the shaders that they are using. None of the airport and local town/city lighting is causing ground effect lighting at all.
I have landed with a burned out landing light before and it was far brighter than what I see in MSFS with full lighting.
I have no airport ramp light around the terminal building and its difficult to taxi in and around the terminals anybody have a solution, thanks
I think only handcrafted and 3rd party airports have ramp lights
Check either flightsim.to for your specific airports you are interested in or there is a project that continually updates airports with lights.
I’ve already posted requests for 2 airports on Flightsim.to. Without lighting, it’s a challenge to navigate around other aircraft and obstacles. Some major airports too. One request was done. The other is still pending.
I really should take time to learn how to do minor scenery updates.
I found this tutorial series to be the best when learning. SDK Tutorial #1 - How to install and get started - Microsoft Flight Simulator - YouTube
Is there anything I can do to improve the lighting situation for default airports? The gate areas as incredibly dark and unrealistic. I am using the Xbox Series X
I agree. I landed at Munich last night and ran two men over
Hope they will fix it. I prefer play in real time. And now is winrner time))
Same here, the airports are very dark at night. It appears all outside lighting is off?
Love the sim. Currently difficult to see the apron at night. Turn on the lights?