Rework temporal Illumination, emissives and Material Interactions, emissive textures support for translucent materials

Enhanced Temporal Illumination for Realistic Lighting Cycles

In MSFS, the temporal illumination often causes programmed light cycles, like anti-collision or strobe lights, to appear off-timed. Real-world aircraft lights flash in precise cycles, but MSFS’s fading and ghosting effect extends their visibility beyond the programmed timing, creating an unrealistic effect. Lights with real-world timed cycles drift off-sync, fade in and out, or flash at irregular speeds, and feel out of rhythm with how they are actually programmed to behave due to the temporal illumination system.

Support for Emissive Textures on Translucent Materials

In real life, specifically on the Airbus A320 family equipped with sharklets (e.g the A320neo), one can often spot for example the strobe lights illuminate parts of the glass housing around the light source, creating a glow or “afterglow” effect that lights up the entire housing, it is quite an iconic and well known effect amongst aviation enthusiasts who regularly fly the A320. Currently, MSFS doesn’t allow translucent materials to support emissive textures, therefore also making this impossible to develop, and the strobe light source flickers in and out of view depending on perspective, not having real reflective behaviours, you can only see the light if you are in direct line of sight with the light source currently, which is incorrect behaviour.


Example of the upper strobe light illuminating the translucent casing surrounding it in real life

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Yes! I hope that this request includes ground strobes as well. The timing on strobes used for runway alignment indicator lights (RAIL - the “R” in MALSR), sequenced flashing lights (SFL - the “F” in ALSF), and runway end identifier (REIL) lights is not very good. Too bright during the day, not emissive enough at night, not fast enough on the discharge/decay rate of individual strobes), and not fast enough zipping down the “rabbit” line.

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Yes! Light sources generally need a rework, I hope Asobo has done something or will do something.