Is there a setting or image file for runway lights that anyone knows of?
I did my night training IRL last night and it was UNBELIEVABLY difficult to spot runways and beacons. (I’ll Edit with pics once I download the GoPro footage.). In the sim, get up to 3,000’ and you can spot every runway within 30nm, LOL. It is NOT like that IRL, I can assure you.
Concur. I am actually surprised that this has not created a big uproar at some point or another. I have learned to live with it (back when I was flying IRL, I would have loved the reverse!)
Apparently, there are not very many of us real-world pilots who love night flying enough to make an uproar.
I also would love to see pilot-controlled lighting implemented. At most airports, all you can see is the beacon until you click the transmitter a few times.
I complained that the airport beacons are tied to the wrong LOD levels, I’ve still had cases where the beacon pops in after I land, but I can see the approach lights 150 miles away. Also, annoying is the fact that runway edge lights are directional.
They are typically full 360 except where the taxiways are, as for most of the runway they’re just bulbs on poles. Yet somehow we get omnidirectional taxiway lights but not runway lights?
In short, yeah, I gave up, airport lighting is not properly done and apparently not enough people care to even get this onto the radar.
Yup. I remember that airports can be particularly hard to pick out at night, especially in urban areas/cities. The usual city lights (street lights, building lights, parking lots, etc.) are quite a bit brighter.
Agree on all points. I may have to revisit x-Plane (gasp) for night flying. ALL the lighting is customizable over there. 
Actually, many of us as airport operators are moving to LED fixtures for our runways and taxiway edge light systems. The lens system on the new LED fixtures are actually split lenses which render the fixtures directional to the runway/taxiway alignment with little spill to the sides. Maybe you have seen this effect when you’re flying IRL but that is why. We have had flight crews comment but not complain about reduced side visibility. My guess is the effect is exacerbated in the MSFS.
Because the runway lights require more energy to operate up thru HIRL intensity, you will still see more runway edge lights in LED at airports due to the energy/cost saving LEDs bring. Candescent taxiway edge lights require far less power to operate so you will see many twy edge lights remain the traditional omni-directional type while the runway is LED. But that will change - especially at big airports that draw a lot of power.
Interesting. I’d heard there was a push towards LED sources, but didn’t know that was having an effect on visibility to the side.
I haven’t yet seen it IRL but I’ve also been grounded for a few years now due to medical issues.
And on high intensity they are extremely bright. We almost don’t need ODALS now. I’m done geeking out now… 
While I agree that Runway edge and approachj lighting is too bright my old color blind eyes are challenged by the current Papi Lights. For the most part they are worthless except close-in and in partial daylight 1 pixel on the screen at distance does not cut it.
I was really happy to use the Mod in Xplane to correct the light intensity. It took a week or two to dial it in in Xplane but it was great!
I hope the lighting is on the MSFS roadmap in the coming year, It needs a lot of Love!
There’s got to be a .png, .json or similar that can be changed…
Any scenery developers out there know where to find the base set of lights?
Unfortunately, if there were such setting, someone would have found. In previous iterations (FSX/P3D) there were configuration files with light scalars you could edit to get clearer PAPI or runway lights.
IRL not all airports have the same equipment. Large metropolitan airports will have state-of-the-art lighting with variable intensity, while smaller airfields might have very basic systems.
Agree that approach lights have not been done properly. First of all, 24x7 operation is simply not realistic. When an airport has good equipment, at high intensity, the PAPI can be seen for really far away! Approach lights are not omnidirectional of course, the RAIL (twin flashing lights at the runway threshold at the approach edge) in the sim is flashing like mad, rabbit lights are not intense enough in the sim and behave completely differently than real life (the real lights flash extremely fast and once per second or so).
There could be improvements, but I guess that’s not #1 priority for anyone. You can all vote here
or here
I have also noticed that things like PAPI lights are extremely dim. Both during the day and at night you really cannot see them until you are within a thousand meters or so, which is way too late.
Runway and taxiway lighting is also very dim. (Maybe they need to put more oil in the lamps and trim the wicks properly? 
)
The runway light brightness is much easier to see in X-Plane, both during the day and at night.
Also airport lighting at night is abysmal and the landing/taxi lighting on the aircraft does little to improve visibility.
The result is that I really don’t like night-flying in MSFS.
I don’t agree that runway and taxiway lighting is very dim.
If I can pick it out of an urban environment easily while overflying, they’re plenty bright. That’s all they’re for. They are not supposed to provide illumination, but rather should almost look like an LED strip on either side of the runway/taxiway to help see where the borders are.
In the real world on a dark cloudy night, you cannot see the taxiway. You are entirely dependent on those lights. It’s a real challenge, and that challenge being translated to the sim is great. The taxiway lights especially are plenty bright. They’re not illumination, they’re guides.
While we’re on the subject, anyone with real-world experience feel like the landing/taxi lights on the aircraft are too bright?
You are right about taxiway lights, they are very close to reality. Runway lights are sufficiently bright as well.
What I said about PAPI lights comes from real life experience. There are airports and airports, and intensity levels. I have seen PAPI that was hard to positively identify during the day, but I have never seen a PAPI that can not be clearly seen at night. In the sim, that’s not the case.
BTW, I always remember flying in a very clear atmosphere in the blue hour over Kent in the UK. I was shocked to see Heathrow runways and PAPI clearly that time, that’s not usually the case. They must have set max intensity, but that was 20 miles away
Yeah, papis are bad.
I think the main problem with them isn’t their brightness though. They’re plenty bright even about 5 miles out.
The main problem with them is one of render scale. In order to have them accurately placed and built, they look too close together when projected onto the narrow screen.
I’ve partially solved this personally by tweaking FOV (through zoom) setting the zoom higher and then moving my camera eyepoint back.
I just wish I could do so permanently.
In the real world, papis are distinct enough out to about 5 miles, and past that they can start to blend together. In the sim, they don’t really get distinct until about 1 mile. They need to be spread out more in the render. One fix, a cheat of sorts, would be to scale their size with your distance, when 5 miles out they’re 2x their normal separation, at 10 miles, 3x.
100% !!! Asobo please increase the commercial and residential lighting of the entire WORLD for city /town/district/village/unincorporated area/metropolitan area! It needs it badly. You can be at FL200 over Sacramento and see KSFO that far out ! That’s complete immersion killer. Add a slider at least to
Increase these dynamic bloom lighting at night . Thanks
I use to fly a lot at night back in FSX and P3D. The lighting for airports and everything else in general made it much easier to see and looked more spectacular. In MSFS it is way too dark at night. I do like flying in MSFS at dawn and dusk though. I do this also because of the sun in the daytime. I use 3 monitors and no matter which direction I am flying there is always at least one monitor that’s all washed out. We need sunglasses too. There’s too much light in daytime and not enough at night.
Definite +1 for pilot-controlled lighting!
Considering not everyone has Oled or HDR etc. pilot controlled lighting is a good idea … however folk have to understand that ultimately it’s their monitor’s specs and settings that decides on maximum brightness and available contrast.
