Sepia mask & light bloom at night still not fixed. Unrealistic ground effects still present. Unrealistic glow at night

[DrivingAddict07]

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ISSUE DESCRIPTION

Description of the issue:

Even though the issue with night lighting was marked as fixed & closed, the issue mentioned in the report for sepia mask & night lighting of cities is not resolved.

All cities have a glow around them, and land regions glow in the dark like radium.

Here are some screenshots of Helsinkii city and around with the glow.

To summarize the issue:

1. Cities and the land in/around them glow at night, looking unrealistic
2. Cities far off also have the glow, and excessive bloom
3. Sepia mask lights up places which should be completely dark
4. Bloom of night sky is unrealistic & excessive. It should be darker
5. Close to land, this effect seems less visible and lights look realistic

Attaching more screenshots just taken:

In areas like Dubai, this becomes more prominent and the ground is literally lit up like day! We can even see the dunes at night.

Here’s how Dubai looks at night in real life. a BIG difference!!:

ICAO, coordinates, or specific location: Any city

[PC Only] Did you remove all your community mods/add-ons? If yes, are you still experiencing the issue? Yes

FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

How often does this occur for you (Example: Just once, every time on sim load, intermittently)? every time during night time.

REPRODUCTION STEPS

Please list clear steps you took in order to help our test team reproduce the same issue:

YOUR SETTINGS

If the issue still occurs with no mods and add-ons, please continue to report your issue. If not, please move this post to the User Support Hub.

What peripherals are you using, if relevant:

[PC Only] Are you using Developer Mode or have you made any changes to it? NO

[PC, MSFS 2020 Only] Are you using DX11 or DX12?

[PC Only] What GPU (Graphics Card) do you use? RTX4080SUPER

[PC Only] What other relevant PC specs can you share?

MEDIA

Please add a screenshot or video of the issue occurring.

[END OF FIRST USER REPORT]

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For anyone who wants to contribute on this issue, Click on the button below to use this template:

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
•

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
•

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
•

[MrtnMrc1948]

Do you have the same issue if you follow the OP’s steps to reproduce it?
• YES

Provide extra information to complete the original description of the issue:
• LOOKS UGLY

If relevant, provide additional screenshots/video:
• Bring back what we had in 2020 alfa:

[Flic1McFly]

I do hope they can at least for the time being, push the radius of the sepia mask out further, similar to how it is in 2020. Right now it is way too close and things start to look bad once above 6000 feet…

[DrivingAddict07]

Yes, Sepia mask would look good only in the distance. Probably 100nm or so.
Right below, it should only be light points, overall brightening the scene like in the real image above(Dubai).

[Grinde81]

Just adding some more comparison shots, why current night build is completely off, pale brown color balance, illuminating of areas with no proximity to lamps, huge groundsplashes hitting roofs of buildings even though lamps below roof level giving the impression of light splashes on top of a 2d texture, lack of color / brightness variations :

(Note, screenshots taken right before taxi lights got reduced, so that part of the night scene should now look better)

(use arrow keys to toggle between images, as they are matched in location / focal length)

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[DrivingAddict07]

From your post, it’s evident that the sepia mask needs to be pushed further away, and the visibility of lights needs to be increased.

[Grinde81]

@DrivingAddict07

Also, the taxi lights are still visible unrealistically. No clue how was the previous bug closed after being just partially fixed

Sorry I forgot to add, these screenshots were taken right before the taxi lights got patched, I’ve edited my post now to clarify that.

[Foxhound6050]

it’s been a while that i didn’t do any single full flight at night because of this sepia issue. It’s horrible and it kills the immersion.

[DrivingAddict07]

Same here buddy, hoping this would be fixed, and we would have real night textures, not these arcade-y ones.

[WindlessHades14]

This issue has been reported multiple times since 2020 and each time they claim that it was resolved but never actually fixed it!!! I hope they completely redo the night textures .. In 2024 it became worse

[Owlimos]

as usual they will completely ignore this issue probably because they can’t do anything about it because it’s some where deep of the core lighting system, the problem is they claim they overhauled the lightning system, but from what i see it looks like same banana for me but rebranded

[Silvera1657]

They can at least remove this ugly sepia mask they have been using which is causing extremely unrealistic ground.

[ItsLafar]

REMOVE the SEPIA MASK Asobo PLEASE.
We do prefer having DARKER NIGHTS as they should be.

[DrivingAddict07]

Removal of sepia mask, and enhancement of ground light shafts will resolve the issue IMO.

[DrivingAddict07]

Unfortunately, bug not logged yet.

[Chewwy94]

I’m just checking to see if we have an already created internal log for this issue in our system, and if not I’ll make sure this gets logged right away!

Thanks
The MSFS Team

[DrivingAddict07]

Surely, thanks for the response!!

[dectenor1]

Yeah, hoping this gets fixed. Did my first night flight recently. Completely unrealistic. Did they never fly at night when developing the sim?

[moxiejeff]

No visible difference in SU1 beta either.

[CaptainCoop779]

Night Lighting has improved a little, but STILL LOOKS CHEEZY!

A Sim that prides itself on “the most realistic scenery” deserves a better night time look!
I’ve been saying this now for 4 years…