Replacement Day and Night Lighting (lights.txt) for X-Plane 10.20 1.1

Replacement Day and Night Lighting (lights.txt) for X-Plane 10.20

Version 1.1 - Mar 10, 2013

by Chris K and the ISDG Group

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1.1 Update: Added 4xSSAA, 8xSSAA Optional files

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Quick Description:

- Fixes PAPI/VASI visibility in daylight

- Makes every light bloom stand out, looks much more like the original X-Plane 10 that was first shipped. (remember that?)

- Fixes off-axis visibility of runway lighting as best as I could

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Detailed Description:

This file makes many of the scenery-related X-plane lights much larger; making them much more visible. This fixes issues with 4xSSAA which ends up squashing the light billboards so one cannot see them at distance. This also fixes viewing night-time runway lighting at off-angles, as well as PAPI/VASI Visibility in the daytime.

This file overwrites X-Plane's built-in library of light-source definitions. It replaces the lights.txt definitions with a duplicate definition file which exactly doubles the size of many of the light billboards, in both the horizontal and vertical directions for certain lights.

This method requires directly manipulating the internals of X-Plane 10; as there is no 3rd party-friendly LIBRARY method to achieve this effect. Removal can be done by copying back the lights-original.txt file to lights.txt, or re-running the X-Plane 10 Installer/updater, which will overwrite this file when you run it, and will revert the lights back to the original XP10 default.

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Which version is for you?

There are four variants included:

"1-lights.txt-normal-distance-bloom" / lights.txt

This file gives the best effect when using normal viewing modes, or in 2xSSAA HDR or less.

"2 lights.txt-high-distance-bloom" / lights.txt

This file gives the best effect if you wish larger light halos at distance. It is for normal viewing modes, or in 2xSSAA HDR or less.

"3 lights.txt-4XSSAA-normal-distance-bloom" / lights.txt

This file gives the best effect when using HDR 4xSSAA or higher (due to the "crush-the-bitmap" way 4xSSAA/8xSSAA does billboarding)

"4 lights.txt-4XSSAA-high-distance-bloom" / lights.txt

Similar to the previous file, this gives the best effect when using HDR 4xSSAA or higher, but includes large light halos at distance.

You are free to use any of these as you see fit. I encourage you to experiment - and see what works/looks best for you.

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INSTALLATION:

Overwrite the lights.txt file found in:

X-Plane 10/Resources/bitmaps/world/lites/

UNINSTALL:

Re-run the X-Plane 10 Installer/Updater

or copy in lights-original.txt into X-Plane 10/Resources/bitmaps/world/lites/

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FUNCTIONALITY:

Works on XP10.20 only. No guarantees on any other version.

Enjoy!

- Chris K