Faint stars in P3Dv5.2

[Heronjr]

Good day,
I have been searching for this subject and found few comments about the stars since P3Dv5 was released. In P3Dv4 my night sky was pretty normal, with the stars appearing slowly during and just after sunset, and becoming brighter and crowdy as the night went darker. I used the original stars.dat file and sometime after I installed the freeware Autostarx, which depicted very nice night skies to the sim.

With P3Dv5.1, the stars became strange and very bright, appearing one hour before sunset, about which I've read some user complains. Autostarx also did not work well in this version

With P3Dv5.2, I almost lost the stars. They are all faint and only a few appear even at midnight. The Moon and the Sun are normal. I've tried some lightning different settings, but with no success. Recently I upgraded my system from RAM 16GB to 32GB and GPU from GTX1060 to RTX3060, but although I could set up some sliders, nothing changed in the P3D astronomy field.

I would like to hear your impressions, because I have a feeling I'm doing something wrong, or there is a weather factor (EA or ActiveSky?) involved.

Regards,

[Martyson]

@ Heronjr ,

“With P3Dv5.2, I almost lost the stars. They are all faint and only a few appear even at midnight.”

Are you using a full install of P3Dv5.2 or P3Dv5.2HF1 (not just a Client Update)?

Where is your observing location?

Do you happen to have a screenshot (location / date / local time) without Add-ons (default P3D)?

[Sky_King]

Try turning off EA.

[Heronjr]

Are you using a full install of P3Dv5.2 or P3Dv5.2HF1 (not just a Client Update)?
Full install. When I upgrade, I always wait for the first HF (I am a programmer too). I uninstalled P3Dv4 and installed v5 HF1 at its fullest.

Where is your observing location?
Any location, as USA KMRY, KEUG, KHQM, or Australia YPAD, YSCB, or Brazil SBRJ, SBBR, SBRF, or Europe ENGM, EGPH, crossing North Sea, or Africa, crossing Sahara. Any location.

Do you happen to have a screenshot (location / date / local time) without Add-ons (default P3D)?
No. Are there any add-ons which could cause this?

[Heronjr]

Try turning off EA.

I will try this. But, if this is the case, my option will be the faint stars.

Thanx

[Martyson]

Are you using a full install of P3Dv5.2 or P3Dv5.2HF1 (not just a Client Update)?
Full install. When I upgrade, I always wait for the first HF (I am a programmer too). I uninstalled P3Dv4 and installed v5 HF1 at its fullest.

Where is your observing location?
Any location, as USA KMRY, KEUG, KHQM, or Australia YPAD, YSCB, or Brazil SBRJ, SBBR, SBRF, or Europe ENGM, EGPH, crossing North Sea, or Africa, crossing Sahara. Any location.

Do you happen to have a screenshot (location / date / local time) without Add-ons (default P3D)?
No. Are there any add-ons which could cause this?

@ Heronjr ,


If you get a screenshot (location / date / local time) without Add-ons (default P3D) then other pilots can verify.
You mentioned : Autostarx

[Heronjr]

If you get a screenshot (location / date / local time) without Add-ons (default P3D) then other pilots can verify.
You mentioned : Autostarx

Autostarx is a freeware which produces only a stars.dat file and works very well in FSX and P3Dv4. I only installed it to see if it would make a difference in P3Dv5.2, because the stock stars.dat file already produced the poor sky on the original Sim. It did not make any good. If you see what Autostarx does to FSX skies, you would never stop flying at night.

Anyway, as add-ons, I use what most simmers use, as Orbx Global, regions, vectors and some airports. I also use ActiveSky, ASCA, Ezdok, and AIG for AI traffic. If someone has a minimum decent rig like mine, those add-ons are the least to have some fun. Otherwise, flightsim would not be my more than 30 years hobby.

Regards,

[Heronjr]

Good day,
The problem with my P3Dv5.2 HF1 stars is exactly EA set ON.

Just turning off EA, the stars appeared immediately, covering all the sky. But, differently from P3Dv4 versions, these stars are much brighter, and most of them at the average same size. Something like the sky was covered by planets the size of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Venus, as seen from Earth . There aren't small and tiny stars between the bigger. An artificial sky like those in children theater plays sceneries.

More problems here: My test was in Monterey KMRY at dusk. The Sun was starting to dive in the Pacific, reflecting strong sunlight on the ocean waters, and the orange West sky was already full of those bright stars, which is not the reality. Of course we can see Venus or Jupiter during sunsets, but not that many stars party.

In Lightning settings, I use Brightness = 1, Contrast = 1, and Bloom = 1. Changing brightness up or down doesn't change anything about the stars.

Then I reinstalled the AutostarX freeware, injecting a new stars.dat file well bigger than the stock file. The resultant night sky was a bit better, now with some small stars between the bigger, but definitely not equal the beautiful and real skies I had in FSX or P3Dv4. Today I will try to inject more stars via the Astronomy SAO Catalog provided by the Smithsonian Institute in order to see if things get better.

Let me clear a point here: In FSX or in P3Dv4, with the add-on AutostarX installed, while flying, I could identify many famous constellations as Scorpion, Orion, Cassiopeia, and the planets in their correct places along their Zodiac path. For instance, you identify the Scorpion not only by its drawing, but also for the contrast of the different brightness of its stars against the other faint objects around. Last year we had a planet alignment with Jupiter and Mars and I could see this alignment in my simulator sky via AutostarX, the same way I could see that from my house.

My conclusion is that there is a graphic glitch introduced in P3Dv5 which does not permit fine illumination tuning in things like stars. It is possible that this illumination glitch has been also affecting panels and airport ramps at night. In my specific case, my aircraft cannot illuminate the ground and my Milviz KA350i panel is too dark. I have heard many complains about this and some culprits are named as EA, add-on shaders and some other settings, and of course, others bordering conspiracy theories.

Regards and thanx for the help,

[Heronjr]

Good day
Here's a solution I've found after some laboratory work:

Using AutostarsX freeware, I could inject more than 100,000 stars in the P3D sky, via creating a new and bigger stars.dat file. But it must be used this software TOOLS button to open an advanced window which will import a special file called SAO.dat containing some 250,000 celestial objects. The author recommends a maximum of 155,000 stars to import.

There are some parameters to fill before importing, so I recommend to read the nice manual the author provides. There, you will learn that tweaking with the minimum Star Magnitude parameter you get more or less stars imported. In Astronomy, the less the number of magnitude, the brighter is the star, so I went from 7 to 9 and got those 133,000 stars. Otherwise, you'll get around only 16,000 stars.

Then, when starting the Sim at night, I could see a real starry night, with brighter, less bright and faint objects, according to their magnitudes. I also took the Brightness slider to 50% and got a better night sky.

Fact is, the stock stars.dat file has some 9,000 stars, most of them within the bright magnitude scale, so the faint are rare.

It is very important to read the AutostarsX manual, because the Smithsonian Institute SAO.dat file search is somewhat tricky.

Reagrds,

[Phillip2]

Good day
Here's a solution I've found after some laboratory work:

Using AutostarsX freeware, I could inject more than 100,000 stars in the P3D sky, via creating a new and bigger stars.dat file. But it must be used this software TOOLS button to open an advanced window which will import a special file called SAO.dat containing some 250,000 celestial objects. The author recommends a maximum of 155,000 stars to import.

There are some parameters to fill before importing, so I recommend to read the nice manual the author provides. There, you will learn that tweaking with the minimum Star Magnitude parameter you get more or less stars imported. In Astronomy, the less the number of magnitude, the brighter is the star, so I went from 7 to 9 and got those 133,000 stars. Otherwise, you'll get around only 16,000 stars.

Then, when starting the Sim at night, I could see a real starry night, with brighter, less bright and faint objects, according to their magnitudes. I also took the Brightness slider to 50% and got a better night sky.

Fact is, the stock stars.dat file has some 9,000 stars, most of them within the bright magnitude scale, so the faint are rare.

It is very important to read the AutostarsX manual, because the Smithsonian Institute SAO.dat file search is somewhat tricky.

Reagrds,

Hi there

Please consider..AutostartsX is a program back from the year 2006!

Flight Sim Juvels/Night Sky HD is an uptodate program dealing with the exact same issue - however with a much more clear, fast and simple approach (based on Chris Wright's original AutostarX).
Worked for me in a glance!

https://flight-sim-jewels.com/night-sky-hd/

Cheers,
Morten

[Heronjr]

Hi Morten,

Thanks, I'll try it.

Regards
Heron