Suggestion/Bug-Report: Bring the 747-400’s Realistic Lighting Effects to the Rest of the Fleet

Dear IPACS Development Team,

I would like to take a moment to highlight something that your Boeing 747-400 add-on does exceptionally well. Despite being one of the older aircraft in the simulator, it still stands out in several areas. The overall realism is excellent, particularly the cockpit environment, the distinctive switch sounds, and the engine audio which still feels very convincing and immersive.

What impressed me the most, however, is the lighting implementation on the 747-400. The aircraft features very realistic lighting behavior, including the subtle “soft on / soft off” transition when lights are switched. For example, the runway turnoff lights and the taxi lights take roughly half a second to reach full brightness and the same short moment to fade out when switched off. It is a small detail, but it adds a surprising amount of realism.

Additionally, the logo light and wing illumination are modeled very accurately. At night the tail is properly lit and the wing lights behave in a believable way, which contributes greatly to the atmosphere during night operations.

This makes the lighting on the 747-400 noticeably more advanced than on many other aircraft in the simulator. Newer aircraft such as the 737NG, 737 MAX, 777, 787, A320, A350 and the A380 currently lack these kinds of lighting effects. The transitions are mostly instantaneous rather than gradual, and in particular the logo light is not visible at all during night operations.

Because the 747-400 already demonstrates that Aerofly FS 4 can simulate these effects very convincingly, it would be great to see the lighting systems of the other aircraft brought up to the same standard. Updating the lighting behavior and improving the visibility and realism of lights (especially the logo light, the taxi light and its and gradual illumination) would significantly enhance night flying across the entire fleet.

Thank you for your continuous work on Aerofly FS 4 and for the ongoing improvements to the simulator.

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

We simulate older lamps on the aging 747, more modern aircraft have lights that switch faster in the real world, which we accurately simulate, too. The A350 in particular has many light effects (available on high performance devices and desktop) - even some back scattering is simulated for the A350.

Thank you for the explanation. I guess I just got hooked to the old 747 lightning, it looks stunning.
Somehow, I'm still stuck with the issue that many aircraft do not show the logo light at all, did I miss anything? That should be clearly visible, right?

Aircraft lights are indeed enabled.

What is exactly the "aircraft's own logic"? I thought the aircraft kept the logo lights on during the entire flight, including cruise. Even when eg. switching the NAV&Logo lights on in the A320neo, they remain switched off. Can you ellaborate a bit more, is this feature exclusive to AeroFly?

Quote from Jet-Pack (IPACS)

Airbus decided to switch off the logo lights automatically when the aircraft is in the air and flaps are up. We fully simulate this, so if you extend flaps the flights should come on, if you retract them the lights turn off in flight.

That makes sense, thank you.

This poses however 2 follow-up questions:
1. Does the logo light have a trigger to reenable upon descent/approach? (eg. flaps and gear down)
2. Does the same logic apply to other aircraft, such as the B777, B737NG/Max, B787 and the A350/A380?

EDIT: I partly found the answer in the Airbus Maintenance Manual, 33-42-00 Logo Light System.
It basically says that the logo lights are automatically controlled through Weight-on-Wheels (WoW) and high-lift configuration logic, even when the NAV & LOGO switch on the overhead panel is selected ON.

Per AMM ATA 33-42-00 - Logo Light System, electrical power to the logo lights is enabled when either of two conditions is satisfied:

1. Aircraft on ground (WoW signal present)
   When the main landing gear shock absorbers are compressed, the LGCIU provides a WoW signal, which allows the logo lights to energize if the NAV & LOGO switch is ON.
2. High-lift devices extended
   If the aircraft is airborne but slats or flaps are extended, the system still permits logo light illumination.

If neither condition exists, meaning the aircraft is airborne and the high-lift devices are fully retracted (clean configuration), the system automatically inhibits the logo lights, even if the switch remains ON.

In practical terms, this means the logo lights operate on the ground and during takeoff/approach configurations, but they extinguish automatically in cruise when the aircraft is airborne with flaps and slats retracted. No crew action is required, as this behavior is normal system logic defined in ATA 33-42-00.

This applies however only to the A320 family, where the logo lights are automatically inhibited when the aircraft is airborne and the high-lift devices are fully retracted.

For the long-haul Airbus aircraft, such as the A330, A350 and A380, the AMM ATA 33-42-00 (Logo Light System) describes a simpler operating philosophy. The logo lights are primarily controlled directly by the NAV & LOGO switch on the EXT LT panel, and when this switch is selected ON, electrical power is supplied to the logo light circuits and the lights illuminate.

Unlike the A320 family, these widebody aircraft do not use automatic inhibition logic linked to Weight-on-Wheels or flap/slat configuration. Therefore, if the NAV & LOGO switch remains ON, the logo lights can remain illuminated both on the ground and in flight, including during cruise.

In practice, their use is generally governed by airline SOPs or crew preference, rather than by automatic aircraft logic, but from a system standpoint the AMM describes them as switch-controlled exterior lights without the WoW/high-lift automatic shutoff used on the A320 family.

I'm not sure if a similar approach has been applied to the Boeing fleet.