AOA Indexer unreadable

I can't see any screen caps of how some of us see the AOA indexer, so I'll post from my view ... the sun was high (12 o'clock) and slightly to my right, so by no means shining on the lights. This is from a mission where I start in the air and change nothing in terms of light levels.

 

For such a critical instrument, its pretty useless! It would be great if it could be tweaked.

 

PS> And yes, the middle index light is lit!

You should calibrate your gamma (between 1.8 and 2.2) and then calibrate your monitor. Adjust brightness and especially contrast ( you want to tune it down a bit). If you compare your screenshot to IronMike's you notice your panels and canopy being nearly black. That indicates your gamma (or graphics card brightness/contrast/vibrance) settings are a bit off.

By default manufacturers set brightness and contrast pretty high to get that colorful Hollywood movie look on display in the shops.

There are some monitor calibration guides that help with that. If you don't want to bother with calibration tools, you can adjust your monitor quick and dirty, as well. Best start with brightness and contrast at 60% and set gamma in DCS to 2.0. Then dial up brightness until you can see every detail in the cockpit. It looks a bit washed out, so notch contrast up until the washed out effect is barely gone, finally tweak gamma in DCS down until it looks crisp.

After I optimized my brightness to about 80% and contrast to 70% I could put gamma in DCS to 1.9 and that made a hell of a difference. Keep in mind you need to adjust to your setup so try different settings until it works for you.

Not a perfect solution, but it helps.

For VR headsets this does not work, of course...

Edited July 16, 2020 by shagrat

Thanks shagrat for the suggestion, but I use VR (Rift S).

 

I have tried playing with the limited DCS settings, but you end up flying in a glowing world! Perhaps I'll have another go with the settings after the recent brightness changes.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Kula66

Thanks shagrat for the suggestion, but I use VR (Rift S).

 

I have tried playing with the limited DCS settings, but you end up flying in a glowing world! Perhaps I'll have another go with the settings after the recent brightness changes.

You may have a chance in the Nvidia control center. Not sure if settings there affect the rift, but at least worth trying...