For years I have hated the way the Milky Way is depicted in FSX. I finally decide that after a few recent night flights, that I need to completely get rid of the horrible looking Milky Way in FSX.Here's what you need to do if your interested in getting rid it also. For the example I used DXTBmp and GIMP. You might be able to do the same thing another way, just make sure you dont wreck the alpha channel.1. Go into your FSX/scenery/global/texture folder and find the texture called MilkyWay_lm.dds and make a backup copy somewhere safe in case you make a mistake or want to revert back to in sometime in the future.2. Open it up in DXTBmp and it will look like it does in the screen shot below. 3. Go into Image and click Send to editor. Assuming you have it set to GIMP, Photoshop, or any other editor it will show up.4. Using the bucket fill, completely black out the image in solid black and press save.5. Go back into DXTBmp and press Image, then Reload after edit and the new completely black texture will show up.6. Simply resave it with the original compression which is DXT5 and replace it in the original folder that it came from and your done.I just did the whole process a few minutes ago and fired up FSX to test it out and it worked. Finally a completely back sky full of stars thanks to AutoStarsX and no cloudy looking Milky Way.If you want the Milky Way to still appear but not be so noticable, you could always tweak the MilkyWay_lm.dds to your liking, but for me making it completely transparent was the best looking solution.Hopefully for those of you who hate the look of it as much as I do will find this useful.

Thanks Sean.Will give this a go.

Sean, I take it this a standard FSX texture? If so, could you post the dds file for us?

Sean, I take it this a standard FSX texture? If so, could you post the dds file for us?

+1

Why would you want to get rid of a Milky Way? It's the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_(chocolate_bar) Al

Sean, I take it this a standard FSX texture? If so, could you post the dds file for us?

Yeah, I suppose since I basically made a new file in the way the guys who make custom cloud textures do, I could upload it to the Avsim library.

Why would you want to get rid of a Milky Way? It's the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way_(chocolate_bar) Al

Milky Way for mouth, good. :-)Milky Way in sim, bad. :-(

Can someone upload a "black" Milky Way? I domt Photo Shop or edit or know how too thanks!

sheesh, now the aliens will never find us again!

Being a daytime only flyer, I have never had a problem with the Milky Way; now the sun on the other hand...!!

Having seen the milky way with my own eyes... I'm confused as to why some would claim the FS version is bad?? It looks pretty accurate to me.

I live in LA (not far from KLAX), so I consider myself lucky if I can see Orion, much less the Milky Way, so that's not a huge problem for me when flying in my neighborhood! Heck, I live a few blocks from a Chevron oil refinery that decides to light up the night sky bright orange about once a month--I'd like to see FSX simulate that!

Having seen the milky way with my own eyes... I'm confused as to why some would claim the FS version is bad?? It looks pretty accurate to me.

I'v seen it a few times as well in real life and I dont doubt that the one in FS accurate or not, but in FS it just doesn't look go to me the way its displayed. Maybe if it was done in a different fashion, like the way AutostarsX displays stars it would be fine, but the way its done doesn't look good, to me at least. If AutostarsX could display it using a bunch of very dimly lit stars it would probably look more natural.In any case, the reason for my post was just to give people a way to get rid of it if they dont like the way it looks in the sim. In fact, I think I had seen posts in the past of people asking if they could disable it, I might have even been one of those asking that very question.

Why would you want to get rid of a Milky Way? It's the sweet you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite: http://en.wikipedia...._(chocolate_bar) Al

Hahaha. If anyone needs to look it up on Wikipedia, they weren't there! A finger of fudge is just enough, which always sounded a bit rude to me... Ian

For years I have hated the way the Milky Way is depicted in FSX. I finally decide that after a few recent night flights, that I need to completely get rid of the horrible looking Milky Way in FSX.Here's what you need to do if your interested in getting rid it also. For the example I used DXTBmp and GIMP. You might be able to do the same thing another way, just make sure you dont wreck the alpha channel.1. Go into your FSX/scenery/global/texture folder and find the texture called MilkyWay_lm.dds and make a backup copy somewhere safe in case you make a mistake or want to revert back to in sometime in the future.2. Open it up in DXTBmp and it will look like it does in the screen shot below. 2.jpg3. Go into Image and click Send to editor. Assuming you have it set to GIMP, Photoshop, or any other editor it will show up.4. Using the bucket fill, completely black out the image in solid black and press save.5. Go back into DXTBmp and press Image, then Reload after edit and the new completely black texture will show up.6. Simply resave it with the original compression which is DXT5 and replace it in the original folder that it came from and your done.I just did the whole process a few minutes ago and fired up FSX to test it out and it worked. Finally a completely back sky full of stars thanks to AutoStarsX and no cloudy looking Milky Way.If you want the Milky Way to still appear but not be so noticable, you could always tweak the MilkyWay_lm.dds to your liking, but for me making it completely transparent was the best looking solution.Hopefully for those of you who hate the look of it as much as I do will find this useful.

 

Hi cmpbellsjc,

 

if you are reading, could you kindly send me your modified "MilkyWay_lm.dds" ?

 

This is me email: biassalaregis[]hotmail.com

 

I would like to try your solution tonight if possible

 

Thanks

Regis

As an Amateur Astronomer and Astrophotographer, I am sad at your attempt to remove the Milkyway from FSX!

It’s bad enough that light pollution is destroying the real view of it, now you don't even want a simulated view?? What the ?

 

Here is a shot of a portion of it I took years ago:

http://www.wanthonyphotography.com/viewer.cfm?fid=31&folder=gallery

 

Ok, Maybe you just don't like the FSX version.. but in all honesty, I think it is pretty good. Maybe a little to bright over cities, but

probably realistic from darker rural areas.

 

Now if Aerosoft could make a MilkyWay and Planetarium add-on for FSX, I would be all in!!!

 

B.