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[wolfiz]

Thanks for the replies and input getting this subject active again. What I was looking for was a more neutral look for buildings, not too dark and colorless, and with just the slightest bit of reflection, so I don't see rows of glaring shiny buildings always popping up.

I'm using TextCrawler Free, and it will batch search and replace entire sections of txt files with the exact indentation and spacing very quickly. I've used a lot of different utilities before to do these kinds of batch functions, and this is definitely one of the easiest and best.
http://www.digitalvolcano.co.uk/textcrawler.html

This is almost what I was looking for: clear, 12:00pm on Smolensk map
  Ambient 1.5
  Diffuse 0.2
  Specular 0.1
  SpecularPow 2
  Shine 0.0
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I might have Jeronimo's new hangars in a different folder, so is why they are not as neutral, need to check on that.

Ambient values under 1.0 become very dark grey and flat, and with the higher specular, dark and shiny, so this might be close to a good mix of values. Also I'm using Avala's Terrain lighting values with CloudShadows.mat and Landlight.mat, so that is affecting the object lighting too.

I havent tested dawn/dusk yet, but I can continue to tweak the values on my entire 3do/buildings folder very easily and test in flight in just a few minutes and compare screenshots.

EDIT: At dusk these setting are way too bright, so apparently any ambient settings over 1.0 are unusable..so back to the drawing board to find a good balance. One problem is the actual lighting distance on objects is much shorter than the object appearing distance.

[wolfiz]

Object lighting distance is directly related to LOD values in the .msh

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Using the (modded since it already had a msh in txt format - credit needed) industrial chimneys as a reference, since they display lighting at a much farther distance that most objects, while the small FactoryHouse1 was losing light and disappearing at a very short distance. Converted to txt and new lod values the house now displays the same as the chimney.. In this screenshot I am zoomed in: when I zoom back out to default FOV the smaller building in the town will disappear until I get closer.

[WxTech]

I prefer to not treat all buildings the same. Metal storage tanks are given a higher specular value of 0.3-0.5 and SpecularPow 16. Other buildings with metal roofs I give Specular 0.15-0.3 and SpecularPow 8-16. Sure, the non-metallic parts like brick walls will take on some shine, but this appears only when the Sun is nearly on the horizon and one's viewpoint is from ground level.  I can put up with that in order to have more 'dynamically' lit roofs as seen from above.

Incidentally, I modded the tops of the big industrial tanks which have noticeably rounded tops. I made those bulging tops--which to me look a bit cartoonish--significantly more gently curved. And this also looks better with my metallic shine settings.

Another thing worth trying. Make the Marsten mat (called PCP) runway surfaces shinier. I use Ambient 1, Diffuse 1, Specular 0.15 and SpecularPow 8. I've seen bits of real PSP planking in the Arctic, and it does have a diffuse shininess.

[wolfiz]

Here's an example of the difference with dusk lighting with stock  Ambient 1.0  Diffuse 1.0  Specular 0  SpecularPow 0  Shine 0.0 on the Crimea CountryHouse1 and   Ambient 0.8 Diffuse 0.5 Specular 0.1 SpecularPow  16 Shine 0.0  on the Crimea CountryBarn. I think I'll use the modded value for now and adjust it with more testing over time. 
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Here's what I wanted to achieve with LODs: the sun lighting on statics at dusk will disappear at distance when the lighted object renders less than 1 pixel. The downside is the increased CPU use, and there still seems to be an static object limit per cell you notice when over large cities, so swaths of buildings still are popping up when nearby..

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