Hmmm, it's getting a little trickier.
Okay, at this point, I'd say go back to the offline arena settings and check the time of day setting. You may have reset the arena color, but if the time setting is for, say, late afternoon/dusk, you're going to get that dim gray sky look. Set the arena time to 12 noon (i.e., 12 pm) and try running a film; see if it helps. So just double-check that before going further.
If the time of day is correct and the sky is still gray in your films, there is something unusual going on that I've never seen. Sky color in the online arenas is set by HTC, and isn't influenced by your offline arena settings. Everyone sees the same sky color, basically.
However, my understanding of how the film feature works is that when you film an online sortie, it will capture the action as you saw it online, but certain things are still determined by your own system settings. For instance, gunsights. I've had squaddies send me films where I KNOW they don't use the same gunsight as I do, yet when seeing their film, it's the gunsight I've chosen for that plane that shows up in the viewer. I've seen this happen with icon colors too. So, even if the online arena sky color is hot pink, your offline arena sky colors and time settings should take precedence--given what I've observed.
If the time setting doesn't pan out, I can only suggest some additional testing to isolate the conditions under which this gray sky happens. For instance: load an old film you shot from BEFORE you started having the issue, and see if the sky in an old film that was previously good now looks gray.
Next, try filming an online sortie, and two offline sorties. Your online sortie will need no adjustments, naturally. For your offline sorties, leave your current, appropriate arena settings on for your first offline film. Then try filming an offline sortie where you radically change the sky color and time of day.
Then run them all in the viewer and compare your results. Is the gray sky visible in the older film? Does it hold for every film? If not, which films? And so, on. You get the idea.
If the gray sky holds through your entire test, then it may be a bug, or a bad copy of the film viewer. There could also be issues with your gfx card or settings, but if that were the case, you'd see the gray sky in online play too. At that point I'd summarize your results and your current gfx settings, along with a dxdiag, and send it to HTC to see if those folk can suggest anything
I've never actually had this situation occur, so I can only suggest a few things that might bring you closer to an answer.
Luck, Rattler.
