Simviation Forum - Aircraft Lighting in FSDS

Jan 5^th, 2005 at 2:43pm

CAFedm Offline
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Hi all,

Ready to add lights to my project in FSDS V2. I've sorted out how to place the lights, change the format as required (e.g., nav lights, strobe lights), but cannot figure how to configure the on/off command - the lights appear on and remain on when the aircraft appears in the sim at all times. Pressing "L" key doesn't have any effect. Upon checking the tutorials I cannot find anything related to lighting except a section on light maps, which seems to relate to lit textures at night more than anything else. Thanks in advance.

- Brian

Brian

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Reply #1 - Jan 5^th, 2005 at 3:20pm

Felix/FFDS Offline
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What are you naming the lights?

Are you using light_land; light_nav; light_taxi?

Felix/FFDS

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Reply #2 - Jan 5^th, 2005 at 3:37pm

HABU Offline
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My personal preference is to have all the nav lights etc set in the aircraft.cfg file, except for the landing lights which I make as parts as Felix aludes to above.

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Reply #3 - Jan 5^th, 2005 at 3:43pm

CAFedm Offline
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Wow, thanks for the quick replies. Initially tried tweaking a borrowed aircraft.cfg file, and simply changed the coordinates to reposition the lights contained therein, but I cannot adjust the vertical settings - apparently this is a problem in FS2002 - if anyone knows a way around this, it would be the most hassle-free option. Ended up going back to FSDS examples and borrowed their "beacon" file. The fuselage light has retained the default name of light_beacon and the wing nav lights have been renamed light_nav_red and light_nav_green respectively. Once again, these lights work but always appear on, I am trying to determine how to be able to turn them off!

Brian

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Reply #4 - Jan 5^th, 2005 at 5:18pm

SilverFox441 Offline
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If you are using nav lights made in FSDS rather than FS effects lights (in the .cfg) you will want to go into the parts properties of the lights and add a "Pre Process" to make the parts visible only when the nav lights switch is on. There are similar pre process options for other light sources as well.

Hope this helps.

Steve (Silver Fox) Daly

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Reply #5 - Jan 5^th, 2005 at 5:58pm

CAFedm Offline
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Thanks Silver Fox, that's exactly what I was after, will give your suggestion a go shortly. While on the topic, of course I had to design this plane to have all sorts of weird features that FSDS doesn't seem to enjoy doing - here is a pic of the gear, the front leg has a moving strut door with an inbuilt landing light - upon assigning the part as such an error message came up stating that the light cannot be assigned as a keyframed part. Any ideas what to do here? ???

Brian

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Reply #6 - Jan 5^th, 2005 at 8:38pm

aceronzo Offline
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CAFedm
Make the landing gear part that you are attaching the light to a "Parent" of the landing light,then the landing light will move with the part,and no error.
Best Regards,
aceronzo

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Reply #7 - Jan 6^th, 2005 at 12:58am

CAFedm Offline
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Once again, thanks for everyone's help, all of the lighting is now operational save for the landing light - will try the latest tip out tomorrow.

Cheers - Brian

Brian

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Reply #8 - Jan 8^th, 2005 at 3:01pm

CAFedm Offline
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Need assistance once again,

Still having problems getting the landing light to work. Within FSDS V2, have assigned the part name "light_land" using the standard part name list, and included the pre-processes "Landing Light Switch on" and "Landing Light Switch off" in the part properties box (filter = aircraft only). As the light is part of the gear door (and has been made a child part of the door) I've also created a test file by drawing just a plain sphere and assigned similar values to it. This way it can be determined if there is a problem with the way the parts were set up. However, the same result occurs in each case - the landing light part is invisible when running FS2002, and when selecting all lights on, or even toggling the landing light switch, no lighting effect displays. I'm asking for help here as the FSDS tutorials don't seem to have any info on creating landing lights.

Brian

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Reply #9 - Jan 10^th, 2005 at 5:49pm

Brian_Gladden Offline
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First, Make a part the actualy looks like the physical light and housing. Name it landing light, make it a child of the moving gear part you want. Then copy and paste it and delete all the polygons except for the poly that faces to the front. Name this one Light_landing and make it a child of the moving gear part as well. Give it the condition of Landing light switch on ONLY. your error from before is the on and off preset at the same time messes things up.

Brian

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Reply #10 - Jan 10^th, 2005 at 10:49pm

CAFedm Offline
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Thank you Brian - although the orientation of the light needs tweaking, it now appears on/off as required - appreciate your help!

Brian

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