Until FSDS 3.5.1 it was practically impossible to create true hard surfaces and attach lights to animated parts, etc.
This is my Stits Playboy (yes, that old FS2000 model reprocessed for FS-X)_ sporting an attached landing light on the right spat (and it moves with the landing gear compression!)
Here's the Air Creation ultra-light on my squished 6-sided die. It now sports a concrete hard surface onto which I rolled the AC.
All made with FSDS 3.5.1 and tagging things correctly.
As to the how:
It is my solemn duty
to obfuscate and
confuse.
Posts: 3442
Re: Landing lights
Reply #4 - Yesterday at 7:59pm Quote Modify Split Remove With the help and guidance of both Louis and Fr. Bill,....
create a small (or large, it shouldn't matter since the "attach point" generates no geometry) point for the effect to attach to.
In this case, I placed a small triangle just ahead of the part, and tagged "attachpt_landing_1" (note that per the FS-X SDK this NEEDS a unique name so that if you want a second landing light, you can name it "attachpt_landing_2" and add another blurb)
Then the following attachpoint xml blurb is added to a PartDataDefs.txt file in your main FSDS 3.5 folder:
attachpt_landing_1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?> <FSMakeMdlData version="9.0"> <Attachpoint name="attachpt_landing_1"> <AttachedObject> <Effect effectName="fx_landing" effectParams=""/> </AttachedObject> </Attachpoint> <Visibility name="general_light"> </Visibility> </FSMakeMdlData>
THERE MUST BE AT LEAST ONE ANIMATION IN YOUR MODEL. My first attempt, on a basic cylnder and attached light were not working. Note that the visibility condition is "general light" which is a part in the modeldef.xml file, therefore, if there is no animation, an *.xanim file is not there for xtomdl.exe to parse through the modeldef.xml file and you get a "fixed" light that doesn't respond to the "L" and "CTRL-L" keyboard commands.
To get the light "spread" I went whole hog and assigned the attachpt_landing_1 part a material that had all channels (sorry for the gmaxspeak) 255 and a specular of 40. With just the default material, you get a tiny point light.
I "aimed" the light with the Y axis. I rotated the part in x so as to point the Y axis opposite - to the rear of the plane -
IF you want a second landing light, it appears that you have to create a new attachpoint tag (attachpt_landing_2) and add a modified blurb to the PartDataDefs.txt file.
You would also have to add to the modeldef.xml file the appropriate visibility condition if it isn't already there, such as a taxi light
(The following is courtesy of Fr. Bill:
Add to the PartDataDefs.txt file:
attachpt_taxi_1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?> <FSMakeMdlData version="9.0"> <Attachpoint name="attachpt_taxi_1"> <AttachedObject> <Effect effectName="fx_landing" effectParams=""/> </AttachedObject> </Attachpoint> <Visibility name="taxi_light"> </Visibility> </FSMakeMdlData>
To the modeldef.xml file:
<Animation name="taxi_light" guid="43347384-cff6-479c-a654-9b9cd33e4f09" length="100" type="Sim" typeParam2="taxi_light" typeParam="AutoPlay" />
<PartInfo>
<Name>taxi_light</Name>
<AnimLength>100</AnimLength>
<Visibility>
<Parameter>
<Sim>
<Variable>LIGHT TAXI</Variable>
<Units>bool</Units>
</Sim>
</Parameter>
</Visibility>
</PartInfo>
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OF course I repeat my thanks to Louis and Fr. Bill, you don't think I can make all of this up myself, eh?
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the PartDataDefs.txt file is a straight text file placed in the main FSDS35 folder and will hold the attach point XML blurbs that FSDS will parse into the x file, and then process with xtomdl.
You should be able to add a scenery type xml blurb (Create the platform polygon, add the blurb to tell it its concrete or whatever) and have a hard surface. etc. I haven't tried the scenery aspect of it yet.
All thanks to Fr. Bill and Louis Sinclair who clarified the how to....
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