Help Needed With Lights

[pstrany]

Hi;

Have a bird in FS9, and I want to put a tail nav light on her. The problem is that the light is mounted on the rudder well away from the axis of rotation. I've installed the light, looks good, but when I twist the rudder, the light stays stationary. Any fix for this, or do I just have to squint and live with it?

Thanks!

Paul

[Wozza]

Hi Paul
If its an effect then affraid they stay put.So you will have to move it forward to the horiz stab.
If its a model object,then child perent the nav light to the rudder,Its best to child a housing to the rudder then the light source to the housing so you can tweak the axis for the light sourse
Wozza

[pstrany]

Hi Paul
If its an effect then affraid they stay put.So you will have to move it forward to the horiz stab.

Hmmm, I'm a bit of a purist (READ: pain in the *ss) so that is not an option I favor.

If its a model object,then child perent the nav light to the rudder,Its best to child a housing to the rudder then the light source to the housing so you can tweak the axis for the light sourse
Wozza

Okay, that might work, but I've got questions. Keep in mind that I build for CFS2, using FSDS V2. Because FSDS V2 models will work in FS9, my aircraft also work in FS9, but they are not designed for it (and so I have little knowledge about it.)
So how would I go about doing this? I am familiar with the parent/child stuff, my rudder (Me 262) already has a light lens and other parts present that co-exist with (and are linked to) the rudder. How would I create this "light source"? In FSDS V1 I was able to render an object that would only display when the Nav lights were on, and I just made it emmissive, but this does not seem to work for FSDS V2 (at least not in CFS2.) I realize that FS9 and CFS2 are not the same animal. Do I have to generate a FS9 model with FSDS V2 for this to work?

Thanks!

Paul

[Merlin66]

Collin had a tut on the subject of lights in CFS2. No issue when complied for FS9.

The light "source" has to be set as a pre-process Day or night condition to show up. Don't use the L_ name for lights in CFS2 or it's NBG.

[gramps]

I'm afraid you will have to make 2 seperate models.

In gmax, you make a small part an name it LIGHT_NAV. You have to assign a color to it named the same thing(light_nav).

Since ya make the part it can be linked to move with anything you want it too.

Now the downfall, it doesn't workin cfs2. And if left on the model, planes with it will crash cfs2 in everything but freeflight.

[Merlin66]

I think Gramps is right. If you build the model and use the std part names L_nav etc and compile into CFS2 things go horribly wrong. However the same model compiled into FS9 should work 100%

My comments earlier were to allow "fake" nav lights in CFS2. They need to switch using day/ night pre-process. Hope this helps. (I've used this on the YAS spitfires)

[Wozza]

Hi
FS9 uses a g_lightStates with a hex address for each sub system of lights.
due to fsds being updated to use these new functions this caused some cfs2 functions to stop working or ctd.
As for cfs2 lights the light source works,so the only thing need doing is to find a way to switch then on/off,you will need to preprocess the light source.
Some of the things that work
tag the light source as any unused animation animate it so its keyframes 0 and 100 are in the same place,next preprocess the source an use a InFRange
value1 95 value2 100 then find a gauge which toggles this animation.The down side is the lights will take a few sec to switch on as the animation is slow.(this is great for landing lights as you can infrange them using the landing gear)

Have a look at the mdl_paramDict_cfs2.txt anything with a ; in front of it has been commented out,so you will get an error when compiling for cfs2 if they are used.Removing the ; will allow it to compile but may cause a ctd in cfs2.The author of fsds has stated that not all the commented out ones will cause probs he just didnt have time to check them all out.

You can also preprocess the lights to come on when dark,or you could do a preprocess like so
Variable ID = hour (unceck Aircraft Variable checkbox)
Operation = And
Value 1 = 0x0010 (visable between 4pm and midnight)
Value 2 = 0
you can use most of the scenery Variable ID's this way.
Another thought would be to use a radio channel simular to the opening hanger doors to toggle lights on off
as a final note some raw sld macros will work with cfs2 (havnt found one yet for lights but the search continues :) )
hope this is of some help
Wozza

[jetstreamsky]

I'm afraid you will have to make 2 seperate models.

In gmax, you make a small part an name it LIGHT_NAV. You have to assign a color to it named the same thing(light_nav).

Since ya make the part it can be linked to move with anything you want it too.

Now the downfall, it doesn't workin cfs2. And if left on the model, planes with it will crash cfs2 in everything but freeflight.

Using search I found this old thread referring to something I'm trying to do and that is have a tail lamp that moves with the rudder it's attached to. I've modelled the parts and called the lens light_nav as suggested above, but I'm not familiar with assigning a colour that's mentioned. What exactly is it I need to do ?

It's for an FS9 model made with GMax

Allan

[Milton Shupe]

Using search I found this old thread referring to something I'm trying to do and that is have a tail lamp that moves with the rudder it's attached to. I've modelled the parts and called the lens light_nav as suggested above, but I'm not familiar with assigning a colour that's mentioned. What exactly is it I need to do ?

It's for an FS9 model made with GMax

Allan

Allan,

All you need is a texture the color of the light you want ... and use that for the material applied to the light named object.

EDIT: I went back and checked our Spartan and D18S. In FS2002/2004 you did not need a mapped planar or texture assigned... just assigning the default standard material an appropriate gmax color worked. You probably cannot get by with that in FSX, at least after SP1.

Attached is the elevator of the D18S, its two nav lites. Simply two planars with a gmax color assigned. I see no issue doing that and mapping the objects and applying an appropriate texture.

[jetstreamsky]

I'm not quite there Milton, See attached pic for details of what I have, but so far no working illumination effect.

I made a 32 bit map called white.bmp in the diffuse line of the material editor and assigned it to the plane which has mesh select and UVW mapping applied. I set the Z axis in local to extend out from the plane and also used the same name for the plane as in your example in case it has some meaning in fs.

What have I missed / messed up ?

I also tried using the self illumination parameter which certainly causes a 'lit' surface, but all the time.

[Milton Shupe]

I'm not quite there Milton, See attached pic for details of what I have, but so far no working illumination effect.

I made a 32 bit map called white.bmp in the diffuse line of the material editor and assigned it to the plane which has mesh select and UVW mapping applied. I set the Z axis in local to extend out from the plane and also used the same name for the plane as in your example in case it has some meaning in fs.

What have I missed / messed up ?

I also tried using the self illumination parameter which certainly causes a 'lit' surface, but all the time.

Allan,

Lights are difficult at first. Here is why:

1. The pivot of the planar (with the proper makemdl tag name) to which you assign the material dictates the location of the light source to FS.
2. The planar must be linked to a parent the pivot of which dictates the direction of the light beam (like for the landing lights). The light beam shines the opposite direction of Z.

I hope this helps.