Runway lights

[NachtPiloten]

What do you use to put runway lights on our airfields? Is there a way to turn on/off the lights from the airplanes?

We can use lighted beacons too as a way to visually locate airfields? Is this true?

[Pat Pattle]

Hi Ted,

In the ETO vehicles folder are runway & approach lights of various colours. In amongst the facilities are ready made lines of lights that are placed via the MB over the top of your chosen airfield - takes a bit of fiddling to line them up. I think theyre on all the time though, Bob Park's your man and I think Steve 01 Driver is your man for the beacons.

Some other work was done, but it never got into the ETO. Its a project that needs tackling sometime.

[HouseHobbit]

Yes the beacon are in our ETO/PTO installs,( or will be with the update I believe) The runway lights are a pain to position sometimes..

I have a few tricks that help out on this..
They must be placed as a object to start with..
Then once you have them placed Closely, Use the (z) keystroke to get the position needed on the runway..
After you have them placed closely adjust direction (heading) the tricky part is getting the lights perfectly placed, if you have them too far right or left, that can be adjusted via: the mission builder.
I set the lights so they match the runway, then to get the degree of angle, I use notepad to set this.. You can break down the angle in tenths, Yes the mission builder doesn't allow for this but by using the notepad option..
( anything out of the norm, such as this must be reset, Via notepad if you open the mission with the mission builder)

Many of the runways in CFS3 ETO/PTO are not set at even degrees on the headings, so somethimes to get the runway lights perfectly placed, you may have to use tenths of a degree to get it right..
Then as you place the runway lights, check the placement by flying the mission..
You may have to open and check the position several times to be sure..
I have several missions uploaded, that give good examples of this setting up Runway lights..
It does take a lot of effort to place them correctly, But i believe it adds greatly to the mission..

You can't turn them off, I wish there was a option to do this, I am working on a spawn that will allow them to light up whenever you are near enough to see them.. But it is still in the early stages..
And working out the effects is killing me..LOL..Not a effects Master as some here are..
I hope this helps, e-mail me if you need my help on any of this..

[rbp71854]

Ted

The easiest way to set up the runway lights for a particular airfield is to place a bmp or jpeg copy the airfield texture in G-max, place your lights and then export a facilties file. You can then place the facilties file in the mission using the coordinates and heading of the airfield.

No way presntly to turn the lights on or off via the aircraft. You might be able to turn them on via a spawn file, but they would remain on indefinately.

Clive

I asked Kasey to place the prior work into the next update. I do believe it will be in 1.40.

[HouseHobbit]

Yes, you can't turn them off, that's is the problem..
The effect, isn't set up for this..
I can get them to spawn, but they stay, on..

[Pat Pattle]

just a silly thought.....If all of the lights on an airfield were made as one big vehicle model with the lights as guns/emitters, then I wonder if they could be made to 'fire' at you (ie. come on) as you approach? You can make other effects work by proximity so why not these?

...or did I put too much sugar on my cereal this morning??

[rbp71854]

Most likely doeable. The most qualified person to work on that is TDY over the skies of the panhandle.

just a silly thought.....If all of the lights on an airfield were made as one big vehicle model with the lights as guns/emitters, then I wonder if they could be made to 'fire' at you (ie. come on) as you approach? You can make other effects work by proximity so why not these?

...or did I put too much sugar on my cereal this morning??

[NachtPiloten]

just a silly thought.....If all of the lights on an airfield were made as one big vehicle model with the lights as guns/emitters, then I wonder if they could be made to 'fire' at you (ie. come on) as you approach? You can make other effects work by proximity so why not these?

...or did I put too much sugar on my cereal this morning??

Was thinking the same thing! It would be like the search lights so as you get near the light comes on and so forth. This would be nice to have with a airfield marker beacon too. I have made naviagtion beacons for the NJG that were used as directional highways for the pilots to follow as well as light beacons for rallying points, these were all used too. It is a shame we don't have radio navigation but at least the visual stuff works well.

[HouseHobbit]

WOW a little idea, can go a long way with this bunch, I think..
Bravo..

[Pat Pattle]

Was thinking the same thing! It would be like the search lights so as you get near the light comes on and so forth. This would be nice to have with a airfield marker beacon too. I have made naviagtion beacons for the NJG that were used as directional highways for the pilots to follow as well as light beacons for rallying points, these were all used too. It is a shame we don't have radio navigation but at least the visual stuff works well.

Perhaps we can play around with this idea sometime.

Radio navigation - this can sort of be done I think. Gecko made some radio chatter files & effects, one of which is a vehicle that fires a message at you! (if I have time it'll get into the BoB install). Someone would need to record the messages but a number of these strung along a route could give you directions or info as you pass them. It would be a fair bit of work but do-able I'm sure. It certainly adds atmosphere to hear voices in-game other than 'form up' or 'I can't do it' lol.