Aircraft Lighting Effects

[LE151]

Folks,
I hope I have this posted in the right place. I am trying to add strobe effects to some aircraft. However I've noticed that even though some of my payware aircraft have a [lights] section in the aircraft.cfg there is only one edit....ie....cockpit lights...with all the appropriate minus and pluses and number combinations for the placement of the lights. Yet the aircraft will have numerous other lights/switches that work.....ie.....nav lights, beacon light, formation lights....but no edit for the placement of these lights in the aircraft.cfg. So for the placement of my addon where do I need to look to find the proper placement for it. Would these aircraft light edits be somewhere in a gauge file or were they placed on the aircraft by some other means?????

Example Aircraft; VS F8F Bearcat (has only a cockpit lights edit under the [lights] section)

SU P-38 Lightning (similar)

[stansdds]

Some aircraft have the lights built into the model. In your example, the F8F Bearcat, this really makes sense. The F8F has folding wings, so the lights must be modeled as part of the wing. If the lights were in the aircraft cfg file, the lights would not stay on the wings when the wings folded, the lights would actually appear to hover in mid air. If you are trying to add strobe lights to an aircraft that has wings that fold or flex during flight, you might want to place the strobe effects on the fuselage and/or the top of the vertical stabilizer by adding the appropriate entries into the aircraft cfg folder. Adding the strobe light switch to the virtual cockpit might prove to be a real challenge if the VC is all 3D and does not have a space to add a 2D switch.

[LE151]

Thanks stansdds.........that makes a lot of sense to me now. I was happy to add strobe effects to some of Uncle Milts aircraft cause he already had the placement locations for the lights. I just put a strobe at the same locations on the fuselage and wings. Guess I'll have to find locations along the fuselage for the Bearcat for strobes and use some guess work or other freeware Bearcats and use their light positions as a guide. SU P-38 and AF "Uhu" give me the same problem. No flexing/folding wings there......guess they just decided to model the lights into the aircraft. Thanks again!!!

[tgibson]

Even with nav lights in the model itself you can still add strobe lights to the cfg file, as long as the wingtips don't move.

[stansdds]

Since there are no exterior light entries in the cfg file, placing the strobes will be purely trial and error. Knowing the position of the cockpit lights and the entries will at least help with a starting point.

[Blood_Hawk23]

I'm not sure how FSX does it but I did this along time ago for FS2002. I did the Zero and Corsair. Just turn the nav lights off if the wings are folded.

You probably already know all of this.

make sure the electrical system has all the right Busses and so forth. I'm not sure if its realy needed or not. But if you want seperate switches then you might need them. Here is are some examples.

[electrical]
;BusType, MaxAmpLoad, MinVoltage
;BusTypes:0=MainBus,1=AvionicsBus,2=BatteryBus,3=H otBatteryBus,4-7=Generator/AlternatorBus(1-4)
flap_motor = 0, 5 , 17.0
gear_motor = 0, 5 , 17.0
autopilot = 0, 5 , 17.0
avionics_bus = 0, 10, 17.0
avionics = 1, 5 , 17.0
pitot_heat = 0, 2 , 17.0
additional_system = 0, 20, 17.0
marker_beacon = 1, 2 , 17.0
gear_warning = 0, 2 , 17.0
fuel_pump = 0, 5 , 17.0
starter1 = 0, 20, 17.0
light_nav = 0, 5 , 17.0
light_beacon = 0, 5 , 17.0
light_landing = 0, 5 , 17.0
light_taxi = 0, 5 , 17.0
light_strobe = 0, 5 , 17.0
light_panel = 0, 5 , 17.0

You probably won't need them all.

Next are the lights themselves.

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
light.0 = 3, -6.80, -19.29, 0.79, fx_navred ,
light.1 = 3, -6.80, 19.29, 0.79, fx_navgre ,
light.2 = 3, -25.33, 0.00, 0.72, fx_navwhi ,
light.3 = 2, -6.63, -19.29, 0.79, fx_strobe ,
light.4 = 2, -6.63, 19.29, 0.79, fx_strobe ,
light.5 = 1, -24.18, 0.00, 6.17, fx_beacon ,
light.6 = 2, -8.00, 0.00, -1.60, fx_strobe ,
light.7 = 4, -8.00, 0.00, 2.70, fx_vclight,

Landing lights are part of the model so if you don't see them on the runway thats why.

If you want to edit the lights without the trial and error get ACM (Aircraft Container Manager). It will allow you to view the model and move the lights. Even help add the electrical. It works for FS2002, FS2004 and CFS2. I'm not sure if it works with FSX.

Thats all I have on the subject. Anything beyond that will be either model or VC related.

Good Luck with it all.

Till Later,
John