Question to the aircraft creators: landing light effect

[Daube]

Hi all,

As far as I have understood, when one creates a plane, he attaches the landing light effect directly to some parts of the 3D model.
This landing light effect is supposed to be fx_landing.fx.

My question: is the effect file directly included in the model of the plane ?

I ask this because I have replaced my fx_landing.fx file by another one, which is supposed to display something completely different, and there is absolutely no effect at all, the landing lights of all the aircrafts continue working as before. What did I miss ? :isadizzy:

[Bjoern]

No, it isn't normally built into the model (except for that L-39).

Is the aircraft.cfg using the right .fx file?

[PutPut]

In FSX the landing light is always built into the .mdl with an attachpoint. If you try to add it in the .cfg file there will be no splash on the ground. You can add nav lights, cockpit lights etc., in the .cfg file, but not landing lights.

Cheers, Paul

[Daube]

Thank you PutPut, this confirms what I've seen during my experiments.
Bjoern, the landing lights do not appear in the CFG of the plane.
I'm now pretty sure that even if I would delete the fx_landing.fx file, all of the landing lights of my planes would still work perfectly.

Basically, I've been asking this question because one of the SimViation members has found a nice freeware 3D light effect, very similar to the payware 3D Lights Redux. I'm now progressively adding it to my planes, but guessing the correct coordinates is not easy. Since they do not appear in th CFG, I'm forced to go with the trial and error method, which is a pain...

[Lionheart]

PutPut (Paul) is on it.

In FSX and FS2004, when you make that model, you have to add the parts that will shine on the ground. If the model has no landing lights polygons in it, then no matter what effects you add, your runway will not illuminate at night. You can have effects in the config, but your ground will not light up.

In the config files, those effects are mearly for the visible light source and or rays emanating from it.

[Daube]

Yes I came to the same conclusions.
Too bad, I was looking for an easy way to add generically those 3D lights to all the planes at once, but this won't happen.
However, I have now successfully added this 3D light to my old Cessna C182.
I'll take some time to modify my other planes later. This effect is really cool !

[Bjoern]

Any link?

Sounds interesting.

[Wozza]

Hi
The attached lights in the model use the fx_landing.fx effect
whilst it appears there is some other hard coded data that comes into play when the lights are used in the model rather than the cfg. If you remove the fx_landing.fx from the effects folder the hard coded landing lights in the model stop working.
What gets me is there is a catch22 with attached lights ver the cfg added lights.The attached lights wander when viewed from a distance(eg tower view) but its the only way to get the runway lite,the cfg lights dont wander but dont light the runway DOH!...... There is a workaround but its only of use if the lights are fixed and not on a movable surface.
Anyway back on subject :)make sure you exit the sim fully before testing any effect changes as effects can stick in memory which means you may not see the changes......linkage to the freeware lights? :D
Wozza

[Daube]

Thanks for the explanations, Wozza !
You'll find those lights at Simviation (http://www.simviation.com/simviation/?ID=69&page=8&mark=5704 ) or directly on the authors website, Deltasimstudio (http://www.deltasimstudio.com/download_freeware.htm ). You need the SirrocoGTX2.
On the Simviation forums, Applepie is preparing a CFG pack for some of the best-known freeware planes.
The trick had been revealed originally by Frequent Flyer on that same forum, but somehow nobody noticed (me included). Applepie brought everything back to minds recently.

I suppose one can use the CFG updates that were made for the 3D Lights Redux as well, since I suppose this payware addon works in the same way, and needs the same kind of CFG modification.

In the meanwhile, I decided to leave the original landing light effect untouched, in order not to lose the light on the runway, and I simply added those 3D lights as additionnal lights. The results please me. :jump:

http://sapdaube.free.fr/fsx/daube_image963.jpg

http://sapdaube.free.fr/fsx/daube_image970.jpg

http://sapdaube.free.fr/fsx/daube_image971.jpg

[Sky~6]

Daube,

I am interested in those lights...can you provide more info on these...they look great.

I looked at the link you provided for the YAHT...but could find no reference to the lights...

Thanks, and Aloha,
Sean

[Daube]

The lights are in the effect with "reflector" in the filename. You'll have to add it to the aicraft.cfg in the [LIGHTS] sections as an additionnal light of type 5 (landing light), with the correct coordinates.

[n4gix]

In FSX, the file named fx_landing.fx is what must be specified in the exterior .mdl file via an attachpoint as already mentioned.

However, what is not generally understood is that, similar to the Material Name LIGHT_LAND in previous versions of Flight Simulator, the filename fx_landing.fx is similarly hard-coded in FSX and acts as a trigger for FSX to auto-generate the "ground splash polygons."

That is why we cannot create "custom landing light .fx files," or at least that's the reason given to me by several of the former ACES developers during the development of FSX.

Oddly enough, I did manage (somehow!) to get a "custom landing/taxi light .fx" file to work consistently with one specific model (the freeware Global Express XLS) "fx_land_glx.fx" but...

...subsequent attempts to use this same effect file in another a/c model failed entirely!

BTW, the entries in the fx_landing.fx file are used only to generate the "point light source" for the landing/taxi lights, and may be edited to mimic the appearance and behavior of the 3D Lights Redux. This however would be a classic case of "a bad idea" since it would apply universally to ALL a/c in the sim...

...although with a little experimentation it might be made to work well enough for most cases.

[Daube]

Thanks for those additionnal explanations !:ernae:
I never thought about taking a look at the fx_landing.fx coding. I'll do that now.