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P3Dv4 Dynamic Lighting

Christian Bahr

Resource contributor
Messages
951
Country
germany
Are all the lights visible in this image dynamic lights? Including the lamp posts with orange light splashes? And if so what is the performance impact like?
Yes, these are all dynamic P3DV4 lights in the pictures. A total of 27 dynamic lights were installed at the airport. In Hengsen 12 dynamic lights were adjusted. And again, some dynamic lights were placed on the helicopter field at the clinic.

The influence on the fps / perfomance is comparatively low, because here the graphics card calculates this. On my somewhat older system, it still runs very smoothly - although the many lights

But the following applies: the more lights, the higher the influence of the frame rate. For me it is with relatively high graphics settings not under 30fps / sec

My system:
Win10 64-bit
P3DV4
FTX Germany North
Ultimate Traffic 2 @30%
Airport Addon EDLW

I7 4770k @ 4.3Ghz
ASUS Z97 Pro
8GB RAM @1600Mhz
ASUS GTX760 2GB
320GB Seagate HDD
 
Messages
187
Country
us-florida
Lockheed Martin must come up with a patch or hotfix because the toll on the fps is quite heavy when this is used.
 

Christian Bahr

Resource contributor
Messages
951
Country
germany
Lockheed Martin must come up with a patch or hotfix because the toll on the fps is quite heavy when this is used.
This is too indifferent and therefore incorrect. The developers of the P3DV4 have done a very good job, because many computing processes have been moved by the CPU now also the graphics card. This also affects the dynamic lights! And as I said, on my old system, I have a very good frame rate and also a very good overall performance. These are also the experiences of many friends of Simulator friends.

Allow me a question: What system do you have?
 
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Messages
108
Country
portugal
Thank you all.

Gmax is not working very well, so I'm not able to attach effects. :(

I have attached an effect with modelconverterx to one object and find out that only some effects light are considered dynamic, or my pc is too weak!!
fx_landing.fx works fine.

I had copy and rename this effect, attached and I have checked that does not work as dynamic.
So one new question:
- How to transform one effect into to dynamic (maybe there are some prepar3d xml with effects list that are consider dynamic)

The model:

upload_2017-6-10_23-34-20.png



Another detail that I have found is that one dynamic light pointed to one wall is illuminating that wall and all the objects beind.
In the model of the Picture, the light inside of Dome is illuminating the ground and the platform above the door. :(

What I'm doing wrong in the object or happens also to you?

It would be nice to create one effect that represents a fluorescent light. :)

Thank you all.
 
Messages
12
Country
italy
It would be nice to create one effect that represents a fluorescent light. :)

Thank you all.



Creates new effect, spotlight giving the angle and light diameter values.

luci3.jpg

I attached the created effect.


Code:
[Library Effect]
Lifetime=5
Version=2.00
Radius=-1
Priority=0

[Properties]

[Emitter.0]
Lifetime=1.00, 1.00
Delay=0.00, 0.00
Bounce=0.00
Rate=1.00, 1.00
X Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
X Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
X Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Y Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Z Rotation=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Pitch=90.00, 90.00
Bank=0.00, 0.00
Heading=0.00, 0.00

[Particle.0]
Lifetime=0.00, 0.00
Type=28
X Scale=10.00, 10.00
Y Scale=0.00, 0.00
Z Scale=0.00, 0.00
X Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Y Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Z Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
Color Rate=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Fade In=0.00, 0.00
Fade Out=0.00, 0.00
Static=1
Face=0, 0, 0

[ParticleAttributes.0]
Color Start=0, 0, 0, 0
Color End=255, 255, 200, 110
Bounce=0.00
X Scale Goal=50.00
Y Scale Goal=50.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Falloff Exponent=2.00
Inner Cone Angle=15.00
Outer Cone Angle=120.00
 
Last edited:
Messages
187
Country
us-florida
This is too indifferent and therefore incorrect. The developers of the P3DV4 have done a very good job, because many computing processes have been moved by the CPU now also the graphics card. This also affects the dynamic lights! And as I said, on my old system, I have a very good frame rate and also a very good overall performance. These are also the experiences of many friends of Simulator friends.

Allow me a question: What system do you have?


check this out:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/512411-dynamics-lighting-brought-my-gtx-1080-to-its-knee/
 
Messages
108
Country
portugal
Thank you for the effect.
I used over the door and looks great.

upload_2017-6-15_11-6-30.png



I had inserted the same light into the dome but there are one detail that remains happening. The light pass through the walls:

upload_2017-6-15_11-8-36.png



What I'm doing wrong with the material?

I think that I'm also failing with glass. Has it can bee seen in the image above, looks like that glass miss the green densitiy comparing with the day:

upload_2017-6-15_11-11-8.png




Thank you all.
 

Christian Bahr

Resource contributor
Messages
951
Country
germany
check this out:

The influence of the dynamic lights depends on the basis on which the effect was created. For example the "fx_landing.fx" file have a very high influence on the fps. So you can say that you better not used for its dynamic lights, but only for the landing light on the airplane. The new light spots, on the other hand, have a lesser influence on this. But if you use effect files that are based on a texture (just like a normal effect), you have the least influence on the fps.

This is all meticulously tested and can be checked very easily! So I ask you: have you tested yourself here, or did your information come from sources from the third hand?
 
Messages
108
Country
portugal
Thank you Christian.

That is good information and importante point, fps load.
My terminal is so weak that fps are always low!!! I have to collect money for one year to by a new pc. I want to provide the scenery to everyone, so I don't want o wait for one year.

I wanted to use a light that Works has a cone, like a projector. First think in my mind, the landing light. I never had developed one airplane so search on effects directory and found fx_landing.fx, that uses fx_2.bmp texture. So I'm expressing myselef wrongly. Not landing light but effect with landing name!!! :S Sorry!

Meanwhile the time was not so much and Max-Liea provided that effect and Works has desired for the lamp above the door. Thanks again. :)


The issues above was observer by me. I wonder why the light is passing the plane to the other side? Because is a plane? What is missing on walls material?


Does anyone know if some Guru and created one place where we can see and compare the several options for the fields described on effects SDK page?
Or a place we can see the effect light. Examples: 150W néon light. 40W incandescent light, ... ???

Thank you all.
 
Messages
442
Country
malaysia
Can anyone provide a complete Dynamic Lighting effect code for Apron Light?

The above code provided by @Max-Liea is nice but it doesn't enough vibrant to show from 25m height for apron light.
 
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Messages
123
Getting some nice looking results after adding dynamic lights to existing airport without major performance hit. Just attached the above effect to mast lights using MCX. The fx file is fine except I changed X scale = 150, 150 to make it illuminate at 25m high mast, though I am still trying to figure out what exactly it does. Issues I am seeing is occasional artifacts on screen and the lights disappearing when viewing at certain angles. Also not sure if they are following inverse square fading with fall off value of 2 as light seem to be losing brightness bit fast with distance.

Update: Fixed the disappearing spotlights by increasing max spotlights in p3d cfg
 
Last edited:
Messages
8
Country
greece
It seems like the "Light passing through walls" issue might be causing the cockpit of planes to light up at night when using the landing lights, when they are positioned behind the cockpit (like in a 737 for example).
This can been seen in the Captain Sim 737 for V4 (in preview shots and videos). I haven't noticed it in other aircraft.

Is there perhaps a material setting that lets the lights know that the material is opaque?
 
Messages
154
Country
moldova
thank you guys... this is very useful... can you tell me please, for dynamic lightning i still need to make night texture *.LM?
 

n4gix

Resource contributor
Messages
11,674
Country
unitedstates
Oh, I was only thinking of the ground splash. For the point source a _LM could be used.
 
Messages
1
Country
russia
As simbiosi made it: FX Tool loaded in P3DV4, created / modified an effect. The effect then saved and with the help of the AttachPoint tool from the SDK the effect attached to my 3-D model, see picture:

p3dv4_effect_light_source_attach_point.jpg

Picture: 3-D Modell of a detailed and animated windsock with various attach points

Hi guys.
I have a problem with creating a point of light. I do everything as written in the tutorial for P3Dv4
I create a polygon.
I'm convert into a mesh.
I open the attachment.
I choose the effect and visibility for it.
apply to the selected geometry.

But after this, the veryfi tool returns the error "Broken Attach Point". And below -
"Attach point at the same level as the rootnoode"

I tried everything I could. I spent 2 weeks looking online for a similar problem.
But all is unsuccessful.
I do not know what the problem is with the error !?

Can someone share a workable example of the light effect attached to any object !? So I'll know that the problem in my 3D can be?

Thanks for the help, guys.

https://pp.userapi.com/c840229/v840229983/3108d/uFPkrJVHXZU.jpg
 
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