Odd Effect Problem

[N2056]

I have discovered that if I take any of the landing light beam effects that display properly when displayed using the lighting section of the Aircraft.cfg file and use them as an attached effect they don't look the same. Any ideas?

 

[Paul Domingue]

Rob, is your attached poly scaled correctly? That's the only thing I can think of that would move the location. Anyone else?

 

[Roy Holmes]

Looks to me like the lights in the middle are aimed down vertically while the ones on the wing are aimed ahead. Maybe a question of axis orientation?
Roy

 

[N2056]

The attached set is a test that I positioned off the plane as shown. The effect is in the correct location. The problem is that it becomes a ball of light with no beam, and I get the same thing using other landing light effects as well.

 

[tgibson]

Are these shockwave effects? Is it known they work when incorporating them into the model? Some may not.

 

[Paul Domingue]

I was able to duplicate the same problem. I haven't ever tried attaching the landing light so I did and tested it against the CFG light and same problem of no beam just a ball. I used a shockwave light and there is nothing different about how shockwave lights work as compared to stock lighting they use the same procedure. There is obviously something different in the way the sim processes the attached light. You might have to experiment with editing the effect but I'm guessing someone has already addressed this problem and maybe we'll hear from them.

 

[Roy Holmes]

Try this one:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/th...-an-interesting-find-to-make-them-work.18856/
Roy

 

[Paul Domingue]

Try this one:
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/th...-an-interesting-find-to-make-them-work.18856/
Roy

Thanks for the link but unfortunately it doesn't have any information to resolve this problem. I did test the VIS section of the Attach Tool but that just sets a Boolean function for turning off the light.

 

[Roy Holmes]

OK
Then look at this from the SDK:
"Landing lights also need to be placed using the AttachPointTool.

1. Create a small one sided single poly mesh. This will be used to attach the light effect, in this case the light effect will be a landing light.
2. Center the pivot point of the object and rotate the pivot so Y is pointing in the direction of the light beam, X is toward the ground and Z is pointing starboard. This will ensure the cast light is shining forward."

My point here and in post#3 is that you have to orient the object to which the effect is attached, as above, otherwise it will shine in the wrong direction.
Roy

 

[n4gix]

These "fuzzy balls of light" are lined up like ducks in a row. I developed these .fx files originally for the CJ1+, then have added them to other projects along the way. This is the Milviz C310R left main landing gear. There is a similar set of attachpointed polys for the right main gear, and another set for the nose gear. The only difference for the nose gear is that they are controlled by the taxi_light_vis script.

There are seven .fx files that have progressively larger 'diameters' such that they cumulatively produce a fuzzy "cone of light" that's projected forward and tilted slightly downwards.

Each 'attachpoint' uses the following XML script in the Properties box:

FSXML = <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?> <FSMakeMdlData version="9.0"> <Attachpoint name="attachpt_MilVizC310_TaxiBloom_Left_07"> <AttachedObject> <Effect effectName="MilVizC310_TaxiBloom_07" effectParams=""/> </AttachedObject> </Attachpoint> <Visibility name="light_landing_vis"> </Visibility> </FSMakeMdlData>

 

[Paul Domingue]

Bill,

Rob and I were talking last night and he mentioned this idea of successive attach points. He's at work and I'm home watching my grandchildren so I tested your method. I placed six polys extending forward about ten feet and the effect was cumulative creating a huge ball of light. Then I tried just two attach points one near the wing and the other ten feet out. Now I got a stretched ball near the wing in the direction of the forward attach point and a ball ten feet out. I went back and re-read your post and noticed that you are using a different .fx for each attach point. So the only way to overcome this problem is with customized .fx files which I thought might be the case.

BTW, orientation was never in question, just the oddity of different displays of the same effect between an attach point and the effect activated in the .cfg.

Thanks

Paul

 

[n4gix]

Paul, the only difference between my seven effect files are the Scale values, which range from the smallest at 0.46 to the largest at 1.20. The Scale values and the separation distance was carefully calibrated scientifically using my ancient Mark I Eyeball micrometer (aka: by Guess and by God)...

[Particle.0]
Lifetime=0.00, 0.00
Type=19
X Scale=0.46, 0.46
Y Scale=0.46, 0.46
Z Scale=0.00, 0.00
---------------------------------
[Particle.0]
Lifetime=0.00, 0.00
Type=19
X Scale=1.20, 1.20
Y Scale=1.20, 1.20
Z Scale=0.00, 0.00

 

[Paul Domingue]

A lesson and a laugh, sign me up for your next class.

 

[N2056]

I had actually figured out how the beam was done with the scale trick a couple of weeks ago when I was pursuing traditional methods of lighting, and seeing Bill's trick makes perfect sense for working around the quirk. Thanks for the revelation!
Back to work...

 

[n4gix]

Oh, and for the record, those clones of the reflector are reduced to single polygons in the exported/compiled model. I simply used clones of the reflectors during development so I could better visualize the placement of the .fx attachpoints!