Heretic
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First of all, I can't make the stock landing lights work. I attach them in Max 9 to dummy geometry with the Attach Tool and they show up fine in FSX...but as red or green beacons instead of lights (they HAVE been tagged with the "fx_landing" effect and "general light" for visibility).
So I decided to give "real" 3D lights a go.
I crashed and burned with VRS' instructions posted here right at the "create your own code" part since my XML knowledge is still limited and never working.
Anyways, I found Bill L.'s "illuminate stuff" (ramp)lights a seemingly easier solution. So I built a stack of polies as a test object:
The materials are set up as per Bill L.'s instructions and are correctly placed in the aircraft "Texture" folder in the correct format.
But here's the headscratcher: How can I make them show up on an aircraft in FSX?
I needed some XML code with visibility tags that doesn't make the geometry disappear, like the "light_general" one, so I tried using an L: variable (that save the lights from invisibility?) controlled by a controller dummy.
Here's the code for the controller, assigned with the Animation Tool:
So the controller determines the state of the landing lights and battery switches and gives out an appropriate response as an L:var.
And here's the visibility code for the stack of polies, assigned with the Attach Tool:
Visibility is controlled by the state of the L:var.
Something wrong there?
I *need* those 3D lights, at least for my taxi lights which are attached to the steerable nose gear.
*If* this can be convinced to work, there's another issue: Those landing light beams are pretty huge and thus messing up the views in the aircraft preview window and in spot mode in the sim. I could animate the beams to be small when stowed and huge when deployed with a scale animation. Does FSX support those?
Other than that, I'd be grateful for different ideas...
So I decided to give "real" 3D lights a go.
I crashed and burned with VRS' instructions posted here right at the "create your own code" part since my XML knowledge is still limited and never working.
Anyways, I found Bill L.'s "illuminate stuff" (ramp)lights a seemingly easier solution. So I built a stack of polies as a test object:
The materials are set up as per Bill L.'s instructions and are correctly placed in the aircraft "Texture" folder in the correct format.
But here's the headscratcher: How can I make them show up on an aircraft in FSX?
I needed some XML code with visibility tags that doesn't make the geometry disappear, like the "light_general" one, so I tried using an L: variable (that save the lights from invisibility?) controlled by a controller dummy.
Here's the code for the controller, assigned with the Animation Tool:
Code:
<Animation name="LL_controller" guid="7ded7f85-adb0-4eb1-b6e9-1ebdd9f7575b" length="100" type="Sim" typeparam2="LL_controller" typeparam="AutoPlay" />
<PartInfo>
<Name>LL_controller</Name>
<AnimLength>100</AnimLength>
<Animation>
<Parameter>
<Code>
(A:LIGHT LANDING,bool) 1 == (A:ELECTRICAL MASTER BATTERY,bool) 1 == and
if{ 1 (>L:LL_Custom,bool)}
els{ 0 (>L:LL_Custom,bool)}
</Code>
</Parameter>
</Animation>
</PartInfo>
So the controller determines the state of the landing lights and battery switches and gives out an appropriate response as an L:var.
And here's the visibility code for the stack of polies, assigned with the Attach Tool:
Code:
<PartInfo>
<Name>Landing_Light_Custom</Name>
<Visibility>
<Parameter>
<Code>
(L:LL_Custom,bool) 1 == if{ 1 } els { 0 }
</Code>
</Parameter>
</Visibility>
</PartInfo>
Visibility is controlled by the state of the L:var.
Something wrong there?
I *need* those 3D lights, at least for my taxi lights which are attached to the steerable nose gear.
*If* this can be convinced to work, there's another issue: Those landing light beams are pretty huge and thus messing up the views in the aircraft preview window and in spot mode in the sim. I could animate the beams to be small when stowed and huge when deployed with a scale animation. Does FSX support those?
Other than that, I'd be grateful for different ideas...
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