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FS2004 Editing light fx files

M

martinlest

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18
Country
unitedkingdom
Could someone please tell me which element in an fx file for lights (i.e. under the [Lights] section of the aircraft.cfg file) determines how brightly the light shines - assuming this is editable through the fx text file.

Thanks!

Martin
 
Hi,

For instance by adding the same emitter, particle and particle attributes once or even twice again to brighten or adapting the transparency entry of the light (the last number of the color start and color end).
 
In the section [ParticleAttributes.0], as a test, I changed this:

Color Start=200,200,200,255
Color End=200,200,200,255

to this:

Color Start=200,200,200,100
Color End=200,200,200,100

Is that what you meant? It makes no difference to the light in the aircraft though...

Thanks.
 
Hi,

What light are you eactly talking about?
Could it be that the light in question is not an .fx ?
You could also try to make it smaller by changing the x and y scale in the particle section as that would also make it less conspicuous (How many emitters do you have?).
And finally, you could use another texture that is dimmer.
 
It is the file PSS_lights (for PSS Airbus). It does not have an fx_ prefix, but am assuming it is still an effects file?

I will experiment a bit further as soon as I can and post back. Thanks
 
Hi again .. I am posting the effects file here (it is an effects file, with an fx extension): I don't really want to make it smaller, just dimmer; most values are set to zero, so I am a bit lost.. Thank you.

[Library Effect]
Lifetime=5
Version=2.00
Display Name=PSS_Light
Radius=100

[Properties]
Cockpit=1
VirtualCockpit=0
Spot=1
Tower=1
Map=1

// Point Light ****************************************************************************
[Emitter.0]
Lifetime=0.50, 0.50
Delay=0.00, 0.00
Bounce=0.00
Light=1
No Interpolate=1
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=0,0
Y Offset=0,0
Z Offset=0,0

[Particle.0]
Lifetime=0.00, 0.00
Type=19
X Scale=4.50, 4.50
Y Scale=4.50, 4.50
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
Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Static=1
Face=1, 1, 1

[ParticleAttributes.0]
Blend Mode=2
Bounce=0.00
Color Start=200,200,200,255
Color End=200,200,200,255
Jitter Distance=0.00
Jitter Time=0.00
uv1=0.00, 0.00
uv2=0.01, 0.01
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Extrude Length=0.00
Extrude Pitch Max=0.00
Extrude Heading Max=0.00
 
Try:

Code: 
Color Start=100,100,100,255
Color End=100,100,100,255
This should reduce the brightness by 50%. The three values are Red, Green, Blue with ranges of 0 (dark) to 255 (full bright)
 
n4gix said:
Try:

Code: 
Color Start=100,100,100,255
Color End=100,100,100,255
This should reduce the brightness by 50%. The three values are Red, Green, Blue with ranges of 0 (dark) to 255 (full bright)
Click to expand...

I see what you're getting at here. Although the last parm is "brightness", reducing the RGB numbers will make the color "paler" and thus "dimmer".

255,255,255 is bright white. 100,100,100 is gray or "pale white". 100,0,0 should give us a "dimmer" red, and so on.
 
Thanks Bill/mjl, but I am afraid that made no difference at all. I shut down and reloaded FS9 to be sure - even if I set the values all to 000 I get exactly the same intensity landing light..

The aircraft.cfg file has this:

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
light.0=5, 17.0, 0.0, -9.0, PSS_Light , // main land
light.1=3, -64.0, 4.0, 20.0, PSS_logo , // logo
light.2=3, -64.0, -4.0, 20.0, PSS_logo , // logo
light.3=5, 65.0, 0.0, -6.0, PSS_Light , // Nose light (etc.)......

and I am editing the file PSS_Light.fx ....

Martin
 
Last edited:
OK, that seemed so odd, I tried edting the aircraft.cfg file by putting // in front of all the entries under [Lights], i.e.

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
//light.0=5, 17.0, 0.0, -9.0, PSS_Light , // main land
//light.1=3, -64.0, 4.0, 20.0, PSS_logo , // logo
//light.2=3, -64.0, -4.0, 20.0, PSS_logo , // logo
//light.3=5, 65.0, 0.0, -6.0, PSS_Light , // Nose light (etc.)......

I still get the landing lights, so clearly the lights must be part of the .mdl file or some such thing...

M
 
Landing (and Taxi) lights are implemented via the fx_landing.fx controller file, which may only be defined through an "Attachpoint" in the exterior model (.mdl) file.

Unfortunately, the actual visible "light" and "ground spash" is an internal FS9/FSX/ESP/P3D process, and is not adjustable...

...IOW, it is "hard-coded" in the sim and cannot be modified. :(

The PSS_Light.fx file is used to create a 'ball of light' that gives a glow around the light's point of origin.
 
martinlest said:
OK, that seemed so odd, I tried edting the aircraft.cfg file by putting // in front of all the entries under [Lights], i.e.

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
//light.0=5, 17.0, 0.0, -9.0, PSS_Light , // main land
//light.1=3, -64.0, 4.0, 20.0, PSS_logo , // logo
//light.2=3, -64.0, -4.0, 20.0, PSS_logo , // logo
//light.3=5, 65.0, 0.0, -6.0, PSS_Light , // Nose light (etc.)......

I still get the landing lights, so clearly the lights must be part of the .mdl file or some such thing...

M
Click to expand...

Ah, landing lights. Here's a totally different approach. I got some add-on a while back and thought the landing light was too dim. I didn't know anything about fx, so my solution was to modify the actual texture sheet for the light. It was pretty easy. If you are at all familiar with GIMP or Photoshop, going in and changing the texture for a landing light is pretty straight forward. Are you using the spot light that ships with FSX or something that came with an add-on?
 
Hi.. this is FS9. A PSS airbus, which is pretty old now. Yes, I can use Photoshop OK, but which file would I be looking for? I don't want to make any global changes.

Thanks
 
That unfortunately is the problem with the default landing/taxi light "system." Any change either to the fx_landing.fx file or the halo.bmp file is "Global"... :(
 
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