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FS Editor - wishes

Horst18519

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Hello Arno,

this is the first time I really make use of the FX editor because I need to work on sound FX which is kinda complicated with the FSX SDK. I find the FX editor very helpful for this. :)

Working with controllers I would like to have the option to run the controller only once though. Now it seems to loop by default, even though I set lifetime to 1.0 or something like that. In this case the controller should run once and shut down. Could you please include this? It's hard to tell if the controller works fine if it loops automatically.
 

Horst18519

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Atually, I just found out that there seems to be a bug in the tool. Unlike what I wrote above, the controller files do not loop, it was the called fx file, so that was my bad. But unfortunately the tool does not seem to work with fsx controllers. It always calls the first (sound) effect and loops or stops, no other effects are played.
Is this a known limitation?
 

arno

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Hi Thorsten,

I would have to check, it's quite some time I worked on this tool. The controllers should work, I know I have tested with the firework shows. There is a limitation when it comes to sounds, only from one effect file the sound is played.
 

Horst18519

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Ok, in that case the tool works as expected. I'd like to put multiple sounds on the wishlist though.
 

arno

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Yes, it is already. It seems to be a limitation of the .net audio player I currently use.
 
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Thank you for creating another neat tool! If I may join the thread with one wish, would you consider adding an option to set "global" emitters velocity? It would be helpful when working witch effect such as contrails and ship wakes or to see how wind would affect effects (like chimney smoke).
 

arno

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Hi,

I'll put it on the wish list. But I am not sure I will have time soon to add features to this tool.
 
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Thank you Arno! No need to rush, working with effects is already is so much easier and quicker when getting to see change on the fly, without the need to restart FSX or employ the tiresome "edit effect, save it under different name, edit the aircraft.cfg to reflect the new name, reload aircraft" routine :)
 
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Hi Arno

As if you do not have enough to do already! :)

I think it could be very helpful to have a night mode for FXE, or perhaps a way for the user to choose the background color on the fly. I'm trying to get the colors on my marine running lights just right and what I see in FXE is quite different than what I see in FSX / P3D Just a plain black background would help I think.

And while I think of it, for both FXE and MCX, an indication of the grid scale along with some finer tick marks would help - - I'm guessing it’s a 10 meter grid, and some 1 meter ticks would help adjusting the size of some fx effects.

Thanks again,

Larry
 

arno

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Hi Larry,

I'll put it on the list. Since modelconverterx already has a night mode, it should not be hard to add it.

About the grid, in modelconverterx you can specify the grid size in the options, but by default it is indeed something like 5 or 10 meters. So the idea is that you can change the grid size if you want a finer or coarser grid.
 
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Hi Larry,

I'll put it on the list. Since modelconverterx already has a night mode, it should not be hard to add it.
.

Hi Arno,

I had another thought about the background color in FXE. I've been working on marine lighting effects, trying to get a realistic alternating red and white flashing lighthouse effect for example, and what I see in FXE does not match the night lighting effect in the sim very well at all. Colors and intensities are significantly different, enough so that I have had to make many adjustments by trial and error in the sim. I think the problem is the light blue background in FXE, something which is particularly apparent with more transparent colors (lower alpha values and color rates).

Would it be easy to just have an option to use black for the background? A night mode like MCX perhaps? Or just a check box. That would make my experiments a lot simpler!

A more detailed example for what it's worth: I have one effect that gives a gradual fade in, the light at full intensity for say .6 to .8 seconds, and then a long fade out at the desired frequency, quite like many real lighthouses. In FXE, the fade in, fade out are not visible at all, only the bright segment. And the slightly yellowish off white color of the light can't be adjusted in FXE because what are significant color changes in the sim are not apparent in FXE.

Thanks much,

Larry
 

arno

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Hi,

I'll bump the feature request to add the night mode to FXEditor, I think that should help (although I am not sure if the colours match FS completely).
 

arno

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Hi,

The next development release has a day and a night render mode, like ModelConverterX.
 
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Hi,

The next development release has a day and a night render mode, like ModelConverterX.

Hi Arno,

The new night mode is *really great*. It makes all the difference in the world when working on night lighting effects; now red looks like red instead of an off pink. And a yellow light looks yellow instead of white at the center and bluish on the fringes. I can better see the fade in and fade out effect too.

This is going to save a lot of work! Sometime in the future, perhaps the ability to change background colors and grid colors as in MCX might be nice, but I'm happy just for this. :)

Thanks yet again!
 
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