• Which the release of FS2020 we see an explosition of activity on the forun and of course we are very happy to see this. But having all questions about FS2020 in one forum becomes a bit messy. So therefore we would like to ask you all to use the following guidelines when posting your questions:

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FSX - Visibility and Animation of Attached Effects

gadgets

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I'm still attempting to make AFLT compatible with P3D.

The approach I'm using is to attach light-effects to the FSX model and to control the display of those effects. Once working in FSX, it should trivial to extend the process to P3D.

I was quite successful in using a similar approach with FS9, allowing the user to choose between BGL_LIGHTs (which are non-adjustable other than for intensity) and effects which, while cumbersome, can be adjusted by the user to suit the application. Basically, I added a two-state animation: on - displayed normally and off - effect placed below ground.

With FSX models, the attachment of the effects was a relatively simple process, basically the same as with FS9. I first tried to control the effect using visibility state (SGVL block) with the visibility code in a VISC statement in the VISL block. However, it seems attached effects cannot be made invisible, since the effect displays normally, regardless of the visibility state. In fact, I was unsuccessful in making even the visible model disappear, so it may be that visibility state applies only to aircraft. So then I reverted to the FS9 approach, i.e. animate the effects. But, once again, I seem to have struck-out. The animation has no apparent effect on the effects.

Any help/advice appreciated.

Incidentally, for you FSX tweakers out there, while examining the structure of various animated FSX models (i.e., aircraft), I noted that the first field in the AMAP block is "1" when a SCEN is not animated (SGAL=-1) and "2" when animated (SGAL >= 0). (The FSX MDL format in the Wiki states the purpose of this field is unknown.)

Don
 
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