MSFS How to add lights for the model with 3ds max?

[shushengerdai]

Hi guys! I'm trying to build my hometown airport in MSFS. Currently I'm stuck with the lighting for model. As shown in picture 1, I want to add light for the high-pole-light to illuminate the apron, and a red light which mean high-altitude obstacle on the top of the high-pole-light. I add light for the model with ASOBO lights in 3DS MAX, just like the picture 2 shows. And selected KHR_lights_punctual when use Babylon exporting, just like the picture 3 shows. I also tried to use Multiexporter to export, but exporting any model will report an error, the specific reason has not been found yet. As shown in the picture 4 and 5, my emissive textures have worked at nightfall, but I haven't seen the lights yet, and it's the same at night. May I ask where did I go wrong?
As you can see, there many tutorials about the light in Youtube, but most of them are Blender, I don't know how to use the Blender.

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

picture 4

picture 5

 

[=rk=]

Three observations: I do not recall using the "KHR" option with my Babylon exporter. It is not a certainty, but I suggest attempting builds without the box checked, in fact I do not check any of those boxes in that part of the Babylon exporter.

Second, the intensity level as indicated by the 3ds Max Asobo lights panel of "picture 2," has a whole number range from zero, up to several hundred. Again I am recalling from memory, but I believe the upper practical limit is either 200 or 500, beyond which we see no visible change in intensity and this was discovered through trial and error. From this range, intensity 3 to 5 makes for a decent porch light, intensity 50 is a reasonably bright marker light, 100 is a fairly bright flood light and 300 is as bright as one should need to go using this type of light.

Finally, only point lights are supported, not cones. However, there is a "directional" option which limits visibility of the light in the direction opposite from the direction it is oriented and this option is available by unticking "has symmetry" in the 3ds Max Asobo lights panel. You needn't change your settings, just know that whatever "cone angle" you set, it will actually only be 360 degrees, or 180 degrees, depending upon the symmetry check box. I suggest you place two zeros after the 1, untick KHR_lights_punctual and try again.

Beyond those details, everything looks correct.

If it turns out KHR_lights_punctual is necessary for a successful build, please inform and I'll go about editing that memory. One final detail to bear in mind, is that there is an error in the Asobo model format, in that attached lights are duplicated with each LOD. If your model has 3 LODs, the light will be three times as bright as you'd intended. If there are five LODs, it will be five times as bright. This is the case using both 3ds Max and MCX to attach lights, I can only assume it also applies to Blender models as well, but I have no certainty. This light "nuance" can make for some stunning night imagery.

The solution, of course, is to divide your chosen intensity by the number of LODs and use that figure for the actual light intensity.

 

[shushengerdai]

Three observations: I do not recall using the "KHR" option with my Babylon exporter. It is not a certainty, but I suggest attempting builds without the box checked, in fact I do not check any of those boxes in that part of the Babylon exporter.

Second, the intensity level as indicated by the 3ds Max Asobo lights panel of "picture 2," has a whole number range from zero, up to several hundred. Again I am recalling from memory, but I believe the upper practical limit is either 200 or 500, beyond which we see no visible change in intensity and this was discovered through trial and error. From this range, intensity 3 to 5 makes for a decent porch light, intensity 50 is a reasonably bright marker light, 100 is a fairly bright flood light and 300 is as bright as one should need to go using this type of light.

Finally, only point lights are supported, not cones. However, there is a "directional" option which limits visibility of the light in the direction opposite from the direction it is oriented and this option is available by unticking "has symmetry" in the 3ds Max Asobo lights panel. You needn't change your settings, just know that whatever "cone angle" you set, it will actually only be 360 degrees, or 180 degrees, depending upon the symmetry check box. I suggest you place two zeros after the 1, untick KHR_lights_punctual and try again.

Beyond those details, everything looks correct.

If it turns out KHR_lights_punctual is necessary for a successful build, please inform and I'll go about editing that memory. One final detail to bear in mind, is that there is an error in the Asobo model format, in that attached lights are duplicated with each LOD. If your model has 3 LODs, the light will be three times as bright as you'd intended. If there are five LODs, it will be five times as bright. This is the case using both 3ds Max and MCX to attach lights, I can only assume it also applies to Blender models as well, but I have no certainty. This light "nuance" can make for some stunning night imagery.

View attachment 88516

The solution, of course, is to divide your chosen intensity by the number of LODs and use that figure for the actual light intensity.

Thank you very much, my brother. With your guidance, the high-pole-light can illuminate the apron, just like the picture 1 shows. But I still have two questions. First, the red light which mean high-altitude obstacle on the top of the high-pole-light, it seems to only illuminate the surrounding objects, it cannot be seen that it is emitting light from it, and the light cannot be seen from a high altitude, just like the picture 2 and 3 show. The effect what I want just like the picture 4 shows. Second, you mentioned the LOD of the object. My airport is not very big. I think it has little effect on the frame rate of the game. Do you think it is necessary to make multiple LODs for a model? I'm looking forward to your reply. Thank you again!!!

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

picture 4

 

[mamu]

Thank you very much, my brother. With your guidance, the high-pole-light can illuminate the apron, just like the picture 1 shows. But I still have two questions. First, the red light which mean high-altitude obstacle on the top of the high-pole-light, it seems to only illuminate the surrounding objects, it cannot be seen that it is emitting light from it, and the light cannot be seen from a high altitude, just like the picture 2 and 3 show. The effect what I want just like the picture 4 shows. Second, you mentioned the LOD of the object. My airport is not very big. I think it has little effect on the frame rate of the game. Do you think it is necessary to make multiple LODs for a model? I'm looking forward to your reply. Thank you again!!!

View attachment 88523
picture 1

View attachment 88524
picture 2

View attachment 88525
picture 3

View attachment 88526
picture 4

I can see my smiling face in the picture 4 video
Rick is right about the intensity parameter, it is the one that I'm tweaking manually in the gltf because the Blender exporter is broken.
3ds should export that in the right way, the emissive factor with high values is what is needed to obtain the bloom effect on the emissive.

Anyway, since you are building an airport, the right way to obtain a obstacle light is to use the Airport preset/light row, simply go ahead with that video, it is explained how to use them

 

[=rk=]

Ach "bloom." Something else to play with.

the red light which mean high-altitude obstacle on the top of the high-pole-light, it seems to only illuminate the surrounding objects, it cannot be seen that it is emitting light from it, and the light cannot be seen from a high altitude,

The effect lights that we are able to create do not have a visible "orb," or source, they only make a light wash. Your use of emissive textures is a way to represent that light source and the developers gave us one more adjustment we can apply, which is "emissive bloom factor." This is another whole number field, with a range from one to four and at higher values, the emissive texture will emit light that reflects, be careful about induced glare.
Now in my own development, I found these effects to be most effective for making flood lights. I will agree with Federico (mamu) about light sources that are themselves "high visibility," like marker lights and taxi lights, but for area lights, I like to think of these effects as "clouds" of light and I don't feel as great a need to see "the bulb."
So for a floodlight with say, two lenses, I will use maybe 3 effect lights. Two will be bright, approximately 10 to 30 feet in the air and these will represent the light wash that hits the ground. I place them higher than the airplanes that taxi, so nothing drives through them and they are lower than planes fly near runways. The third light effect will be higher and dimmer, closer to the source, to make more of a "light cone." In fact, I will make a "model" of about 15 or 20 lights, placed loosely into two rows and I will set that "light cloud" onto a default Asobo T hangar row, which already has floodlights with emissive textures but no "light wash" and instantly transform it. Something to consider.

Ok, all the light "washes" are created using effect lights. The colored lights are created using the "light rows preset" Federico mentioned, the blue lights are actually individual light rows placed as single objects. In the lower left hand corner there is a default "orb" light, which we can only delete. All of the flood lights were made with the multiple light effect technique and we can clearly see the rows of T hangars that have been immersed in the lights. The T hangars are default, TIN placed and are pretty accurate to reality.

Do you think it is necessary to make multiple LODs for a model?

Probably not. However you should consider the overall effect. The airport I've shown, a link to it is in my sig, btw, is not large. However it sits directly in the flight path of a very large airport. Each floodlight is only a few hundred polygons, but there are quite a few of them. Then there are the other models, the buildings, vehicles, etc. Without LOD's all of the polygons will be competing to render for the pilots flying several thousand feet above, that never even used this airport. Presumably, the sim can handle such complexity, but to be prudent, I ensure my airports have a polygon "footprint" that is appropriate for what is actually visible. I love details, can't get enough of them, but they add up. Hope this helps.

 

[shushengerdai]

I can see my smiling face in the picture 4 video
Rick is right about the intensity parameter, it is the one that I'm tweaking manually in the gltf because the Blender exporter is broken.
3ds should export that in the right way, the emissive factor with high values is what is needed to obtain the bloom effect on the emissive.

Anyway, since you are building an airport, the right way to obtain a obstacle light is to use the Airport preset/light row, simply go ahead with that video, it is explained how to use them

Thank you, mamu! You've given me a great help! I followed your tutorial to get my obstacle light illuminate. As you know, just use the emissive texture is not bright enough. And use ASOBO light, it will disappear when you at a long distance, so I use the Airport preset/light row to make up for this shortcoming.

 

[shushengerdai]

Ach "bloom." Something else to play with.

The effect lights that we are able to create do not have a visible "orb," or source, they only make a light wash. Your use of emissive textures is a way to represent that light source and the developers gave us one more adjustment we can apply, which is "emissive bloom factor." This is another whole number field, with a range from one to four and at higher values, the emissive texture will emit light that reflects, be careful about induced glare.
Now in my own development, I found these effects to be most effective for making flood lights. I will agree with Federico (mamu) about light sources that are themselves "high visibility," like marker lights and taxi lights, but for area lights, I like to think of these effects as "clouds" of light and I don't feel as great a need to see "the bulb."
So for a floodlight with say, two lenses, I will use maybe 3 effect lights. Two will be bright, approximately 10 to 30 feet in the air and these will represent the light wash that hits the ground. I place them higher than the airplanes that taxi, so nothing drives through them and they are lower than planes fly near runways. The third light effect will be higher and dimmer, closer to the source, to make more of a "light cone." In fact, I will make a "model" of about 15 or 20 lights, placed loosely into two rows and I will set that "light cloud" onto a default Asobo T hangar row, which already has floodlights with emissive textures but no "light wash" and instantly transform it. Something to consider.

View attachment 88527

Ok, all the light "washes" are created using effect lights. The colored lights are created using the "light rows preset" Federico mentioned, the blue lights are actually individual light rows placed as single objects. In the lower left hand corner there is a default "orb" light, which we can only delete. All of the flood lights were made with the multiple light effect technique and we can clearly see the rows of T hangars that have been immersed in the lights. The T hangars are default, TIN placed and are pretty accurate to reality.


Probably not. However you should consider the overall effect. The airport I've shown, a link to it is in my sig, btw, is not large. However it sits directly in the flight path of a very large airport. Each floodlight is only a few hundred polygons, but there are quite a few of them. Then there are the other models, the buildings, vehicles, etc. Without LOD's all of the polygons will be competing to render for the pilots flying several thousand feet above, that never even used this airport. Presumably, the sim can handle such complexity, but to be prudent, I ensure my airports have a polygon "footprint" that is appropriate for what is actually visible. I love details, can't get enough of them, but they add up. Hope this helps.

Thank you my brother again! With your guidance, I finally got the effect what I want. I use emissive texture, ASOBO light and Airport preset/light row at the same time. This let it illuminate surrounding objects, and make it visible from far away, just like the picture 1 shows. But at the same time, I've got another problem, when I look at the apron from a little farther away, the high pole lights are not on, but you can see the runway lights are still on, which is not true, just like the picture 2 and 3 show. I hope to see the high pole lights still on from a far place. I found that this problem also exists in some well-known airports plug-in vendors such as Aerosoft. Do you know how to deal with it?
I almost forgot to tell you, in fact, you don’t need to select the KHR_lights_punctual option when exporting the model.

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

 

[=rk=]

I hope to see the high pole lights still on from a far place. I found that this problem also exists in some well-known airports plug-in vendors such as Aerosoft. Do you know how to deal with it?

Sorry for the delay, I allowed myself to get distracted. The most persistent light effects we have access to, I have found, are the ones Federico has suggested, the "light row presets." Also there are a few ready made light effect objects in the default model libraries of some of the scenery locations that work very well. Beyond that, you'd have to write your own using the VFX tool.

Now it is interesting that you mention Aerosoft, because I know from personal experience that their "CRJ" has a very well written, solid red navigation light, that can been seen from the horizon at ground level and not only that, it is a tiny red pinpoint at that distance, clear but miniscule and not some blurry bloated circle.
Now bear in mind, Aerosoft is a publisher, as opposed to being a developer, the people that make the airplanes are not the same people that make the scenery and the nature of the VFX tool makes it very difficult to edit, or decompile completed effects, but the existence of the light proves it is possible to accomplish.

This particular airport, btw, is in the South China Sea, "Zubi Reef" and it is freely available at Flightsim.to.

 

[shushengerdai]

Sorry for the delay, I allowed myself to get distracted. The most persistent light effects we have access to, I have found, are the ones Federico has suggested, the "light row presets." Also there are a few ready made light effect objects in the default model libraries of some of the scenery locations that work very well. Beyond that, you'd have to write your own using the VFX tool.

Now it is interesting that you mention Aerosoft, because I know from personal experience that their "CRJ" has a very well written, solid red navigation light, that can been seen from the horizon at ground level and not only that, it is a tiny red pinpoint at that distance, clear but miniscule and not some blurry bloated circle.
Now bear in mind, Aerosoft is a publisher, as opposed to being a developer, the people that make the airplanes are not the same people that make the scenery and the nature of the VFX tool makes it very difficult to edit, or decompile completed effects, but the existence of the light proves it is possible to accomplish.

View attachment 88572

This particular airport, btw, is in the South China Sea, "Zubi Reef" and it is freely available at Flightsim.to.

Thank you very much for your reply. I know the "right row preset" can make my light will be seen in a far way, but it doesn't have the shape of the high pole light what I need. And I don't know how to use the VFX tool. I find the airport-nzqn-queenstown builded by Inibuilds, its lights just can be seen in 3 miles, which just like mine. So I'm going to keep it that way. And thank you for correcting me about AEROSOFT. Thank you again!!!

 

[shushengerdai]

Sorry for the delay, I allowed myself to get distracted. The most persistent light effects we have access to, I have found, are the ones Federico has suggested, the "light row presets." Also there are a few ready made light effect objects in the default model libraries of some of the scenery locations that work very well. Beyond that, you'd have to write your own using the VFX tool.

Now it is interesting that you mention Aerosoft, because I know from personal experience that their "CRJ" has a very well written, solid red navigation light, that can been seen from the horizon at ground level and not only that, it is a tiny red pinpoint at that distance, clear but miniscule and not some blurry bloated circle.
Now bear in mind, Aerosoft is a publisher, as opposed to being a developer, the people that make the airplanes are not the same people that make the scenery and the nature of the VFX tool makes it very difficult to edit, or decompile completed effects, but the existence of the light proves it is possible to accomplish.

View attachment 88572

This particular airport, btw, is in the South China Sea, "Zubi Reef" and it is freely available at Flightsim.to.

Hello, my brother! I know how to make the light of the high pole light be seen at a far distance, someone told me how to do it. From my picture 1 shows that I can see the ramp lights at 15nm, which before I could only see it at 3nm. The principle is actually very simple: I compared the high pole lights in the MSFS Scenery with mine, I found that the model frame of my high pole lights is very small, but the high pole lights in the MSFS Scenery are quite large. Why is it so large? In fact, there is a reason for this. When we look at the high pole light model and its light from a far distance, if it is so small that it is only one pixel, we will not actually see the light. Then let's make it bigger, of course not make the model bigger. What we have to do is: add a 100 by 100 meters plane below the high pole light model, place it 5 meters below the high pole light model. The size and position of the plane depends on your needs, but the plane should not be small, and it must be located below the ground. Then add a FlightSimulator Material for this panel. You need to select Invisible in the Material Type, just like another picture shows. Then you can export this model.

 

[=rk=]

Very beautiful work and I apologize! Of my examples above, the "assembly of 15 to 20 light points" that I arrange around T hangar rows, also uses the large underground polygon technique, as well as some individual flood lights I added to the light poles. However, the blue taxi/marker lights, are only single instances of the "light row preset," available at airports. I designed it such that each light is an individual fence, so that each could be placed over it's photo derived parent. What I mean to say is that there are a multitude of techniques that we can try, again as an example, that extremely well written Aerosoft nav light, with no hidden polygon. In some cases, I deployed the very large polygon exactly as described to the greatest effect I could apply and it did not alter the light effect intensity, or distance.

Please understand this is probably the reason I overlooked mentioning that very useful tip and thank you so much for sharing your discovery here for us, everyone reading along, as well as everyone exploring in the future!

 

[shushengerdai]

Very beautiful work and I apologize! Of my examples above, the "assembly of 15 to 20 light points" that I arrange around T hangar rows, also uses the large underground polygon technique, as well as some individual flood lights I added to the light poles. However, the blue taxi/marker lights, are only single instances of the "light row preset," available at airports. I designed it such that each light is an individual fence, so that each could be placed over it's photo derived parent. What I mean to say is that there are a multitude of techniques that we can try, again as an example, that extremely well written Aerosoft nav light, with no hidden polygon. In some cases, I deployed the very large polygon exactly as described to the greatest effect I could apply and it did not alter the light effect intensity, or distance.

Please understand this is probably the reason I overlooked mentioning that very useful tip and thank you so much for sharing your discovery here for us, everyone reading along, as well as everyone exploring in the future!

It doesn't matter. I finally solved the lighting problem under your guidance. Thank you again!