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FSXA Is it possible to control road lighting

JohnC1

JohnC1

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I use FSX_KML to clean up the generic scenery until I find better photoreal files.

The roads in my KBTV locale scenery are not realistic at night. My Interstate is not brightly lit, and many rural roads are not lit at all.

Can someone point me to a solution, preferably in FSX_KML?

Perhaps some obscure unpublished variable needs to be set to 0 or ....?
 
Hi John:

Although many authors simply use a graphics program to insert light splashes onto the ground in their photo-real scenery imagery before compiling, others use "Effect" and/or BGL lights (with or without an associated 3-D light pole object). :idea:


IMHO, use of 3-D light pole objects is best reserved for areas where one will be close enough to actually see them in one's aircraft (IOW, only on / near the ground at approaches, or TAXI / RWY / Parking locations; everywhere else, one may be better off using "light balls" or effects because one will be too far away to see them, so why burden the FSX rendering engine with rendering the extra geometry ?). :rolleyes:


CAVEAT: Placing 3-D light pole objects in association with placed light effects / BGL lights etc., or attaching light effects etc. to such 3-D objects are a likely FPS-killer (...as OrbX found out this last year in their FTX series of scenery libraries, eventually prompting some changes in their configuration options.)

Bear in mind that there may also be conflicts with layers of ex: SCASM-placed lights blocking display of other nearby autogen unless certain tweaks are applied to the code prior to compiling the BGL.


I am not certain how rhumbaflappy's new "light point" library works with FPS if a lot of those objects are placed in a scenery area ex: along many roads or around an aerodrome etc.


But IMHO, it looks like placing such light objects offset vertically from the ground at specified intervals along street vectors may be a more visually pleasing (and less exhausting) option than manually painting light splashes onto large expanses of one's photo-real textures.


For a few ideas and some links to related topics, see this thread:

http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?p=524223#post524223


PS: I believe many of us still look forward to seeing your scenery project for that interesting KBTV area released some day ! ;)


Hope this helps ! :)

Regards,

GaryGB
 
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Road lighting fix

Gary, thanks for the response. Attached are screenshots illustrating why I originally wrote this post. This is directly just west of part of the old Platsburgh Air Force Base.

First, the middle third shows that the lightmap generic
poly leaks "through" the photoreal on the edges.

I know of no way to fix this, except to remove anything on the edges that lights up at dusk or night. Not good.

Secondly, the lighting on I87 is completely unrealistic. This kind of high intensity lighting only exists in overcrowded urban hellholes, not our pristine north country.:D

This can be fixed by switching to gravel roads. Concrete and asphalt roads are lighted in different intensities, gravel is not. This way, you get the traffic, but not the lighted roads.:teacher:

The second screenshot shows how much better photoreal and the help I get on this website can provide.

Why haven't I published it? KBTV keeps upgrading, I'm very busy, and I'm not sure how many people would be that interested. Plus I'm way too perfectionist. Screenshot#2 shows just a very incomplete partial reassembly of the scenery on my new system. The 757 is a Quality Wings 757 PC Pilot gives away with a 2 yr subscription. It looks terrific.

I much appreciate your comments and assistance.
 

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The amount of lighting on a road is controlled by what type of road it is.

The roads in your picture that are well lit are concrete.

The roads in your picture where the lights are spaced out are asphalt.

I see in your post you may all ready know this
 
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