Light effects not working

[Fergo]

Hi!
I've followed the instructions of the Wiki abou creating gmax ( i'm actually using 3dsmax ) apron light but its not working.
I've created the boxes, transformed to Edit. Mesh, edited and ran the Script ( i've used the effect fx_navwhi ( see below )), exported to .X using Panda Exporter. Then i've used the FS2004 MakeMDL to generate the MDL and XML and finally used bglcomp.exe to generate the BGL. Look at the image ( the blue boxes are the "light" boxes that the script renames ).

Here is my script:

strAttachNumber = 0
           for obj in $box* do
           (
           	obj.name = ("attachpt_fx_navwhi" + (strAttachNumber as string))
           	strBufferText = ("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"ISO-8859-1\" ?> <FSMakeMdlData version=\"9.0\"><Attachpoint name=\"attachpt_fx_navwhi" + (strAttachNumber as string) + "\"> <AttachedObject> <Effect effectName=\"fx_navwhi\" effectParams=\"\"/> </AttachedObject> </Attachpoint></FSMakeMdlData>")
           	setUserPropBuffer obj strBufferText
           	strAttachNumber += 1
           )

What am I doing wrong?

Fergo

 

[arno]

Hi Fergo,

Just guessing, but maybe the problem is that you export to the X file with a different exporter and not using the one of MS. It is very likely that the information put in by using the attachtool script is not saved in the correct way with the other exporter.

 

[Fergo]

Hum... make sense.
So to make just thethe lights I should use GMax with FS2004 SDK ( makemdl and bglcomp ) instead of Max?

Thanks
Fergo

 

[arno]

Yes, that is what I think. But I don't have 3DS Max myself so I don't know if there are other options.

 

[Fergo]

Thanks! I've tried with GMax and FS2004 SDK and it worked. How can i increase the spot intesity? When I'm near the light its bright is OK, but when I go a few meters away i almost can't see it ( the original apron light brightness doesn't change with distance ( now i don't know if is the brightness that doesn't change or the size of the sprite spot ).
As the tutorial says, for runway lighting this is a big problem.

Any ideas?

Fergo

 

[arno]

How can i increase the spot intesity? When I'm near the light its bright is OK, but when I go a few meters away i almost can't see it ( the original apron light brightness doesn't change with distance.

You might want to ask that over at the effects subforum, as there are some guys over there who know a lot more about how effects work (and I don't ).

But the default runway lights are hardcoded into the scenery engine it seems and it does not seem possible to create lights actually like them, which is a shame. Both lights made with effects or with the BGL_LIGHT command look different.