FSX Lighting for Rivers

[Leovenous]

I'm semi-new to FSD type stuff. My current project is to add NOAA-correct lateral navigation aides to rivers.

I read the Wiki on adding lights to aprons, but I don't understand all it's saying.

Starting with something simple... say a buoy in the water. Obviously the buoy itself is a simple model, but how do you add a light? (I know this question has been asked before) And is it possible to make a light behave as specified, ex.

Flashing Red
Quick-Flashing Green
Isophase (double and triple flickers)

Example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7730590@N08/2217104513
That is number 30 on the Welch Island Reach, about 35 miles up the Columbia. Its NOAA desig. is "Fl R 4s" or "flashing red every 4 seconds."

If anyone is interested in assisting, you might find this an interesting project.

 

[HolgerSandmann]

Hi there,

I've been adding marine navigation aids and their lights to my scenery projects for a number of years now using the US and Canadian published light lists. Not sure how much they are noticed by users but it sure is fun to take a vessel and use the navigation aids to properly move through a narrow channel. If you don't have any of our payware projects (Tongass Fjords X, Vancouver X, ORBX Pacific Fjords) you can see them also in the freeware VictoriaPlus as well as the FS9 version of Glacier Bay available at AVSIM and elsewhere. In fact, just yesterday I was working on the other two existing ORBX North America projects, Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies, to "retrofit" them with marine navigation aids, including parts of the Columbia River.

All that is required is to have suitable objects (buoys, dolphins, skeleton towers, etc.) and then placing on top the visual effects files that flash at specific frequencies and colors. You can place both buoy and effect in the same xml file as in the example below or you can make a model with an attachpoint that references a specific visual effect and then place the model with any object placer.

In the code below the Library Object name references the object's GUID and the Effect name points to the corresponding .fx file placed in the FSX main \Effects folder.

Cheers, Holger

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<FSData
version="9.0"
xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance'
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd" >


<!-- ORBX FTX Pacific Fjords Marine Navigation Lights, Alaska -->


<!-- Page 208 =============================== -->
<!-- Light # 21835 -->
<!-- white skeleton tower -->
<SceneryObject
lat="N54 43.53"
lon="W130 49.22"
alt="0" altitudeIsAgl="TRUE" pitch="0" bank="0" heading="0" imageComplexity="NORMAL">
<LibraryObject
name="{f1ef2a8e-4c6c-450c-8ea5-5cdb7db4306f}"
scale="1.0"/>
</SceneryObject>
<SceneryObject
lat="N54 43.53"
lon="W130 49.22"
alt="9.60" altitudeIsAgl="TRUE" pitch="0" bank="0" heading="0" imageComplexity="NORMAL">
<Effect effectName="fx_HS_FSX_marine_white_4s"
effectParams=""/>
</SceneryObject>


</FSData>

 

[Leovenous]

Excellent information!

Question, on making effects for the lights, like how in your file you reference "fx_HS_FSX_marine_white_4s", I assume you made that yourself. I read the wiki here and am not finding much useful information. Any guidance on that?

 

[HolgerSandmann]

Hi there,

the FSX SDK contains a decent section on effects coding. It also includes a tool that lets you test and change an effect directly in the sim so you can experiment with the different parameters.

When coding an effect it's usually easiest to pick the most similar default .fx file and work from there. In your case a flashing light like one of the default beacon effects might be best. If you have any of the freeware add-ons installed that include my marine light effects feel free to use those as a base too.

Cheers, Holger

 

[Leovenous]

Alright, all these months later I'm actually trying this bugger.

I am using the Abacus scenery shortcut tool for FSX, the odd thing is you save your scenery as a mission, and it converts it to the BGL. I tried adding an effect (lot of shooting in the dark here), and it didn't work. Not sure what I'm missing.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<SimBase.Document Type="MissionFile" version="1,0">
    <WorldBase.Flight>
        <SceneryObjects.LibraryObject InstanceId="{F24D6D3A-FE48-4AAD-AB75-9319F1E6C5BC}">
            <Descr>gen_buoy_02_green</Descr>
            <MDLGuid>{0FEA38E2-CEDD-4A64-B90D-8269F1B0233C}</MDLGuid>
            <WorldPosition>N46° 13' 25.65",W124° 11' 11.24",+000000.00</WorldPosition>
            <Orientation>0.000,0.000,0.000</Orientation>
            <AltitudeIsAGL>True</AltitudeIsAGL>
            <Scale>1.000</Scale>
        </SceneryObjects.LibraryObject>
		<SceneryObject>
               <Effect effectName="fx_HS_FSX_marine_green_4s"
                effectParams=""/>
				<WorldPosition>N46° 13' 25.65",W124° 11' 11.24",+000003.00</WorldPosition>
            <Orientation>0.000,0.000,0.000</Orientation>
            <AltitudeIsAGL>True</AltitudeIsAGL>
            <Scale>1.000</Scale>
        </SceneryObject>
    </WorldBase.Flight>
    <MissionBuilder.MissionBuilder>
    </MissionBuilder.MissionBuilder>
</SimBase.Document>

So... how do I get these little buggers to work.

Also, as an aside, I have the FX tool installed, but I guess I need to read up on how to use it cause it wasn't making any sense. I think the light was flashing inside my helicopter.

Man if I can figure this out there won't be a missing buoy or marker in the whole USA.