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Lights in Scenery

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Georg Aubele said:
a) Is there a stand alone ID Generator or is the one in BGLXML the only one available? I'm not good at inventing 32 digit random numbers :scratchch
Click to expand...

Check the GMax forum, Dick (Rhumbaflappy) just posted a link to his GUIDMaker there.

Georg Aubele said:
Is there a way to make it shine in a square-shape?
Click to expand...

Nope, when you have a point shaped light source it will always give light in a circle shape. This is also how real lights work of course.
 
arno said:
Nope, when you have a point shaped light source it will always give light in a circle shape. This is also how real lights work of course.
Click to expand...

Ummmm ... sorry - have been to unprecise ... the shape is lengthly (ellipsoid), and I want a circle (In my head I had the shape of the light source ... :o )

But I think, I will stick to the "place transparant ground polygons with the night glow on them" solution, because the lights are very dim and if a plane goes through under the light, it isn't enlighted at all ... only the underground ... :(
 
If the light is not a circle I think you have placed it at a certain angle. When it is shining downwards it will be a circle. With a certain pitch angle that becomes an elipse of course.
 
Hi,

as I have no sense of BGLC: Can I change the diameter of the lightcircle on the ground ? I placed Dick´s downward spot at a height of 30 meters but the light on the ground is still too small for my needs.
 
Hi Mc.

For a downward pointing light, the higher the elevation, the greater the area of the spot.

If the light type is LIGHT_TAXI_0 then there will be no 'cone' to worry about, so it doesn't matter what height the light is at.

The height can be set in the XML as altitude, or as an offset ( bias ).

Dick
 
I did try almost every possible value of "pitch" in SGX (the unit "m" disturbs me a lot! Best setting seems "90") but I only get a lengthly shape (about 10 times as long as broad) kan anyone help me?
I just copied the "the smallest light ASM code I can make" by rhumbaflappy and changed LIGHT_TAXI in LIGHT_LANDING to get a brighter light ... do I have to change something in the source?!?
 
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Hi Georg.

You want to pitch the light at 89.0... this pitches the light down.

There is a bug in BGLComp that will reject a 90.0 pitch.

I advise against the LIGHT_LANDING, as that makes your light controlled by the landing light switch in the cockpit!

To get a brighter light, just place 2 lights in the same spot... the effect is additive for intensity.

I would use LIGHT_TAXI_0, as that is just the spot, and not the tiny default cone.

Dick
 
This image shows two lights (right taxi and left landing) pitched to 89.0 and 89.9 in SGX

Lights001.jpg


Is see
a) no difference between pitch 89.0 and 89.9
b) a lenthly shape and no circle :(

Do I have to change source code or what am I doing wrong?!? :confused:

Source:
Code: 
db 'R','I','F','F'
dd bgl_data_end - $ - 4
db 'M','D','L','9'

db 'M','D','L','H'
dd visual_model_header_end - $ - 4
dd visual_model_header_end - $ - 4
dd 0
dd 0
dd 2
dd 0
dd 0
dd 156
db 'F','S','8','0'
dd 2304
visual_model_header_end label dword

db 'B','B','O','X' 
dd bounding_box_riff_end - $ - 4
real4 -100.000, -100.000, -100.000 
real4 100.000, 100.000, 100.000 
bounding_box_riff_end label word 

db 'E','X','T','E' 
dd exterior_riff_end_0 - $ - 4
db 'B','G','L',' '
dd bgl_riff_end_DicksLight - $ - 4
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_LANDING, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0, 0.0, 0.0, 000FFFFFFh, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0
bgl_riff_end_DicksLight label word
exterior_riff_end_0 label word

bgl_data_end label word

Can anyone help me?
 
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@Dick

I know that the higher the spot the greater the circle on the ground. At the moment I´m trying to make Munich airport and I made all my 3D objects with FSDS2. And now I try to replace most of them with gmax-models. But I still have problems with any kind of light (obslights, ad-beacon, light poles) under gmax.
The light poles at Munich are about 35 meters high but when I place your light at that height I get a too small circle on the ground. Is there a way to influence the light size other than the height of the light ?
And is there any variable that one can insert in your code to show up the navlight (would be a great obs light) only at bad visibilities (below 5km) or at dusk, night, dawn ?
 
For showing the light only at night you would have to add a check like this:

IFIN1 skip, 028C, 2, 4

More info in this thread: http://www.scenerydesign.org/forum/showthread.php?t=97

Unfortunately there is no variable for bad weather.

About the light, I think the altitude is the only way to control the size of the circle. Other option would be to place a polygon on the ground with the semi-transparant light shape on it.
 
Hi Georg.

There is no problem with the MDL I compiled from your code. That suggests the problem is with SGX.

This XML code will place it at KSEA perfectly:

Code: 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<FSData version="9.0" xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="bglcomp.xsd">


	<SceneryObject lat="47 25.89" lon="-122 18.43" alt="30" pitch="89.0" bank="0" heading="0" altitudeIsAgl="TRUE" imageComplexity="NORMAL">
		<LibraryObject name="850651DC427EA7FD261C099B4E3D878E" scale="1.0" />
	</SceneryObject>


	<ModelData name="850651DC427EA7FD261C099B4E3D878E" sourceFile="AnotherLight.mdl" />
</FSData>

Dick
 
@McFu
There is already a freeware Scenery from EDDM ... right now it's not really finished, there is a beta version available - if you want to get in contact with the designer, it's Heiko Futterer, you can find him in the SAG-Forum http://forum.vacc-sag.org/
 
Hi Georg,

I am Heiko :) !!

@arno
where do i have to put the variable you mentioned ?
In FSDS there is the option "DARK" which also applies to bad weather conditions (at least the light defined with DARK show up during bad visibilities). As variable it is 0x28c and the values 6 and 0. Is 028C the same variable in a mdl file ?
 
McFU said:
where do i have to put the variable you mentioned ?
In FSDS there is the option "DARK" which also applies to bad weather conditions (at least the light defined with DARK show up during bad visibilities). As variable it is 0x28c and the values 6 and 0. Is 028C the same variable in a mdl file ?
Click to expand...

You can indeed use 028C in the MDL as well. 1 means day, 2 dusk/dawn and 4 night, so 6 is a combination of dusk/dawn and night. But I have never seen that this variable also responds to bad weather.
 
Bad weather is maybe relative. But at least when the visibility is bad the lights show up on API-objects created with FSDS2.
Do I have to add the line mentioned before at first line or at a specific position in the ASM file ?
 
McFU said:
Bad weather is maybe relative. But at least when the visibility is bad the lights show up on API-objects created with FSDS2.
Do I have to add the line mentioned before at first line or at a specific position in the ASM file ?
Click to expand...

Could you maybe send me such an API macro? Maybe there is something else coded in there :D.

You would have to place the IFIN1 command around the commands you want the condition to apply to. Or if it should apply to your total object you can place it at the start of the BGL section.
 
rhumbaflappy said:
Hi Georg.

There is no problem with the MDL I compiled from your code. That suggests the problem is with SGX.

This XML code will place it at KSEA perfectly:

Dick
Click to expand...
There must be something wrong with my taxi light textures ... with your XML, I get the same lengthly shape as in Berlin :(

It does not satisfy my needs in another way: The light does only light up the ground, but not any aircraft going by - I think that is not possible in FS2k4 to have light effects on aircrafts, right? :(

So I will go with the self-illuminated ground poly's ... still alot of work!
 
@arno

Sorry, i must have been wrong. I tried again with bad weather but no lights showed up (on my models). Maybe it was dusk and i didn´t recognize it due to the bad weather. I was sure there were lights. But nevertheless there must be a condition for bad weather because the ground lights (Rwy, Twy, Beacon) are on when you set down the visibility. Is it not possible to extract the standard beacon and look at its code ?
 
McFU said:
But nevertheless there must be a condition for bad weather because the ground lights (Rwy, Twy, Beacon) are on when you set down the visibility. Is it not possible to extract the standard beacon and look at its code ?
Click to expand...

All these lights are hardcoded in the scenery engine, so they can not be extracted. There will probably be a variable for the condition, but the scenery can not read it.
 
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