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Lights in Scenery

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Georg Aubele said:
Gngngngngn! :banghead:

Maybe you can help me with my "light problem" ... ahhhh heavy problem ...
Click to expand...
Hi!

I'm new commer in the forum. Probably I'm late.

But please check file spotlight.bmp in general Texture folder of FS2004.
Seems to be you have custom texture.
This file is "responsible" for spot on ground.

Good luck!
 
I wandered to the "light through ground poly"-fraction, because it has IMHO no disadvantages. ;)

You're right, I have a custom texture and that made me think: My scenery should look some kind of good, no matter what custom textures you have on your computer. Therefore I changed my strategy ...
 
Did you use ZBIAS_ prefix in material name for ground spot or you found another way to bit blinking?

I tried effects instead but there is another problem(s) appears.

I dislike LIGHT_TAXI due to their image in fog.
 
Looks pretty awsome - you used the taxi-lights, didn't you?

It looks better than the ground-poly-solution, because it fades automatically to the dark ... I don't get such a nice effect with an alpha channel :(

But, you have to have the correct textures installed !

So ... is there a "best of both worlds"? :banghead:
 
The first one (where a lot of poles) with TAXI_LIGHT.
It is library object by Hawker (UNNT scenery design team).

After that my poles with effect which actually does the ground poligon.
Texture is custom with fading circle. Color 0,0,0 is transparent, all others you will see in scenery. More over they work as logical & with ground texture as it should be. There is no any alpha.

The problem with it I posted here in Effects section. :(
 
I made BMP file something like this.
After that I made a copy of fx_dotwhite.fx (or fx_whitedot.fx don't remember). I have changed name of bitmap file and size. You can find tutorial how to put effect and how to attach effect in GMax in Microsoft's SDK for effects.
 

Attachments

  • spot.jpg
    spot.jpg
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Ok - I found the fx-file and I know what name to change, but what do you mean with "changing size"? Do you mean uv1 and uv2? They sound to me like relative upper right and lower left corner of an rectangle ...

Code: 
[ParticleAttributes.0]
Blend Mode=2
Texture=fx_Dots.bmp
Bounce=0.00
Color Start=255, 255, 255, 200
Color End=255, 255, 255, 255
Jitter Distance=0.00
Jitter Time=0.00
uv1=0.50, 0.00
uv2=1.00, 0.50
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Extrude Length=0.00
Extrude Pitch Max=0.00
Extrude Heading Max=0.00
 
You can play with next parameters:

[Library Effect]
Radius=50 -> I put 200 (The maximal size of the effect. You must give an effect a radius for it to show up as scenery. Measured in meters.)

[Particle.0]
X Scale=10.00, 10.00 -> 25.00, 25.00 (The starting size of the particle in the X, Y, and Z directions. Measured in meters.)

Y Scale=10.00, 10.00 -> 25.00, 25.00 (The starting size of the particle in the X, Y, and Z directions. Measured in meters.)

Shade=1 -> 0 (An on/off toggle that determines whether the particle is darkened at night. It is used for night shading.)

[ParticleAttributes.0]
Color Start=255, 255, 255, 200 -> 16, 16, 16, 100 (R,G,B,alpha)
Color End=255, 255, 255, 255 -> 16, 16, 16, 128 (R,G,B, alpha)
uv1=0.50, 0.00 -> 0.00, 0.00 (lower-left corner X,Y on texture)
uv2=1.00, 0.50 -> 1.00, 1.00 (upper-right corner X,Y on texture)

This is all my changes as far as I remember. :)
 
I don't get it - the effet doesn't show up at all ... do I have to give the polygon a texture or not?
I tried both, but neither the texture nor the effect does show up! :(

Would you mind sharing your files with me? I mean the fx, the bmp and the GMAX-file, so I can study them and lear how to do it myself.

Georg"dot"Aubele"at"gmx"dot"de
 
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Ok. Everything at home. Later I'll send them.

First of all you need GMax Gamepack SDK & Special Effects SDK for FS2004 and tutorial.
http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulator/fs2004_downloads_sdk.asp
In GMax Gamepack SDK example of attaching a smoke effect to house by rinning script in GMax. You should try it first to get an idea how you can attach any effect to your scenery object. It is too big to repeat it here.

After that try to attach fx_whitedot effect on the same place instead of smoke effect.

In Special Effects SDK document with all parameters for effects.
 
I already did that before my last post (I have all SDK's and have almost read every doc ... :( )

I will give it another try ... :(
 
:eek: :eek: :eek: :yikes: :yikes: :yikes: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Help anyone!!!

I got the files from Scorpio and first studied them, then altered mine and tried ... no effects visible! Then I took his files, ran them through GMAX and SGX and tried ... NO EFFECTS VISBILE!! Then I tried the house from the tutorial, ran it through GMAX and SGX and tried ...


...NO EFFECTS VISIBLE!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

My FS seems to have something against effects - at least some of them, because I get a contrail when flying at high altitude, which is an effect, too, as far as I know.

Can anybody help me?

The Scenery Effect Details is set to high in my Video settings.
 
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Do you have an exclude in the area? That often excludes effects as well.
 
Of course, I have an exclude area, to delete the default airport :confused:

I "excluded" the effects from the exclude area, so they shoud appear ... :confused: :confused: :confused:

I think the exclude areas in SGX have some problems, is there another way to build an exclude an just build the SGX scenery above it?
 
Hi Georg,

Just to be sure the exclude is the problem with the effects, I would advice you to remove the exclude first to see if that gets your effects back.

I don't know why the exclude of SGX would be different, this is just a strange exclude bug in FS. You might have to use a couple of smaller exlcudes, instead of one big one to remove the default airport objects.
 
Hi Georg.

There is a well documented bug in fs9 in how effects are excluded. If your exclude is in the same folder as your effects, the new effects in that excluded area will not show. That's why Arno asked you that question.

There is a solution. Make smaller excluded areas... tiny ones that take just the refpoint of the objects you wish to exclude. Then chances are the refpoint for the effects will not be within the tiny excluded areas. By tiny, I mean perhaps as small as 1x1 meter... just to get rid of the default object.

Many tiny exclude rectangles can exist in one XML-created exclude BGL.

Many designers have a habit of making huge excludes, or of making all their objects as one huge combined gmax export. Both those habits are bad and will lead to troubles.

Dick
 
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