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My Finished Lighthouse

J

Joe Bourgeois

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22
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us-newmexico
Finally got my lighthouse finished. it is the point loma lighthouse in san diego, ca.
got the rotating beacon to work (after much hair pulling).

the only disappointment is i didnt use fsds at!! it was created with EOD (i made it prior to buying fsds) using default textures and xml-->bgl with a tutorial i found on the net.

need to figure out how to make the default rotating beacon's light brighter. it kinda makes no sense that the landing lights on a plane are much brighter than an airport beacon??!!

joe
 

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Nice one Joe, now stop messing about and do it in FSDS - that should be a challenge! I know - it was so easy in EOD but then I still have loads of api from EOD that I will use every now and then. Never made anything a good as your lighthouse though. I did some houses though with EOD - see pic attached.
 
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warmingham said:
Nice one Joe, now stop messing about and do it in FSDS
Click to expand...

hahaha....i am about ready to drop kick fsds back to abacus and ask for a refund.
it seems to me that fsdsv3 was made for aircraft.....and scenery was an afterthought. i still havent been able to figure out why i cant get the ferris wheel to animate.

regarding the lighthouse, what i cant figure out is why in EOD, the "globe" is about 35 feet high, yet the altitude for the rotating beacon is 9.5 feet high.
i know that the code for the alt for the beacon is "agl". the lighthouse is at 0, and when next to it in my 737, it shows 7.5 "msl"

joe
 
Hi Joe, FSDS was made for everything - I have never used GMX as I found it too complicated. FSDS is for simple folk like me! Although some of my projects haven't been successful, I don't give up. Put it to one side then start something else. Animation. Now I don't know why you can't make your Ferris Wheel rotate but I will guess that you didn't rename it to Tick18? Which you choose in the the Parts Properties (F2) click browse and choose Scenery Key Frame Animation. The sub name can be ds_FerrisWheelFrame - the original name. I am attaching my version of a Rotating Wheel. It is simple and not complete really but it will suffice to show you that you can do something similar.
I can't comment either on the heights problem with EOD etc except to say that in FS9 the height shown (MSL) is your height as the pilot so for ground level you must deduct something (7.5ft I suspect). I fly a Cesna and when I am looking at the Elevation I must always deduct 5.1ft from the height of the plane/pilot to get the true ground level.
Hope this helps you sort things out. The zip file is the FSDS .fsc file you may use it as you wish It was just something I did to illustrate that it can be done. Don't foeget that sometimes you have to re-start FS9 to see the animation.
 
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I have bought FSDS recently but did not start using it. GMax was definitely not my kind of tool, I tried lots but managed nothing :o

What would you suggest to have a successful start into FSDS? Is there a good tutorial to follow?

If I manage to get used to it, it will be for scenery objects in my case, not aircrafts.
 
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First - Note for Joe W. I use a Cesna Caravan that I repainted myself in what I call AirMalta colours (not exact but I like them!) and it is always 5.1ft - perhaps your USA measurement are different than mine (British)? But thank you for posting anyway.
Second - for gsnde. The help section of FSDS is good. You must do the tutorials where they concern what you intend to do. Here is also a link with some tutorials - http://www.freeflightdesign.com/tutorials.html. There are one or two there that you can use. Some of the links are perhaps outdated and do not work.
But really you have to start with basic shapes as I did. A cube - then copy and paste it and put it on top. Then make a roof by dragging the points towards the middle. A cylinder - in point mode select the points above the axis and move them a little way to see the effect. Texture the objects with default textures if you don't have any. I search the Internet using Google for photos and pics that I think I can use. Get ImageTool from the Microsft SDK's - in fact get all the sdk's you may not use them but leave them there until you become an expert! Get DXTBmp. I make all my textures 32bit - this you can do with ImageTool. I never have any problems with them. Although there are many opinions regarding textures and many formats - do not use 24bit textures - FS9 will not show them. Disregard what FSDS warns when you try to use a 32bit texture - it cannot recognise it. But if you have put it through ImageTool then it will be OK.
But most Important of all - Read the forums. None of the posts have been deleted they stay there forever. There is so much good advice from so many experts and some not so expert. Once you are logged in you can search for so many things. Type in for example - Spotlights or Texturing in FSDS and see what you come up with. Look at the posts that I have made or Arno - he is one of the administrators of the site.
Well I hope this helps you get started.
BTW I have friends in your area - They live in Fridigen an der Donau.
Good Luck
 
Fridingen an der Donau - I had to look it up. It is 140 km away, and seems to be a nice spot.

Thanks a lot for you guiding words into FSDS - it might well be that my problem with GMax was that I wanted to much without having the basics.

I will see to it that I don't make that error again. :)
 
hey gsnde -
1) if you have read my previous post about the ferris wheel not working, it's regarding the tutorial in fsds help. simple steps but i cant get it to animate. try it and see how you do and let me know.
2) there is not tutorial for a flashing beacon to put on top of a building. i managed, through trial/error and help from here, to make a sample one. use this link and scroll down til you see my "Joe's Beacon Tutorial".
http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5505
let us know if it works for you

i have spent many hours searching the net for fsds tutorials. many for "aircraft", none for "scenery". like you, i am more interested scenery than aircraft.

hey warmington -
yep, your wheel does animate, but since i dont have your textures, it looks gray, no big deal. still working my the ferris wheel, though.
 
Well I can't give you a tutorial - I haven't got the time! LOL
But I will give you a 'Flashing Beacon' -it's red and flashes on and off. It's on a small blue cone so that when you put it on top of a building you can see where it is going. It is attached. It is in zip format because you can't upload .fsc files! Look at the properties - you may not find the colour is in your list but you can edit - I used all the same colour for all the types Difuse /Specular /Emissive /Ambient/ but I made th Specular Power 500.
 
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