MSFS Optical Landing System

[thetford569]

Posted this over at Dev Support but also looking for any ideas here.....

Trying to possibly make an optical landing system trailer for land based carrier landing practice. These IFLOLS/FLOLS trailers are common at Naval Air Stations. I see the Top Gun Maverick expansion has the Optical Landing System simobject but just as an experiment I placed it an an airport and saw no lights on it like you see on an aircraft carrier. The object itself doesn’t seem to have any lights attached to it on further investigation.

Any direction or ideas on how to go about this? I started experimenting today by making a box that was open in the front and had a colored texture in the back and then several planes inside the box that were placed horizontally. This allowed the texture to show through as you moved up and down because the planes were blocking the view. This might be a way forward as a “fake” optical landing system but I would prefer to be able to use lights like the Top Gun aircraft carrier has.
There is nothing in the SDK and the Fresnel lights do not work and the SDK has said that would be fixed in a future update although it has said that in the documentation forever. I’m looking for some direction or ideas?

 

[superspud]

I will guess that you need to add this file to some sort of invisible simobject on the runway.

I presume the OLS needs reference points to define the dimensions of the runway so it knows where the light is supposed to point. And the OLS is also attached to this simobject.

Not sure it'll work away from sea level though.

That's the code inside the file. You have a runway start, end and edge which is the width. The rest is for arrestor cables.

These are empties with according names in the simobject.

[ReferencePoint.0]
Name=attachpt_runway_start
AttachTo=
IsExterior=1
RelativePos=-5.1455,18.844,-136.49
RelativeRot=0,0,0

[ReferencePoint.1]
Name=attachpt_runway_end
AttachTo=
IsExterior=1
RelativePos=32.505,18.844,96.649
RelativeRot=0,0,0

[ReferencePoint.2]
Name=attachpt_runway_edge
AttachTo=
IsExterior=1
RelativePos=-17.688,18.844,-134.96
RelativeRot=0,0,0


[ReferencePoint.3]
Name=attachpt_cable_1_1
AttachTo=
IsExterior=1
RelativePos=18.531,19.932,-91.595
RelativeRot=0,0,0

[ReferencePoint.4]
Name=attachpt_cable_1_2
AttachTo=
IsExterior=1
RelativePos=-12.048,19.932,-86.06
RelativeRot=0,0,0

[ReferencePoint.5]
Name=attachpt_cable_2_1
AttachTo=
IsExterior=1
RelativePos=19.41,19.932,-78.031
RelativeRot=0,0,0

[ReferencePoint.6]
Name=attachpt_cable_2_2
AttachTo=
IsExterior=1
RelativePos=-11.169,19.932,-72.495
RelativeRot=0,0,0

[ReferencePoint.7]
Name=attachpt_cable_3_1
AttachTo=
IsExterior=1
RelativePos=21.326,19.932,-67.706
RelativeRot=0,0,0

[ReferencePoint.8]
Name=attachpt_cable_3_2
AttachTo=
IsExterior=1
RelativePos=-9.25,19.932,-62.171
RelativeRot=0,0,0

 

[thetford569]

Interesting.....

The official reply over at DevSupport was that the Optical Landing System SimObject is geometry only and all of the logic for the actual lighting system is tied to the Top Gun Maverick Mission and won't work outside of that. Probably can't use that for a land based system that would work in free flight. Just another issue with them deciding to put all of this aircraft carrier stuff into a mission only and not have it available in free flight like FSX Acceleration was. Booo.....

As I get time I will experiment with faking it and see if I can come up with a solution

 

[superspud]

The OLS works fine on other carriers out in the open world so it's not mission related.

I think sea level, or the lack thereof, may well be your issue.

 

[thetford569]

Ok I’ll take a look at it in more depth. Based on their answer I didn’t think it worked outside the mission and I haven’t used any of those carrier packs at all. Elevation may be an issue as you said.

 

[thetford569]

The OLS works fine on other carriers out in the open world so it's not mission related.

I think sea level, or the lack thereof, may well be your issue.

I created a SimObject the size of the landing area and created attachpoints as shown above on the aircraft carrier including an attachpoint for the Optical Landing System. I was able to put my simobject in the sim but the OLS does not spawn. I can open up the Debug for SimObjects and there is a category there for OLS. In the Maverick Landing challenge it shows up in that list but not in my project. I am not sure if because I am using Blender that is the problem because the SDK documentation says that the Blender Exporter does not support model attachments. I tried manually placing an OLS simobject which does nothing other than place the mesh in the scene but I didn't expect that to work.

 

[superspud]

Blender attaches fine, it's simply an empty with the right name.

Perhaps you also need to add a landable surface?

This is the sim.cfg for a working one so you might be missing one or two lines.

Since it was only designed for this challenge there may be a bunch of conditions that have to be there that may not be of any use elsewhere.

Among other things it'll likely need to be classified as a GroundVehicle in the category bit or it won't appear above sea level.

[fltsim.0]
title=Charles de Gaulle Move
model=
texture=

[General]
category=Boat
HasMovingPlatform = 1


[contact_points]
static_pitch=0.0                //degrees, pitch when at rest on the ground (+=Up, -=Dn)
static_cg_height=0.0             //feet, altitude of CG when at rest on the ground

[DesignSpecs]
max_speed_mph = 50  
acceleration_constants = 0.5, 0.4               //Time constant (effects responsiveness), and max acceleration (Gs)
deceleration_constants = 2.0, 0.5               //Time constant (effects responsiveness), and max acceleration (Gs)
SternPosition = 0

[Effects]
wake = fx_wake_s

[Carrier]
carrier = 1

 

[mamu]

At Dev support they said the logic of the OLS is connected do the mission, infact,
Iirc, when studying the .spb, I remember a lot of maths regarding that system
Because with script you can drive animations and do lot of stuff not allowed in the .XML, it is plausible that you need to script the OLS functionality

but!
Without using scripts, that ols looks like, more or less, a vertical PAPI
So you can most likely fake it using the light presets. It will be a PITA (using the the show light direction in the rendering menu will reduce the pain..a bit..).
but should work

 

[superspud]

It's been a while since I've chipped away at carriers but I don't recall any problems or clever stuff adding them to my own.

I added them as an attachment and the light follows my aoa.

Maybe I was impressed enough with that.

You no doubt do have to add a lot more to get a little guy to talk to you.

 

[thetford569]

It's been a while since I've chipped away at carriers but I don't recall any problems or clever stuff adding them to my own.

I added them as an attachment and the light follows my aoa.

Maybe I was impressed enough with that.

You no doubt do have to add a lot more to get a little guy to talk to you.

sorry, I'm having trouble understanding what you wrote here. You added what on your own? And you added what as an attachment? And I don't know what you mean by getting a little guy to talk to me.

 

[thetford569]

At Dev support they said the logic of the OLS is connected do the mission, infact,
Iirc, when studying the .spb, I remember a lot of maths regarding that system
Because with script you can drive animations and do lot of stuff not allowed in the .XML, it is plausible that you need to script the OLS functionality

but!
Without using scripts, that ols looks like, more or less, a vertical PAPI
So you can most likely fake it using the light presets. It will be a PITA (using the the show light direction in the rendering menu will reduce the pain..a bit..).
but should work

Yes the more I get into it the more complicated it's looking to try and make it work at an airport. Even if I could figure out how to get it to work since it's not a boat on water at sea level it still may not work on land. I initially thought about possibly using a light preset to fake it so maybe that will be the way to go. Then I can create my own model to go with it that will be a land based IFLOLS anyway. I have not played with the directional lights yet at all so there will be a learning curve there.

 

[thetford569]

I had a look at the Carrier.spb file and it has this in the decompiled xml for the default carrier which references and I guess attaches the Optical Landing System. The node name is the same as in the carrier model. My brain hurts.....lol

<SimContain.Container InstanceId="{857701B9-C9DA-45F9-82B5-BF62DB755A6A}">
<SimBase.Descr>OpticalLandingSystem</SimBase.Descr>
<ContainerID>4294967295</ContainerID>
<WorldBase.IsOnGround>false</WorldBase.IsOnGround>
<WorldBase.SimplifiedSimMode>NONE</WorldBase.SimplifiedSimMode>
<WorldBase.ContainerTitle>Optical_Landing_System</WorldBase.ContainerTitle>
<AIType>OLS</AIType>
<WorldBase.AttachedWorldObject>
<NodeName>Attach_Optical_Landing_System</NodeName>
<ObjectReference id="AI_Carrier" InstanceId="{922D69C0-7F0E-4AAF-819B-2E0FFE8447BD}" />
</WorldBase.AttachedWorldObject>

 

[thetford569]

It's been a while since I've chipped away at carriers but I don't recall any problems or clever stuff adding them to my own.

I added them as an attachment and the light follows my aoa.

Maybe I was impressed enough with that.

You no doubt do have to add a lot more to get a little guy to talk to you.

I see now you're talking about getting the LSO to work. Yeah I'm not doing that. Just trying to get the meatball to work on land. LOL

 

[superspud]

There we go. A OLS that works on land above sea level. No need to program fancy heights, just place it on the terrain and it seems to work.

There's the Simobject, worldscript and Blender file included.

To actually place it, you place the worldscript in the scene, not the simobject itself.

I totally forgot you need to attach the OLS in a worldscript, but you still need the attach node name as that's far easier than trying to manually place it inside the worldscript.

The simobject is down as a GroundVehicle rather than a Boat which is probably key. Boats will only appear at sea level seemingly.

I dunno how well the actual meaty stuff works. I guess you'll need to experiment and move the reference and attach points around to get what you want.

 

[thetford569]

There we go. A OLS that works on land above sea level. No need to program fancy heights, just place it on the terrain and it seems to work.

There's the Simobject, worldscript and Blender file included.

To actually place it, you place the worldscript in the scene, not the simobject itself.

I totally forgot you need to attach the OLS in a worldscript, but you still need the attach node name as that's far easier than trying to manually place it inside the worldscript.

The simobject is down as a GroundVehicle rather than a Boat which is probably key. Boats will only appear at sea level seemingly.

I dunno how well the actual meaty stuff works. I guess you'll need to experiment and move the reference and attach points around to get what you want.

View attachment 89578

This is amazing! Thanks. I will explore everything now. Hopefully I can figure out a way to change out the actual model to a ground based IFLOLS trailer but keep the lights and the functionality

 

[thetford569]

There we go. A OLS that works on land above sea level. No need to program fancy heights, just place it on the terrain and it seems to work.

There's the Simobject, worldscript and Blender file included.

To actually place it, you place the worldscript in the scene, not the simobject itself.

I totally forgot you need to attach the OLS in a worldscript, but you still need the attach node name as that's far easier than trying to manually place it inside the worldscript.

The simobject is down as a GroundVehicle rather than a Boat which is probably key. Boats will only appear at sea level seemingly.

I dunno how well the actual meaty stuff works. I guess you'll need to experiment and move the reference and attach points around to get what you want.

View attachment 89578

I would guess that since the worldscript calls this specific Optical_Landing_System model and is part of what makes this whole system work that I can't just create my own IFLOLS model and use it instead. Maybe what I will do is model just the trailer part to go underneath the MSFS IFLOLS since it is floating off the ground a bit and then it will look like a ground based system. I added it into my test project and it worked! I think modeling just the bottom of the IFLOLS trailer and adding it as a scenery object and placing it underneath is probably the way to go. I was hoping that only the lights would spawn and I could add a new model that would line up with the lights but that does not seem possible here.

 

[superspud]

It would be handy to know where the OLS's programming is buried.

It's nowhere in the simobject itself, and since it's not there it's interesting that it works when spawned outside the landing challenge.

 

[thetford569]

It would be handy to know where the OLS's programming is buried.

It's nowhere in the simobject itself, and since it's not there it's interesting that it works when spawned outside the landing challenge.

There are still many mysteries on the inner workings of MSFS and still many things undocumented for sure. It's great though that it works and it's almost completely what I was looking for. The great thing about this is that you can put it at any airfield and the only thing I had to change was to scale the cube to be larger because the LOD was cutting out the lights too soon and you couldn't see it until you were almost over the runway end. Sizing the invisible cube to 100x800 worked well and it's now visible about 3/4 of a mile out. I would have liked to get it to load in a little further out but changing the size past that point had no effect. I made the cube huge and it still disappeared at the same location so while it does affect the LOD at some point there is a limit. I would have loved to model my own IFLOLS trailer and line up the lights but the logic is definitely somehow tied to that simobject. So, I will just model the wheels and flat part of the trailer plus some extra details to make it look like a ground based system and help fix the floating of the current model. I will test fly tomorrow in VR to see how it looks now that I have fixed the LOD somewhat. My first VR flight you couldn't see it at all until you almost touched down. VR LOD is even more extreme than on a monitor and understandably so for performance. Hopefully it's now at an acceptable distance in VR as well.

 

[thetford569]

Tested in VR today....would still love to get it to come into view a little bit further out but this will do. Now I can design some FCLP markings in a projected mesh to place down on runways and we will have the ability to have a working FCLP setup for Navy bases and outlying fields.

IFLOLS FCLP Test Video

 

[Jean_L]

Hi,
I am also interested in this process to place it on my scene at the LFTH Naval Air Station.
If I understood correctly, to affect the system on an existing track, it
need to create an invisible zone on the part of the runway used by the landing zone with the dimensions of the aircraft carrier runway, and by modifying the attachment points of the blend file so that they are in the right locations?
Here two captures of my scene with the IFLOLS/FLOLS zone.

Also, should we add the simobject in the PackageSources, place it in the right place in developer mode then compile the scene again?

Is this how it should be done?

Thanks

Jean