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P3D v5 Placing spotlights - workflow

WTFlorian

WTFlorian

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212
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austria
Hello,

so i'm wondering about the "correct" or let's say most efficient way of placing spotlights around an airport.

I have modeled (for testing purposes) a street light that i would place around the airport, in this case around the parkinglot.
Then i attached a spotlight via MCX, placed the .bgl in the sim and voila - i have a working street lamp.

Now, would i have to attach the spotlights to each and every individual lamp or can i somehow copy the lamp and then place it with the light already attached ?
Here is a screenshot of what i mean, there is one lamp already with the spotlight attached to it - the white crosses are where the other lamps would go.

Would i place all the lamps in Blender, then export to MCX - and then attach the spotlights to each individual lamp ?

I'm very open to any suggestions or reading material that may give me a bit of an insight in placing lights.

Cheers

Screenshot (227).png
 
You put the lamp with the attached effect into a library.
You import this LIB into a placement tool of your choice (ADE / Simdirektor / Whisplacer) and can then place this lamp in the sim as often as you like.
 
Thank you, that sounds good.
I have no idea how to do any of that - guess i have to learn something new then.

Thank you very much
 
It's not as hard as it sounds.
You export your lamp and open it in MCX.
In MCX you attach your light effect.
Then you export your lamp as a bgl file without coordinates.
Do not place the lamp with the MCX, just export it.
And you have a library.

When you are ready, then it goes further.
Which placement tool do you want to use?
 
Bushpilot said:
Which placement tool do you want to use?
Click to expand...
To be honest - none.
Until now i used the "Convert & Place" Wizard from MCX to get my stuff into P3D.

I saved the ccordinates and placed my objects like that, works just fine - until now i guess.
Would you recommend using SimDirector (or any other placement tool) for placing all my .bgl's ?
 
So, your workflow would be:

1. Create your object in your 3D program of choice
2. Convert it to .bgl (via MCX)
3. Place it via Whisplacer

Is that correct ?
 
I use the Whisplacer version 0.9 from 23 December 2007 from here ( http://lc0277.gratisim.fr/whisplacer.html ) and the current JAVA version (only 32bit, no 64bit version)...

Under About/Prefs --> Configuration then in the window Preferences tab Paths ...
There I did not enter the paths to FSX, but to P3D.

Furthermore I created a shortcut of whisplacer.exe on the desktop and the program is started only from there.

If Whisplacer hangs up, then it can only be closed via the Task Manager.

To the procedure...

#Open Whisplacer
#Tools --> Library Manager
#left squiggle with dash open folder user
#mark user

2021-01-08_183855.jpg


#Library --> Add folder

2021-01-08_183933.jpg


#assign your own folder name in the new window

2021-01-08_204445.jpg


#then close Whisplacer completely

#open Whisplacer again
#Tools --> Library Manager
#left squiggle with dash expand folder user
#expand and mark the folder you just created
#Library --> Add BGL library

2021-01-08_205131.jpg


#Select BGL in the new window and click Open

2021-01-08_205300.jpg


#Models are imported and the number of imported models is displayed

2021-01-08_205804.jpg


#Confirm with OK and close Whisplacer again.
Now the BGL (Library) is imported into Whisplacer.

Open Whisplacer again and now you can start placing the objects.
I got used to closing the Whisplacer after certain steps.
 
Thank you Mike for taking the time to write such a detailed answer, i'm sure this will be very helpful.

Cheers
 
I'm having trouble getting Whisplacer to find P3Dv5. I installed it today, got the current JRE, and it seems to run fine. However, with P3D running, it says it can't find the simconnect port. Did you guys have to manually configure the ports, or did they just work?
 
Ah, I re-read his instructions and figured it out. Turns out I had the 64-bit version of Java but not the 32-bit. Whisplacer will run with the 64-bit, but it won't connect to the sim. Problem solved!
 
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