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SpotLights - Ground Lights

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warmingham

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malta
There was a thread by Mr Ziegenhorn concerning Red Lights at the top of buildings. The subject changed to questions on apron lights, so I thought I would start a new thread. I have had limited succes with lights that show the ground detail. Mine are not as good as the ESDG RamplLight Library but I am working on it. I thought I would share my ideas with the forum. The beam of light from the 'pole' I named as LIGHT_LAND or LIGHT_TAXI WITH an obviously low figure for the Alpha Channel - mine are 50. The actual ground element I have made as BRIGHT_DISK. The Specular Power I have made 400.
I would welcome comments as to how to improve the lights, particularly with trying to fade out the edges. I have attached a pic for all to see.
 
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warmingham said:
There was a thread by Mr Ziegenhorn concerning Red Lights at the top of buildings. The subject changed to questions on apron lights, so I thought I would start a new thread. I have had limited succes with lights that show the ground detail. Mine are not as good as the ESDG RamplLight Library but I am working on it. I thought I would share my ideas with the forum. The beam of light from the 'pole' I named as LIGHT_LAND or LIGHT_TAXI WITH an obviously low figure for the Alpha Channel - mine are 50. The actual ground element I have made as BRIGHT_DISK. The Specular Power I have made 400.
I would welcome comments as to how to improve the lights, particularly with trying to fade out the edges. I have attached a pic for all to see.
Click to expand...

Hi warmingham,

Thanks for posting this new thread, I should have started a new thread instead of changing the subject, I knew better...

Your pic is very interesting, and answers a couple of questions I had, but also poses a few new ones.

First, the light beam shows the taxiway "behind" the light source which I find somewhat unrealistic. I took one of the parking lots from my new scenery and just added a night texture to it with a few lighted areas (pic below). This seems a bit more realistic, however the vehicle objects just show up a dark silhouettes in the scenery. Which brings up a new question about alpha's, but I'll post as a reply in another thread.

Second, is it necessary to show the "beam" of light from the source to the ground, or is that just a personal preference?

Third, how did you get the "beam" of light to display at that angle? I think I know how, just not sure.

Thnx,
Larry
 
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warmingham,

This is more what I'm trying to accomplish, but not quite there yet.

Will keep at it...

Larry
 
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Hi Larry, The 'Light Beams' are a personal preference - and yes they do show the runway behind it but they also shows up the objects that also get in the way, like the plane. When you look at the plane facing the light source then the textures appear dark as well. Perhaps I should increase the alpha channel until it is almost gone? So there are 2 light sources - the beam and the ground light. I don't think that they are perfect yet but I am working on it. I got tied up making trees this morning with FSDS3 but that is another thread! In your case why don't you make a directional very faint beam similar to my light beams that would show the objects or an elongated sphere that covers the area? I'll leave it up to you.
 
Hi again Larry, Just re-read your post - the angle is decided by the actual pole itself. There are 2 objects - the pole which you can see day and night and the lights. I have to place them separately. I tried putting everything together but it didn't work - just wouldn't compile the mdl file. So I chose the easy way out. It was just trial and error - like I said before they aren't perfect yet but I am working on it. I spend upto 16 hours a day sitting at the computer, always trying different things - when I get a question or problem I don't like to give up!
 
Ha! Ha! - you must have posted a reply when I was typing! They look good - keep at it until you are satisfied!
 
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