MSFS20 Toggle Panel Lights - Emissive textures

[Taog44]

Hello there,

So I managed to create panel backlights using the emissive texture option in Blender,

The panels gauges have one MSFS Standard material that has a Albedo and an emissive texture. They are visible in Game thanks to the Day night cycle but I can't turn them on or off.

My question : How do I toggle the visibility of the emissive textures with the Panel Lights Switch that I already put in place ?

Screenshot of blender

Thanks in advance!

 

[sal1800]

Hi Taog44. I think I was answering this in Discord, but here is a more complete solution idea. I like to post these here because this forum can at least be in search results when others are looking for similar solutions.

The problem with emissive materials in MSFS 2020 is that you have to control it at the object/node level and can't control it for everything that shares that material. That results in a lot of XML code to control every single object.

The best I can think of is to leverage a template and use minimal code for each object. Here's a template that has default parameters for a circuit that has to be on (i.e. the panel circuit or main circuit, whatever you need) and a potentiometer control for the brightness. I also added a dimming factor set to 50% because I find 100% emissive to be overly bright. Adjust this to taste.

<Template Name="Panel_Emissive_Template">
    <Parameters Type="Default">
        <CIRCUIT>1</CIRCUIT>
        <POTENTIOMETER>1</POTENTIOMETER>
        <DIMMING_FACTOR>0.5</DIMMING_FACTOR>
    </Parameters>

    <Component ID="PANEL_EMISSIVE_#NODE_ID#" Node="#NODE_ID#">
        <Material>
            <EmissiveFactor>
                <Parameter>
                    <Code>(A:CIRCUIT ON:#CIRCUIT#, Bool) (A:LIGHT POTENTIOMETER:#POTENTIOMETER#, Percent over 100) * #DIMMING_FACTOR# *</Code>
                </Parameter>
                <OverrideBaseEmissive>True</OverrideBaseEmissive>
            </EmissiveFactor>
        </Material>          
    </Component>
</Template>

<UseTemplate Name="Panel_Emissive_Template">
    <NODE_ID>INSTRUMENT_Altimeter_Face</NODE_ID>
</UseTemplate>
<UseTemplate Name="Panel_Emissive_Template">
    <NODE_ID>INSTRUMENT_Needle_Altimeter_100</NODE_ID>
</UseTemplate>

Keep listing all the relevant objects using the same pattern. I haven't tested this in sim, but it's based on a similar template I was using.

For any objects that don't require animation, such as the gauge faces, you can join them together as one mesh in Blender to reduce the number of code lines that need to be added.

To make the emissive material in Blender, you specify a texture for the emissive texture and make sure the emissive color is not black. The emissive color will affect the brightness and tint of the final material.

 

[Taog44]

Hello Sal ! Thank you so much for your answer here and on Discord,

I will try to apply it and come back after I do my tweaking

 

[Taog44]

Hello there!

I am coming back to give a final answer to my question!

Here is my code in order to get the panel lights working with emissive textures

I went looking the A320 XML file and got all I needed

First template is for the Panel light switch on/off, the second template is for the potentiometer knob, then from the third on are templates that are listing which objects/nodes are supposed to be affected by the potentiometer, each of them have an albedo and an emissive texture on the MSFS Standard Material. The result is pretty cool in my opinion

            <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_LIGHTING_Switch_Light_Panel_Template">
                <NODE_ID>PANEL_LIGHT_SWITCH</NODE_ID>
                <ANIM_NAME>Panel_Light</ANIM_NAME>
            </UseTemplate>
            
        <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_LIGHTING_Knob_Potentiometer_Template">
            <NODE_ID>LIGHTING_Knob_Glareshield_3</NODE_ID>
            <ANIM_NAME>LIGHTING_Knob_Glareshield_3</ANIM_NAME>
            <POTENTIOMETER>15</POTENTIOMETER>
            <TT_DESCRIPTION_ID>@TT_Package.LIGHTING_KNOB_PANEL_ACTION</TT_DESCRIPTION_ID>
            <TOOLTIP_TITLE>@TT_Package.LIGHTING_KNOB_PANEL_TITLE</TOOLTIP_TITLE>
            <TT_ICON>ROTATE</TT_ICON>   
        </UseTemplate>
        
                <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_LIGHTING_Panel_Emissive_Template">
            <NODE_ID>LIGHTS_PEDESTAL</NODE_ID>
            <POTENTIOMETER>15</POTENTIOMETER>
        </UseTemplate>
        
                <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_LIGHTING_Panel_Emissive_Template">
            <NODE_ID>LIGHTS_MAINPANEL</NODE_ID>
            <POTENTIOMETER>15</POTENTIOMETER>
        </UseTemplate>
        
                        <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_LIGHTING_Panel_Emissive_Template">
            <NODE_ID>LIGHTS_OVERHEAD</NODE_ID>
            <POTENTIOMETER>15</POTENTIOMETER>
        </UseTemplate>
        
                        <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_LIGHTING_Panel_Emissive_Template">
            <NODE_ID>AttitudeBall</NODE_ID>
            <POTENTIOMETER>15</POTENTIOMETER>
        </UseTemplate>
                        <UseTemplate Name="ASOBO_LIGHTING_Panel_Emissive_Template">
            <NODE_ID>barre</NODE_ID>
            <POTENTIOMETER>15</POTENTIOMETER>
        </UseTemplate>
        </Component>

 

[B21-soaring]

wow that panel looks great - congrats!