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FS2004 Default FS2004 Cockpit VC Lighting?

E

ElCid97

Messages
38
Country
us-florida
Greetings,

I wasn't sure where to add this, so I placed it in General because I'm not really "designing" anything new.

I'm still using FS2004 and am doing some texture updates to some of the older aircraft. I'm also updating some panels -- or at least trying to, anyway.

On most aircraft the panel is lit at night by the "vc_light.fx" light when placed in the cfg file. I'm fine with this since all I really want to do is have something that will let you read the gauges at night. Nothing fancy like back-lighting since that involves the actual design of the airplane. Some VC's just don't have that built in. You can, however, light the inside up with the effect file so it has a red glow (default effect) when you're in the VC. Even if it's just a static one done with the Erwin Welker tutorial.

Some aircraft, however, don't have that ability for some reason. You can put as many VC effects as you want, you just can't get the panel illuminated. As an example, one airplane lights up the entire cockpit EXCEPT the area of the panel. In the daylight, anytime you have the sun behind you, the panel stays dark even though you can see "glossiness" everywhere else in the cockpit.

I'm not sure if there is something that can be done about this or not. Like I said, many aircraft are fine with the "vc_light.fx" effect in the cfg file. Others, not so much.

I was wondering if anyone has ever run into this before. I've tried searching the forums with all the conceivable options I could think of as far as search terms, but nothing seems to cover this particular situation.

The airplane in question is the FS9 Commodore by Paul Clawson. I didn't experience this issue, for example, with his SBU-1 when I updated that particular plane. I didn't do a panel for that one, but I did place a VC light to make sure you have lighting at night.

Thanks for all the help and hopefully someone has an idea what may be the issue.

Regards,

Jorge
Miami, FL
 
FSMuseum

FSMuseum

Messages
230
Country
us-kentucky
I can't say I've ever run into this problem but I've also never tried to add VC light effects before. I will say that based on what I know of models and panels and such, there's a good chance there's not much to be done. The areas of a VC that can contain gauges are defined by the model. If the designer basically just transplants the 2D panel onto the VC background bitmap and all, the lighting would not work properly I think. However if the designer models the VC such that only the gauges from the panel are on the VC and the areas in between gauges are properly modeled and texturing separately of the 2D panels then the lighting will probably work. That is just my theory based on what I know.
 
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