FS9 - Lights in Close Proximity

[gadgets]

It appears that FS9 can have difficulty initializing the display of lighted models in very close proximity when approaching from a distance. FSX does not appear to be affected.

As discussed at length in a series of posts below, FS9 "crashed" with the user aircraft at a distance of about 18.5 nm while approaching an airport with AFLT custom lighting two of the strobe lights of which were spaced only 2.5'/0.7m apart. A similar arrangement with 5'/1.5m spacing did not create any difficulty when BGL_LIGHTs were used as the light source. However, when effects were substituted as the light source, the 5' spacing was also problematic.

It appears some internal limit was violated. However, in the complete absence of diagnostic information at the time of the crash I am unable determine what that limit is or how to avoid it.

So, should you experience a unexplained FS9 crash when approaching an airport with AFLT custom lighting, review the spacing of the lights - especially strobes and beacons.

Don

(extensive edits)

 

[Mr.Crocodile]

Hi, I'm having crash problem most probably related to the approach light array. Making hundreds of tests to try to identify which part of the array could be the responsible (there aren't strobes or beacons and no effects), obviously I checked all the distances and none of the used models is below 1.5m from others.

Could it be possible that the trigger should be also the number of bulbs used (2 in my case) with approach lights made by 2, 3 or more lights?

I'm very frustrated by this after near a year of work with my scenery and now it's about 2 months that I'm involved in this problem

 

[gadgets]

I'm having crash problem most probably related to the approach light array

On what do you base that suspicion?

Could it be possible that the trigger should be also the number of bulbs used (2 in my case) with approach lights made by 2, 3 or more lights?

Since the cause of the original problem is an unknown issue internal to FS9, I have no way of knowing whether or not the number of bulbs has any effect. You can determine this yourself by reducing the number of bulbs to 1 (for test purposes) and running the new configuration.

Don

 

[Mr.Crocodile]

On what do you base that suspicion?

When I eliminate the array bgl file the problem seems to disappear. I dismounted the bgl in different parts (initially it was a unique bgl with inside more arrays defined with .def file) to try to understand which is the part involved but even if I try every time to maintain the same conditions not always the problem is triggered so is very difficult.

Since the cause of the original problem is an unknown issue internal to FS9, I have no way of knowing whether or not the number of bulbs has any effect. You can determine this yourself by reducing the number of bulbs to 1 (for test purposes) and running the new configuration.

Don

Because of the related paragraph in the user guide (and here) I thought if the distance problem could possibly be also in the use of more bulbs.

Ok thanks I'm going to try and in case I'll let you know.