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P3D v5 fx_landing.fx lights up VC

n4gix

Resource contributor
Messages
11,674
Country
unitedstates
Has anyone discovered a way to use the fx_landing.fx file without it blasting bright light into the VC?

Alternatively is there a way to eliminate the bright little circle of light coming from the attachpoint axis, leaving only the ground splash visible?
 

DragonflightDesign

Resource contributor
Messages
1,082
Country
northernireland
This is mine for the B-314 Clipper:
Code:
[Library Effect]
Lifetime=5
Version=2.00
Display Name=Landing light splash
Radius=-1
Priority=0

[Properties]
Spot=1
Tower=1
Map=1

[Emitter.0]
Lifetime=0.50, 0.50
Delay=0.00, 0.00
Bounce=0.00
Rate=1.00, 1.00
X Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
X Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
X Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Y Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Z Rotation=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=12.43, 12.43
Y Offset=3.23, 3.23
Z Offset=1.23, 1.23
Pitch=5.00, 5.00
Bank=0.00, 0.00
Heading=0.00, 0.00

[Particle.0]
Lifetime=0.000000, 0.000000
Type=28
X Scale=600.00, 600.00
Y Scale=0.00, 0.00
Z Scale=0.00, 0.00
X Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Y Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Z Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
Color Rate=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Fade In=0.00, 0.00
Fade Out=0.00, 0.00
Static=1
Face=0, 0, 0

[ParticleAttributes.0]
Color Start=255, 253, 160, 30
Color End=255, 253, 192, 60
Bounce=0.00
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Falloff Exponent=0.35
Inner Cone Angle=28.00
Outer Cone Angle=34.00

[Emitter.1]
Lifetime=0.50, 0.50
Delay=0.00, 0.00
Bounce=0.00
Rate=1.00, 1.00
X Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
X Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
X Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Y Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Z Rotation=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=-12.43, -12.43
Y Offset=3.23, 3.23
Z Offset=1.23, 1.23
Pitch=5.00, 5.00
Bank=0.00, 0.00
Heading=0.00, 0.00

[Particle.1]
Lifetime=0.000000, 0.000000
Type=28
X Scale=600.00, 600.00
Y Scale=0.00, 0.00
Z Scale=0.00, 0.00
X Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Y Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Z Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
Color Rate=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Fade In=0.00, 0.00
Fade Out=0.00, 0.00
Static=1
Face=0, 0, 0

[ParticleAttributes.1]
Color Start=255, 253, 160, 30
Color End=255, 253, 192, 60
Bounce=0.00
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Falloff Exponent=0.35
Inner Cone Angle=28.00
Outer Cone Angle=34.00
aircraft.cfg
Code:
smoke.43 = -39.00,   0.00,  5.50, fx_b314_landing_splash                //Dynamic Light Spill
The trick seems to be a big offset coupled with the spotlight (type=28). The landing light itself is in a different fx so that I could auto-off the light splash if time-of-day=1. I arrived at this through trial and error; also it may not meet your requirements exactly because the landing lights are hung on the wing. I did however have a problem with the passenger compartment light bleeding through into the VC which I fixed (again!) using type=28 and ensuring that the spot was pointing away from the VC cockpit floor. It was all in the cone angle. Don't make the inner cone the same size as the outer cone because they cancel out and leave a big black area (thanks! to whoever came up with that piece of code </sarcasm>). You can do away with the inner cone completely but that reduces the light intensity.

You have just exhausted just about my entire knowledge on creating aircraft light fx files! :D
 

n4gix

Resource contributor
Messages
11,674
Country
unitedstates
Thanks Dai, I'll give this a try. I don't use the aircraft.cfg file however. Instead I create an attachpoint in the external .max model. It will interesting to test to see if I can get it to work.

The lading lights on the Avanti are on the landing gear, and a taxi light is attached to the nosegear steering column.
GIvg9.png
 
Last edited:

n4gix

Resource contributor
Messages
11,674
Country
unitedstates
Well, those are certainly BRIGHT!!! Odd that even though anchored via an attachpoint in the model, the .fx does not respect that fixed location at all.

I'm wondering how I can decrease the brightness by about 50% or so.
 

n4gix

Resource contributor
Messages
11,674
Country
unitedstates
Problem solved!

Thanks to your example, after many MANY hours of effort, I've finally manage to create custom landing and taxi lights that look more realistic and are not blindingly white. Below is the taxi light. It is wider and shallower than the default fx.landing.fx effect file. I lowered the brightness by editing the RGBA values to:
Color Start = 66, 66, 66, 10
Color End = 66, 66, 66, 30

Prepar3D_CCfz36WSno.png


Below is the taxi and landing lights (the switch is 3 position). Note that the two gear mounted landing lights are narrower and deeper depth than the taxi light, providing a more concentrated illumination around the center line of the runway:
Prepar3D_It3RDlPL83.png
 

DragonflightDesign

Resource contributor
Messages
1,082
Country
northernireland
:D I think that's the first time in a long time that I've helped you instead of you helping me! I forgot to warn you that every time you change the .fx, you have to reload the sim. Also (for anyone else) the in-built VisualFX tool is a bug-ridden POS, so don't use it. I queried LM a long time ago about it and the response was that it was so bad they couldn't fix it, so they use in-house tools. To head off the obvious question, releasing their own tools would need a lot of work building in safeguards to make them acceptable to the general developer. Some of my own quick-and-dirty tools are like that: I know how they should work so I don't feed them anything out of range.
 

n4gix

Resource contributor
Messages
11,674
Country
unitedstates
Dai, the only "disappointment" with this technique is that although I used a 'dummy node' to attach the .fx file(s), for some reason it won't respect the x,y,z of the 'dummy node's" pivot point axis.

In case anyone else want's to play around with this, here is the .fx script for the taxi light (only y offset used):
Code:
[Library Effect]
Lifetime=5
Version=2.00
Radius=-1
Priority=0

[Properties]

[Emitter.0]
Lifetime=0.50, 0.50
Delay=0.00, 0.00
Bounce=0.00
Rate=1.00, 1.00
X Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
X Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
X Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Y Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Z Rotation=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.50, 0.50
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Pitch = 8.00, 8.00
Bank=0.00, 0.00
Heading=0.00, 0.00

[Particle.0]
Lifetime=0.00, 0.00
Type=28
X Scale = 600.00, 600.00
Y Scale=0.00, 0.00
Z Scale=0.00, 0.00
X Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Y Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Z Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
Color Rate=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Fade In=0.00, 0.00
Fade Out=0.00, 0.00
Static=1
Face=0, 0, 0

[ParticleAttributes.0]
Color Start = 66, 66, 66, 10
Color End = 66, 66, 66, 30
Bounce=0.00
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Falloff Exponent = 0.75
Inner Cone Angle=50.00
Outer Cone Angle=70.00
Intensity Day=2000.00
Intensity Night=2000.00
 
Messages
112
Country
france
Is there a document which explains effets a little more than the Learning Center (did they they say learning :( )
Specially what's are the units and are the signed value (wondering for the offset)

A big thanks in advance

Gérard

Looking for P3DV5
 
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