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How do I create a PAPI in 3DS Max 9?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aviasim
  • Start date Start date
And this is just BEYOND my abilities, why don't you understand this? I simply CAN NOT do it. So please, somebody, make this APAPI come to life for me
 
Hang in there Darren, I just don't have time to mess with it right at the moment. Move on to something else for a little while. I don't even have the fs9 gamepack installed anymore and I'll have to dig up a copy of the papi tutorial, I know I've got it on a backup disk somewhere. Maybe I'll just fire up the old XP machine that's still got all this stuff on it tonight and have a look.

Can you post your gmax file so I can understand exactly what you mean by "2 lights rather than 4"? It should be a simple matter of having half as many lines to tweak in the .asm I believe. I'll try and have a look at it this evening, gotta run to town now. Not trying to be a dick, I just think you're selling yourself short with the "I can't do this" attitude - don't give up so easily, and that applies to life in general, not just FS development. Of course you can do it, you just need to perservere a bit more is all.

back in a bit,
Jim
 
Stepping through the syntax (and comparing to my PAPI4 code I've just dug up) things look ok.

Is the WRONGSIDE code working at all? Ie do the lights remain visible from the other end of the runway?
 
Stepping through the syntax (and comparing to my PAPI4 code I've just dug up) things look ok.

Is the WRONGSIDE code working at all? Ie do the lights remain visible from the other end of the runway?

Nice to know things look ok hcornea, but on the actual sim nothing is happening at all. Yes, I can see the PAPI's from the other end of the runway...
 
Hang in there Darren, I just don't have time to mess with it right at the moment. Move on to something else for a little while. I don't even have the fs9 gamepack installed anymore and I'll have to dig up a copy of the papi tutorial, I know I've got it on a backup disk somewhere. Maybe I'll just fire up the old XP machine that's still got all this stuff on it tonight and have a look.

Can you post your gmax file so I can understand exactly what you mean by "2 lights rather than 4"? It should be a simple matter of having half as many lines to tweak in the .asm I believe. I'll try and have a look at it this evening, gotta run to town now. Not trying to be a dick, I just think you're selling yourself short with the "I can't do this" attitude - don't give up so easily, and that applies to life in general, not just FS development. Of course you can do it, you just need to perservere a bit more is all.

back in a bit,
Jim

Sure...

- ok, not too sure how to add this file, it is a 3ds max file...
 
Yes, I can see the PAPI's from the other end of the runway...

So the WRONGSIDE code is therefore not working either ...

If the lights are showing from ALL directions and there is NO effect from the code .....

You have removed the untweaked model and placed the recoded one, right?

It sounds obvious ... but it is very easy to accidentally do (We've all done it, I'm sure)

Even if the code was wrong, you would see some sort of switching effect I think.

Other errors, changing the _0.asm filename, and the model still compiles with the original.

Simple things can be overlooked.

To attach a max file, why not simply ZIP it up and attach it to the forum post.
 
I can't open the max file, but looking closer at your .asm it looks like your two-light PAPI is functionally the same as the two-light VASI I posted above.

One thing I did notice in your code is that you have "below1" and "above1" for the first set of lights, but then you have "below3" and "above3" for the second set. I don't know if it matters, I suspect it does, but I'd change the second set to "below2" and "above2" and try it again.

Here is the tweaked working code from mine, this was a 3° glideslope with a rwy heading of 19° IIRC:


BGL_ZBIAS 1
SEPARATION_PLANE WrongSide, -10668, 0, -30983, 32768
SEPARATION_PLANE below1, 503, 32732, 1459, 32768
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, 0.254, 1.232, 0.025, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFFFFFFh, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 395
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, -0.203, 1.232, 0.025, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFFFFFFh, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 396
BGL_JUMP_32 above1
below1 label BGLCODE
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, 0.254, 1.232, 0.025, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFF0C00h, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 393
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, -0.203, 1.232, 0.025, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFF0C00h, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 394
above1 label BGLCODE



SEPARATION_PLANE below2, 688, 32700, 1999, 32768
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, 0.254, 1.232, -30.455, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFFFFFFh, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 398
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, -0.203, 1.232, -30.455, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFFFFFFh, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 400
BGL_JUMP_32 above2
below2 label BGLCODE
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, 0.254, 1.232, -30.455, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFF0C00h, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 397
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, -0.203, 1.232, -30.455, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFF0C00h, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 399
above2 label BGLCODE
WrongSide label BGLCODE

As you can see there are 8 lines of "light code" where in your example there are only 4. I believe this is because you need to place both a red and a white light at each light "bulb" location im max. As it stands now assuming everything else was correct, your papi would have a red light on the left and a white on the right (or vice versa, whichever the case may be). As the aircraft moves above the separation plane the red light (left) will go out and the white one (right) will illuminate. I think you'll want them both to stay illuminated and simply change color, so you'll have to go back into max and add the second set of lights in the same positions as the others (clone the box right where it sits and assign the opposite colored material). After that you should have 8 lines of light code in the .asm.

Still trying to re-learn this myself, haven't been into the tutorial yet. What is the exact runway hdg, btw?

Jim
 
The exact runway heading is 275.96

I will see if I can have a look at what you attatched.

I dont get any of this, I have been here now for way over 12 hours straight trying to figure it out, but I just can't
 
Using a GS of 3.25° and a rwy hdg of 275.96° I come up with the following in place of what you posted on the prior page:

BGL_ZBIAS 1
SEPARATION_PLANE WrongSide, 32591, 0, -3402, 32768
SEPARATION_PLANE below1, -1564, 32730, 163, 32768
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, 1035.272, 1.010, 12.969, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFF4646h, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 1
BGL_JUMP_32 above1
below1 label BGLCODE
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, 1035.361, 1.010, 13.698, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFEFF90h, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 2
above1 label BGLCODE

SEPARATION_PLANE below2, -1753, 32721, 183, 32768
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, 1035.272, 1.010, 24.811, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFF4646h, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 3
BGL_JUMP_32 above2
below2 label BGLCODE
BGL_LIGHT LIGHT_NAV, 1035.361, 1.010, 25.540, 20, 0.60, 0.40, 0FFFEFF90h, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000 ; source poly num = 4
above2 label BGLCODE

WrongSide label BGLCODE


If that works my guess is it's because you had "BGL_ZBIAS1" in the first line rather than "BGL_ZBIAS 1" (note the space). I don't think there was anything wrong with what you posted that would prevent the lights from doing at least something; even if the approach slope wasn't perfect it seems they should have changed color or disappeared completely at some point in your testing.

Hope that helps.
Jim
 
JRobinson, I used the code you provided, something seems to be happening, however, when I am too low I see 2 white lights, when I am too high I see 2 red lights. Also, it appears that the PAPI is more sensitive from the opposite side. I will play around with the color codes to try sort the light color issue out, but the other little issue seems to be a bit tricky. I will make a video sometime soon, going to start on my buildings.
 
Well at least it does something, the color is just a matter of switching the 0FFFF4646h and 0FFFEFF90h parts around, FF4646 is the red and FEFF90 is a sort of pale yellow (white). Just swap those 2 numbers around in the code.

I plugged your numbers into the spreadsheet and then I used "SEPARATION_PLANE below1" and "SEPARATION_PLANE below2" from the results fieds. I don't know what you're supposed to do with a 2-light system, maybe you'd be better off using below2 and below3 in this case as that would be sort of middle of the road, maybe below1 and below4, I dunno. Probably using a different combination of those results from the spreadsheet would eliminate the sensitivity problem. BTW, you realize these are runway specific once you've tweaked the code - this one is for rwy 27, you'll need to build/tweak another one for use on any other runway.

You're welcome, BTW :)

Jim
 
wheeeey! finally! got it!

If only the "tutorial" told me to place my lights at 0,0 co-ordinates in 3DS Max... it seems that the "SEPERATION_PLANE" is placed where the touchdown zone will be.

In 3DS my papi lights were way over to the right of the center co-ordinates, therefore, my seperation plane being way back which has now been corrected... I can no longer see the lights behing the PAPI boxes. Job done!

Thank you so much JRRobinson and Hcornea of Orbx!!

Much appreciated, I owe you a beer!

All the best,

Aviasim
 
I have a question regarding the lights, I have tweaked them so they only turn on at dawn, dusk and night. However, is there a way I can turn them on/off during the day when tuning my nav2 frequency to 112.00?

I know what lines of code I need to do both seperately...but I dont know how or if I could turn them on/off during the day with the nav2 frequency.

I have tried some ways, the lights are off in the day even with NAV2 at 112.00, they are still off during the night unless I tune 112.00.

This is hard to explain, but i hope you understand what I'm getting at.
During the day, I want the lights to be off by default, unless the NAV2 frequency is tuned to 112.00.
During dawn, dusk and night I want the lights to be ON by default, even if the NAV2 frequency is NOT on 112.00 and turning them off by changing the NAV2 frequency other than 112.00

Hope you understand guys!

Regards
 
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