I have created a custom triple flash beacon light that is on most GA aircraft for the JustFlight Arrow, as you can see in the video that the light is only visible when im looking directly in front of the aircraft. As soon as I pan the camera around behind the plane the light disappears almost as if it only has a 90 degree visible range. Any idea on what I need to change to make it visible no matter what way the camera is facing?
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MSFS How do I make my Beacon light visible 360 degrees?
- Thread starter Mets737
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DragonflightDesign
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Possibly this:
Type=19
I suspect it should be a Type = 25. From the P3D SDK (yes, I did see the MSFS tag):
For normal particles the type should be set to 19. Some specific effects require a different number:
# Effect
3 Lightning
21 Extrusions (such as wake)
22 Debris (the emission of library objects)
25 Light sources
26 Effects emitting effects
27 Point Light
28 Spot Light
Type=19
I suspect it should be a Type = 25. From the P3D SDK (yes, I did see the MSFS tag):
For normal particles the type should be set to 19. Some specific effects require a different number:
# Effect
3 Lightning
21 Extrusions (such as wake)
22 Debris (the emission of library objects)
25 Light sources
26 Effects emitting effects
27 Point Light
28 Spot Light
Hey Dragon, Thanks for getting back to me. I've tried your possible solution and had the same results. I did how ever notice that in dev mode I can see the 'user lights' and their individual direction and as you can see in the photo the light is only visible 90 degrees in front of the yellow line if that makes sense. So my end goal is to make the light visible 360 degrees around.
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DragonflightDesign
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Try modifying the default fx_beacon.fx. It looks like you may not have enough emitters. You need a facing emitter for the actual bulb (face = 1,0,1) and an omnidirectional emiiter for the light (face = 0,0,0).
Would you be able to make those modifications for me with the provided file? I would really appreciate that! I'm not that advanced in this kind of stuff yet
DragonflightDesign
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Nor am I 😄 I've just spent the equivalent of two working weeks trying to light up four aircraft instrument panels. I kid you not...
I tried changing the face values to 1,0,1 and that actually made me lose the light all together...
DragonflightDesign
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It looks like it's some peculiarity of MSFS. I just loaded your beacon into P3Dv5 and stuck it on top of my B-314's astrogation dome. It was visible from all angles but did not have the triple flash, just a single flash at approx 0.5 second intervals.
DragonflightDesign
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Ah. Please upload the fx again as the one above only has a single emitter in it.
DragonflightDesign
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That works from all angles here although I still don't get the triple flash. I suspect that is because there are extra parameters avalible for MSFS that don't exist in P3D. If you have a copy of P3D then take a look at the structure of fx_beacon.fx. I can't upload a copy because that is distribution of proprietory information.
The video clip was too large to upload so let me try to explain my findings...
So I was messing in the dev mode and changed the rotation of the light to -90.00 which you can see on the tail points it straight up, THIS WORKED to see the light visible 360 degrees BUT, I lost the reflection of the light off the fuselage of the aircraft (circled the area in the photo) Sorry if that doesn't make sense but now it just seems that I'll need to add another 'emitter?" to the fx file to get the reflecting light to show up again? Sorry if this is confusing!
So I was messing in the dev mode and changed the rotation of the light to -90.00 which you can see on the tail points it straight up, THIS WORKED to see the light visible 360 degrees BUT, I lost the reflection of the light off the fuselage of the aircraft (circled the area in the photo) Sorry if that doesn't make sense but now it just seems that I'll need to add another 'emitter?" to the fx file to get the reflecting light to show up again? Sorry if this is confusing!
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DragonflightDesign
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I understand. According to the P3D SDK (at least) there is no limit to the number of emitters you can have. On one panel of mine the panel is at approximately 10 degrees from the vertical which puts each row of instruments in a different vertical plane. I have nine emitters to ensure that all of the instruments are correctly lit from the overhead light. You may also find it easier to leave the particle offsets at all zeroes and move the emitter using the emitter's x,y,z offsets.