P3D v4 light on ground at night only

[jyarddog]

Used to do this... forgot. I have fs tweak, but it doesn't work anymore. Yes - reinstalled, still no work. So- I made another lamp - place a nice light patch on the ground with N to the texture. This shows nicely, but t during day I get a black patch. Any ideas? Bob

 

[Tim Collins]

Why not use dynamic lights?

 

[jyarddog]

And dynamic lights are what?
and how?

I see. I have dynamic lights checked. I want a patch of ground light showing at night from the lamp I made in FSDS. I have done this in the past. Forgot how.

 

[Tim Collins]

The old FSX/FS9 method of creating a bgl 'lightwash' still works in P3D but, as it doesn't actually illuminate anything but the ground, it looks very odd. Having dynamic lights checked simply enables them where installed; it does nothing with old-tech lights. There are dynamic lights available in the P3D effects library, and these can be applied in ADE for example - though the stock effects might not give the result you want. MCX will enable you to create a light beam from your FSDS lamp, and customise it so it produces exactly the effect you'd like to see. There are instructions for how to do that within the MCX manual, and I believe it's been covered several times here on the forum.

 

[jeansy]

in the p3d sdk there is a folder called "Visual FX Tool" place it in your p3dv4 addons folder and allow it to activate next start up

This a live effects editing program that can be used anytime ingame, that you can create new or edit effects and see the results as you edit it, Ive attached an effect file i use for my apron lighting to have dynamic lighting on the apron for you to see the make up and use as an example

For me once ive have the properties I want with the light, I attach them to the light poles in MCX as needed and set the attached file's properties as Day=0,Dusk=1, Dawn=1, Night=1 and re save the mdl or library bgl

I do this for light poles, buildings or any structure that I want illuminated using down lights, flood lights, street lights

The other consideration you will need to think of is if the objects have night lighting textures, I disable them via MCX as dynamic lights wont light up the normal day textures but rather black textures and it looks off, however aprons and ground surfaces wont be overally affected but the lightarc will be greatly exaggerated

Ive attached an image of my revised stock oil rig which i have fitted night dynamic lighting

I hope this opens another option for your project

 

[jyarddog]

thanx. I will give this a try. Before tweak went south on my machine, I made many of these. One had the ground splash and also a short cone just under the lamp head that fades as it gets farther away from the lamp about a foot. A cone that reaches all the way down to the ground I found a bit much when I installed many of these around ... say... an ammo dump.

 

[jtanabodee]

You can use MCX to add the dynamic light easily. Load you model and use effect tool to add it. You can change the color, the brightness the angle right through MCX and export the model. The effect will be export together with MDL. Place you effect to Effects folder in P3D and compile you MDL to bgl. You will be all set.

 

[jyarddog]

Thanx. I was going to look at mcx also. Fiddled with the light thing in mcx a while back. I could make the light patch alone and the lamp alone and merge the projects in FSDS, but MCX might be easier.

I tried making an effect using my texture of the ground light patch bmp as the texture. fx_light00122.fx (did this in data defs then renamed in not pad with the fx_ thing. Hasn't worked out yet. I did something like this long ago. I think I am missing a step.
My bmp got renamed automatically with an fx in front of the name.(unless I did that and forgot I did). Anyway... the fsx texture used "fx_groundpatch.bmpfx" ain't working yet. any ideas? I think I am close - missing a step or two, I think.

If I can do it this way then I might have two different ways to do this. Wish Tweak would work again. I can tell y'all what it does later. Bob

 

[jtanabodee]

You cannot make your own effect and let it illuminate the scene. It is not possible.
The dynamic light is hard wire in the simulator. There is nothing we can do different way to make it illuminates other objects. You need to do it by its method.

 

[jyarddog]

Thanx for your reply. I am not looking to light up other objects. I was merely trying to light up the ground underneath my lamp.

 

[jtanabodee]

That's OK. But the method of doing dymamic light is not so difficult compare to the old fashion light plane. Actually, I would say, it is less work to do and the result is phenominal.

 

[jeansy]

Thanx for your reply. I am not looking to light up other objects. I was merely trying to light up the ground underneath my lamp.

within reason, turn all the night textures off for the surrounding objects, in the material editor in MCX, and additionally you can alter the model materials to adaptive. Ive done this with a number of aircraft so they are illuminated using a dynamic effect. The biggest shortfall is the lack of shadows at night

The image of the oil rig about shows dynamic lighting works on objects if you remove its night textures, however I cooked my motherboard the other night on my tower and cant post a pic of a aircraft under apron lighting or in a dynamic lit hanger hanger

here is one earlier i could find while i was first experimenting

The method some people of use of creating just fx bgl has its shortfalls from my experience, while its quicker and easier than adding individual lights to each object/ building / light pole modifying eacg object to remove night textures and to adaptive looks more rewarding once done

I did have a video of some emergency vehicles that i made up with dynamic strobes and used for general road traffic and around the airport, however its on the clapped out tower

 

[trisho0]

You can use MCX to add the dynamic light easily. Load you model and use effect tool to add it. You can change the color, the brightness the angle right through MCX and export the model. The effect will be export together with MDL. Place you effect to Effects folder in P3D and compile you MDL to bgl. You will be all set.

I can't find the effect tool from MCX version 160. Where is it?
Pat

 

[Tim Collins]

The bit you're looking for is Attached Object Editor. See the attached image, which shows the editor open and displays the effects as attached objects on my light gantry.

 

[trisho0]

turn all the night textures off for the surrounding objects, in the material editor in MCX

How to do that in MCX? In FSX I have a dark night in apron area I want to light up like the posted picture in this thread topic.
Pat