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FSXA New way to make light splash.

No, it is not possible in FS9. I have tried that already then I had to pull it out.

FS9 cannot control Z depth. If you do this in FS9, your airplanes will disappear in a certain angle that light cone is up front. So does your building that use DXT3 texture.
 
jtanabodee said:
No, it is not possible in FS9. I have tried that already then I had to pull it out.

FS9 cannot control Z depth. If you do this in FS9, your airplanes will disappear in a certain angle that light cone is up front. So does your building that use DXT3 texture.
Click to expand...

Have you tried it with DXT1? I use DXT1 for my fences and I can see buildings and planes through them.
 
DXT1 you can see only transparent and totally opaque. If you want to see the light, you cannot see the things behind it. If you want it transparent, you see things behind but you cannot see the light.
DxT3 is a better way to go, but there is a problem that you cannot see something using DXT3 texture in certain angle.
Try that for youself, you will understand better.
 
DXT1 you can see only transparent and totally opaque. If you want to see the light, you cannot see the things behind it. If you want it transparent, you see things behind but you cannot see the light.
DxT3 is a better way to go, but there is a problem that you cannot see something using DXT3 texture in certain angle.
Try that for youself, you will understand better.
Click to expand...

You mean something like this?

Does this problem have a solution. Lights to appear to illuminate things behind it like it should when i see your screenshots.
 
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There's no satisfactory fix for this.

If you set the final alpha multiply at about 2, then models don't get written in front, however, clouds and trees do still. Which is unacceptable.

If you set it higher, everything disappears behind it during the day.

Therefore I only use this method for taxi-lights, approach lights, apron lights and runway lights, where there will be no backdrop other than ground behind them.

Tic did use another method beforehand, but I can't recall what.
 
Well, is there a method of using alpha for soft blending?
Could use it for the lighting and might as well come in handy for volumetric grass!?
 
mskhan1991 said:
You mean something like this?

Does this problem have a solution. Lights to appear to illuminate things behind it like it should when i see your screenshots.
Click to expand...

No, the answer is for FS9 version only.
In FSX, you need to use DXT5.

No other blendings that I know to cure this as far as I know. I did try a lot but nothing helps.

You need to inform user the side effect. You can choose to live with it or disable it.
 
I was reading this topic for a while because I was searching the best method to create light systems for small to medium airports.
Anyway I wanted to create runway and approach lights with emisive textures because SCASM wasn't the best option for me for number of reasons and one and the most important is that I wanted runway edge lights on exact positions...
Tweaking DAY-NIGHT variation on texture was the best solution for me not only on taxiway edge light but it also shows good results on rwy edge lights and for halos on street lights etc.
Actualy I was using this wiki tutorial: http://fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?title=Taxi_light

But I wasn't using the effects but only texture tweak i MDCX. See the attached .jpg

I am currently testing the objects and I don't see the downside of this method yet. I have decent framerate. I don't have strange effects like seeing background objects reflecting through lights texture *maybe because light s are rather small But I will keep testing this before I release my scenery.

Here are the pictures of runway edge light and taxilight...
1378182_561185500604061_918914846_n.jpg


1379434_561084187280859_1275578813_n.jpg


TIPS:
If you want to create runway lights using this method there are few things you need to know:
1. You must create custom mip maps for light texture to make it more brighter in distance.
2. You won't have lights during the day or in foggy weather if you use black texture for diffuse texture.
3. The only way to overcome this is to make your rwy lights always visible by using the same texture for diffuse and night map or to make .dll which will control your lights but that's the thing I don't know how to do...

Hope you'll find this tips useful.
 

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Hi Tic.
Thanks to guys like you scenery development is constantly becoming more and more interesting.
Your tutorial is outstanding when it comes to overcoming some limitations of FSX lights etc...
This is just small update to your very detailed tutorial I found on Wiki.
You know I'm that kind of person that get lost in lot's of text and different opinions in one topic since you never know how experienced and competent is person behind some nickname.... Anyway... I couldn't find the definitive texture settings so I made my own experiment and decided to share my settings with people here to make their development process easier.
Tnx again for opening ''new horizons'' to light creation. ;)

PS. I rated this topic as EXCELLENT!
 
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Hi guys,

I also discovered this method a year ago and used it in our scenery Skiathos for taxislights and runway lighting:
JSI_P12_09.jpg


It uses the framebuffer method source:One dest:One and therefore is only visible at night.
The downside of this technique is that it doesn't work anymore in Prepar3D v2.
Did anyone else experience the same? Is there a solution to make this technique work in P3D2? IMO it's by far the best to make this kind of lighting.
 
I don't know either. I think it is relevant to DX11. May be you need to ask the developer team of Lockheed Martin.
However your lighting is very beautiful.
 
Hi guys.
I'm trying to make my own light splash following this thread. Everythings seems to be ok, from ground my lighsplash il awsome, but when I climb up I see my apron blinking like a christmas tree!
I try to raise my object , try to put it in a zone without ground polys or other objects, but i get the same error, black blinkng...
Can you help me?
In attach you can find a shot of the problem, the definition of the object, the object and the textures.

I try to use LightGlow.zip found on this topic but have the same error too.

I hope you can help me.
 

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You need LOD to eliminate the ground polygon out when you are far away.
The polygon closed to the ground cause flickering.
 
I'm try to use LOD as you suggested me, but have the same problem.
The parameter i've filled are in the attacment.
What's wrong in these paramenters?

Hope you can help me, I'm driving crazy with this splash lights!
 

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How you do with the light?
Do you place it individually each light or you place them as a big MDL file of the whole airport?
If you place it individually, this should work.
But if you place hundred of lights, or thousand of them, LOD will not work. Since you will be in the middle of the whole thing.

LOD works like this: When you are far away for the thing that you export (one mdl), it will show up the lesser LOD. If you have a big mdl, you have to be miles away before the whole mdl is small enough to get the smaller LOD kicks in.

If you don't understand, may be someone else can explain this to you. I'm not sure about my English either. :D
 
Ok, I'll try to better explain.

I've made a basic square polygon, textured and setted as you write in this post.
In other words I only created the light splash without the "ray", only a circle of light on the ground
The model (for FSX) was inserted via "Instant scenery Library Maker" in a BGL library and inside the FS using Instant Scenery I put this model in some position all around the apron and written in a separte BGL that only contain the position of the objects.
I put about 20 lights objects.
This model has only 2 triangles, so LOD can use only for set this objects as visible or invisible because the other LOD added has 0 triangles so it's an empty LOD . I put LOD to 92 to make the light disapper at 5000ft...
But if I am in approach I cannot see the lighs until I an on short final... and it is non good for me...

How I can resolve? I need to see apron lights in approach...

Can you help me?
 
You may try to decrease your LOD to LOD=50, 25. No need to be 100.
The smaller object need less number in LOD.

LOD is level of detail. It counts on the pixels of your object compare to the width of the screen. The more number means more pixel on the screen before it turns to lower LOD.
If you use 100, it has to be very closed before it kicks in.
 
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This method does have the problem of improper drawing order.

My grass next to the runway lights and apron edge lighting shows up over the lights. Making it necessary to have to choose one or the other.... Hmm, I could just get rid of the grass near the light.

If anyone knows a solution to this issue. Let me know! :0)
 
How do you do with your grass? If you do it like ground poly by FS2002 method, it has less priority to any objects export to MDL.
If you export your grass as mdl, it does not have the drawing order problem. Please see this picture:

vmmcLight01.jpg


The buildings behind this light is gmax and export as mdl. No drawing order issue happen.
 
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