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P3D v4 Prepar3D v5 effects photoscenery issue...

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1,956
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unitedkingdom
I have dynamic lights working in V4 with out a hitch, but in v5 they show on the photoscenery 1000x brighter than in v4. They still display properly on the ground polygons however.

Any suggestions?
 

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1,956
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unitedkingdom
This turned out to be an issue with the intensity and scaling of the effect. In v4 a high intensity is ok, not in v5.
 

Christian Bahr

Resource contributor
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951
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germany
I have dynamic lights working in V4 with out a hitch, but in v5 they show on the photoscenery 1000x brighter than in v4. They still display properly on the ground polygons however.

Any suggestions?
Hi Shaun.

The glaring light could be that the developers of the P3Dv5 have made changes to the particle system. In my projects, all P3Dv4 Effects files for the P3Dv5 have to be revised. There are 2 new values in the "ParticleAttributes" section:

[ParticleAttributes.0]
Color Start=0, 0, 0, 0
Color End=255, 196, 136, 1
Bounce=0.00
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Falloff Exponent=1.0
Inner Cone Angle=45.00
Outer Cone Angle=180.00
Intensity Day=0.00
Intensity Night=100.00


In addition, the effect is now switched on or off via the "Color End" value: 0 = OFF, 1 = On

So much for my discoveries regarding the changed particle system. Hopefully it will help you a little :)
 
Messages
245
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unitedstates
Hi Shaun.

The glaring light could be that the developers of the P3Dv5 have made changes to the particle system. In my projects, all P3Dv4 Effects files for the P3Dv5 have to be revised. There are 2 new values in the "ParticleAttributes" section:

[ParticleAttributes.0]
Color Start=0, 0, 0, 0
Color End=255, 196, 136, 1
Bounce=0.00
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Falloff Exponent=1.0
Inner Cone Angle=45.00
Outer Cone Angle=180.00
Intensity Day=0.00
Intensity Night=100.00


In addition, the effect is now switched on or off via the "Color End" value: 0 = OFF, 1 = On

So much for my discoveries regarding the changed particle system. Hopefully it will help you a little :)
Hi Christian, I need some guidance...I followed your details regarding "ParticleAttributes" and tried it on a dynamic lighting effect that I created with MCX. I modified the effect file (since MCX does not include the items you stated above in RED) but running the latest P3Dv5 hotfix 1 and SDK, the effect "Intensity" remains as the last number in the Color End statement. Setting that to a 1 as you mentioned, reduces the "intensity" to 1 (aka, near zero), the Intensity Day and Intensity Night have no effect.
What in the world have I done wrong..or misread?
 

Christian Bahr

Resource contributor
Messages
951
Country
germany
Hi Christian, I need some guidance...I followed your details regarding "ParticleAttributes" and tried it on a dynamic lighting effect that I created with MCX. I modified the effect file (since MCX does not include the items you stated above in RED) but running the latest P3Dv5 hotfix 1 and SDK, the effect "Intensity" remains as the last number in the Color End statement. Setting that to a 1 as you mentioned, reduces the "intensity" to 1 (aka, near zero), the Intensity Day and Intensity Night have no effect.
What in the world have I done wrong..or misread?
I don't know if you did something wrong or if you read something wrong. The post above from me relates to the light type Spotlight (type 28). Do you use this type of light or do you use a different type of light?After all, it may also be possible that with Hotfix 1 this problem described by Shaun no longer occurs.
 
Messages
1,956
Country
unitedkingdom
I fixed this issue by changing the scale via the fx editor.

The color end value is the scale of the illumination for non PBR materials. If set to only 1 the dynamic lighting is too weak on non PBR materials.

With the:

Intensity Day=0.00
Intensity Night=50.00


Users are reporting that PBR materials are not displaying any illumination at all. I must be doing something wrong...

[Library Effect]
Lifetime=5
Version=2.00
Display Name=SXAD_FloodLight
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=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Pitch=0.00, 0.00
Bank=0.00, 0.00
Heading=0.00, 0.00

[Particle.0]
Lifetime=0.00, 0.00
Type=28
X Scale=100.00, 100.00
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, 255, 255, 0
Color End=255, 255, 255, 20
Bounce=0.00
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Falloff Exponent=1.00
Inner Cone Angle=45.00
Outer Cone Angle=180.00
Intensity Day=0.00
Intensity Night=100.00
 

DragonflightDesign

Resource contributor
Messages
1,082
Country
northernireland
That's the alpha channel and yes, I've also had this problem. You don't necessarily need to change the Intensity.
 
Messages
1,956
Country
unitedkingdom
I don't understand, the intensity is the "brightness" that it makes PBR materials illuminate.

Can anyone see why my PBR materials aren't lighting up?
 
Messages
1,956
Country
unitedkingdom
Removing the intensity paramater works fine. I'm not sure why, as it's in the SDK. They must have merged it with scale.
 
Messages
22
Country
us-colorado
I've been struggling with understanding the intensity and alpha parameters myself. The LM site just doesn't explain it in a way that I understand.

So for instance, Color End=255, 196, 136, # .....# is the illumination on non-PBR materials at all times, day and night? (i.e. higher is brighter, 0-255)

And Intensity Day = intensity of illumination on PBR materials during the day in lumens? Then, Insenity Night = intensity of illumination on PBR materials at night?

Trying to get a landing light to be invisble on the ground during the day, but bright enough on PBR surfaces at night (while not being a giant, solid cone of light on non-PBR surfaces)

Thnaks.
 

DragonflightDesign

Resource contributor
Messages
1,082
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northernireland
For intensity of illumination at night, concentrate on the alpha channel. To fix the landing light as you describe, break it up into two separate fx: the light itself on the aircraft and the ground splash. Turn the ground splash off during the day. You need to abandon the [lights] section of the aircraft.cfg file and use [smoke] instead to control your lighting fx. There are 99 entries available in the [smoke] section: start at 1 because 0 (zero) doesn't work.

The bad news is that the PBR channel in v5 creates a much brighter intensity at a lower alpha value than v4.x, so if you are developing for both sims then you will need to make fx files that are specific to each sim.

[Edit] see 'FX driver using aircraft.cfg smoke entries' in the Panel and Gauges Wiki. It's C-language, so if you're using XML to create gauges I can't help.
 
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Messages
22
Country
us-colorado
Turn the ground splash off during the day. You need to abandon the [lights] section of the aircraft.cfg file and use [smoke] instead to control your lighting fx. There are 99 entries available in the [smoke] section: start at 1 because 0 (zero) doesn't work.

The bad news is that the PBR channel in v5 creates a much brighter intensity at a lower alpha value than v4.x, so if you are developing for both sims then you will need to make fx files that are specific to each sim.

How would you turn off splash during the day? Set Itensity Day = 0? And a higher alpha number means more brightness on non-PBR material?

Thankfully, I'm just trying to make "better" lights in v5 for some aircraft; not having to worry about v4. Guess I'm just trying to wrap my head around what values apply to PBR materials and what valies apply to non-PBR. Thanks.
 

DragonflightDesign

Resource contributor
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1,082
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northernireland
Ahhhh.... you're modifying existing aircraft? Then you will need to create a gauge (XML or C) that detects the landing-lights-on/off event and drives the separate splash fx. Check the aircraft.cfg file to make sure that the landing lights are listed under [lights]. If they are not, they will be in the [smoke] section and AFAIK, it may not be possible to track which fx is the landing lights.

Code flow in your new gauge will look something like this:
Code:
is the landing lights switch off?   // Don't care about the time of day
{
  set the landing_lights_splash to false (off)
}
else
is the landing lights switch on?
{
  Does time-of-day = day
  {
    set the landing_lights_splash to false (off)
  }
  else
  {
    set the landing_lights_splash to true (on)
  }
}
Yes: higher alpha = greater brightness.
 
Messages
22
Country
us-colorado
Ahhhh.... you're modifying existing aircraft?

Yes, I'm essentially trying to replace the fx files on the TFDi 717 that prevents this from happening, using my own fx files I'm trying to make:

 

DragonflightDesign

Resource contributor
Messages
1,082
Country
northernireland
Take the original fx and try dropping the alpha figure by between 90 and 100 for v5. That's what I had to do for the landing light splash on the PILOT'S B-314 Clipper. And yer man JRBarrett is right - it's not a bug. It's also worth temporarily removing the landing lights fx from the \Effects folder to see if the splash is separate to (or is part of) the landing light.

- so, if it's separate - but looking at that screenshot I don't think it is - then you can experiment with the alpha channel until you achieve what you want without affecting the actual landing lights
- if the splash is an offset from the main landing lights (i.e in the same fx file), figure out which part is the ground splash and modify its alpha channel
- alternatively, if the splash is an offset from the main landing lights, copy it into another file that has just the splash code and delete it from the main fx file. Then control it using a gauge.

I'm telling you nothing that you wouldn't eventually figure out. Lighting fx are a serious guessing game because they are too small to show up in Arno's FXEditor. I knew nothing about them until, for various reasons, I had the entire Clipper fx package dropped on me and I was faced with a cliff-face-sized learning curve. One thing I can state with absolute certainty: it should have taken tfdidesign less than an hour to fix that problem for v5. No excuse.
 
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