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Separation Plane ????

C

CarlHill

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us-southcarolina
Great to be here, this site is a wealth of info.

I used the tutorial for PAPI's to figure out this one sided light thing. I have a couple of questions that I haven't seen answers to regarding lights and such.

1- I figured out how to get my values for runway 4 and everything seems to work fine except that the Approach lights go out about 100 ft before the threshold. How do I extend that so that they don't go out until I'm over the touchdown zone?

2- I don't know how to figure out the values for runway 22 on the opposite end. Would I take the sin and cos of 220 degrees?

3- Lastly, I'm using LIGHT_NAV boxes on my approach light towers/model. Everything is exceeding expectations, but they are way too bright from a distance. Is there a way to "scale" them?

4- I'm guessing that I will have to have different approach models on the opposite end so that there will be different Light_Nav's to use the opposite separation plane commands on?

I have done things that I never imagined from what I learn on here. This place is incredible!

Thanks,

CH
 
CarlHill said:
2- I don't know how to figure out the values for runway 22 on the opposite end. Would I take the sin and cos of 220 degrees?
Click to expand...

There is a Separation Plane Calculator Here, that I did as an Excel spreadsheet.

All you need to do is enter in the heading and glide slope angle, then copy and paste the resulting numbers.

David
 
Hi,

CarlHill said:
1- I figured out how to get my values for runway 4 and everything seems to work fine except that the Approach lights go out about 100 ft before the threshold. How do I extend that so that they don't go out until I'm over the touchdown zone?
Click to expand...

Where is the reference point of your scene? The calculations are normally done from there, so if that is not at the PAPI location you might see things like this.

CarlHill said:
2- I don't know how to figure out the values for runway 22 on the opposite end. Would I take the sin and cos of 220 degrees?
Click to expand...

Yes, the math is just the same, but with other angles.

CarlHill said:
3- Lastly, I'm using LIGHT_NAV boxes on my approach light towers/model. Everything is exceeding expectations, but they are way too bright from a distance. Is there a way to "scale" them?
Click to expand...

No really, you could try using a different colour or maybe add a LOD and show less lights from a distance. But the individual light point can not really be scaled.

CarlHill said:
4- I'm guessing that I will have to have different approach models on the opposite end so that there will be different Light_Nav's to use the opposite separation plane commands on?
Click to expand...

Yes, the SEPARATION_PLANE command has unique angles for each side. So you need to make another model for the other end.
 
Sorry for the delay in getting back, I had 2 funerals to attend in the last 3 days. Thanks for the replies.

I'm not to certain how to do LODs. Do I need to create new models for this?

I love the calculator mentioned above, that saves me from having to expend too many brain cells.

I'm not really sure about the reference point as I don't know much about Gmax. I make most of my models in AC3D then import to Gmax in order to add lights or whatever. Then I export to a MDL file. AC3D can't do that so I use Gmax. For simpler objects, I use FSDS3. I think the texturing tools in FSDS3 and AC3D are much easier to use.

Anyway, regarding the reference point, My approach lights are a single object in Gmax. They are centered on the x,y,and z axis when I export. Then I place them with Instant Scenery. As I approach the runway, the lights go out one row at a time when I'm about 100 ft. from each row. It isn't overly noticeable unless the instrument panel is hidden, but I would like to keep them on at least until I pass them.

CH:D
 
Hi,

It sounds like your reference point is fine, if the object is at the origin of the scene. Could it be that you get out of the cone that you defined for the glide path when you get close to the object? That might be way they turn of. To test that you could see if increasing or decreasing your altitude shows them again.
 
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