P3D v4 Trying to figure out Attached Object Editor

[unc1rlm]

In the pic.. The airplane in view with all the little squares and the Heirarchy I have lots of cfg pts...but nothing in the editor. I also see the lights in aircraft cfg but in reality I only have at best..three little old green or blue lights.
Maybe if someone could look at aircraft cfg and maybe could walk me thru one set of lights..maybe I can get the hang of it. I know Henk said something about adding "position" on the fly from the aircraft cfg editor but any way. Tom's exhaustive post on MCX is great but I am still trying to get a handle. I know that none of the cfgLight have anything in "Visibility" I know there are Beacon..strobe..landing..taxi and which visibility do you assign?

Well anyway.......be nice someday to have some videos on youtube to show you how to get through some of this stuff....

Happy Holidays,
Bob M.

 

[arno]

Hi Bob,

The attachpoints from the aircraft.cfg file are not edited via the attached object editor. That's only for attached objects that are embedded within the MDL file itself. There is an aircraft.cfg editor as well, where you can edit the aircraft.cfg file and see the changes in the preview directly.

 

[unc1rlm]

I finally managed to figure out how to attach a light. When you add a light, does it need an effect. Say I have a light and I duplicate it and make 1 landing and one taxi? I know on one wing I have light 4 duplicated but when I go to change the orientation of the green line..it keeps changing by itself? They are sticking straight up. Is there an easier way to do this...lol
Also, the Boundingbox looks ok as far as no really large numbers but since I worked on the lights, I can't see the plane in normal regular view when I load up P3dv4.

Slow process Here's my mdl. Its a f28-4000 by Project Fokker (Fs2004 model)
Thanks,
Bob M.

 

[tgibson]

Is this light you are adding added to the mdl or to the cfg file?

 

[unc1rlm]

Tom, In the mdl...
Starting over..l am back at it. I have 6 lights. Some of them were down in the middle or imploded inside the fuselage..so I am working to move them to there positions on the exterior of the plane. With lights since they show effects in the hierarchy, do I need to attach any. If I want to put a light at the center of the wing as in the picture..is it a landing or taxi or what kind of light..Maybe you can walk me thru that. The only thing I am struggling with is the orientation.. Guess i will figure that out. If I export this as a fsx mdl..maybe i would loose all the stuff and wind up with a pile of lights back inside the plane again...
Thanks Tom!!
Wish there was a viewer of some kind where you could see the plane in "real time" (how the lights are shining etc) without having to launch p3dv4 all the time.

BTW, Merry Post Christmas and Happy Pre New Year!!
Bob M.

 

[tgibson]

The green line is the key, if it's facing forward the light will shine on the ground. Due to a bug in MCX (I have mentioned it before) the orientation numbers in the Attachpoint Editor using FSX models behave erratically - that's why I tell you in the tutorial to do all your attach point editing with the FS2004 model, before conversion.

 

[unc1rlm]

I believe this is a Fs2004 model but it may have been modified to fsx..thats why the orientation numbers jump around when you try to use them. . Anyway...I see the green line, may have 2 axis-straight ahead (or parallel with the wing) and straight up.. That's the best way? Sometimes you may not see the green line on both axis until you kinda spin the plane around. Making headway, I think. If the effects are listed in the hierarchy underneath where the light name is and I use the effect listed in the effects folder and the visibility is set to say light_strobe_vis or light_beacon_vis etc, and export...am I on the right track? I see nothing as landing or taxi lights other than them mentioned in the aircraft cfg. ; in the hierarchy or attached object editor...can I add them as a light and an effect or what? Here's the mdl if it shows where I am now on this plane. I will be 68 in a few days and I want to keep my mind sharp LOL
Hopefully all this work pays off. Tired of planes in the dark

Thank you Tom,
Bob M.

 

[tgibson]

The two attachpoints you label wing_center_beacon_L/R are actually the landing lights. These should be given the effect fx_landing, and the orientation changed so the green axis points forward.

To get the green line facing forward, change the Orientation from (0.00; 0.00; -90.00) to (0.00; 0.00; 0.00).

Hope this helps,

 

[unc1rlm]

Thanks Tom...,
Warmest Wishes to every one for New Years!!
Bob M.