Changing Taxi/Landing Lights

[martinlest2 58]

Is it possible to change the taxi/landing lights for a specific aircraft? Most of my a/c are fine - I have spotlight.bmp & halo.bmp replacements from AVSIM file library, but some 3rd. party a/c come with their own custom lighting and one or two in particular are pretty awful, so bright I can't see where I am taxiing.I tried changing lighting via the aircraft.cfg file, but to no effect. Is the lighting 'hard-wired" into the a/c model, or can I get these a/c to use the default FS9 lighting in the fs9/texture folder somehow?Many thanks,Martin

[MarkRey 16]

I'm not a modeler, but I do know all models use the spotlight.bmp, and that each model's coding determines how the bmp is displayed for taxi/landing splashes. As such there is no .cfg edit that can change it.I eventually just went back to the default spotlight - it seems to yield the most consistent results with all the models I use.

[onurksn 1]

Just a though here, I'm using Real Environment Pro, it has a good, realistic taxi and landing light effect. It applies to all aircraft. It might be what you're looking for. :(EDIT: I forgot to say that REP is available here in the library.

[Guest zacharace]

Just a though here, I'm using Real Environment Pro, it has a good, realistic taxi and landing light effect. It applies to all aircraft. It might be what you're looking for. :(EDIT: I forgot to say that REP is available here in the library.

Library file: reprosetup.zip. Excellent add-on, and it's free, too!

[martinlest2 58]

Thanks, but the problem is that one or two aircraft use their own lights instead of the lighting I have in the FS9/texture folder. I was asking if it is possible to get the a/c to use the lighting I have for landing/taxi (spotlight.bmp and halo.bmp) - it's not a global problem, most a/c look just fine.Martin

[N60JBravo 27]

If you look in the aircraft.cfg file for the offending aircraft under the [lights] section you may find reference to taxi\landing lights.Most planes have these hard coded into the model, but the SDK does allow for them to be entered in this section

[lights] sectionEach “special effect” light has a line like the one above, where n is the index number of the light, 0,1,… The first entry of the line defines which circuit, or switch, the light is connected to. See the codes below. Multiple lights may be connected to a single switch. The next three entries are the longitudinal, lateral, and vertical positions of the light in feet. The final entry is the special effect file name that is triggered (e.g., fx_navred). These files have .fx extensions and should be placed in the “Effects” folder in Flight Simulator’s root directory. Switches (first element of each line):1 – Beacon2 – Strobe3 – Navigation or Position 4 – Cockpit 5 – Landing6 – Taxi7 – Recognition8 – Wing9 – Logo10 – Cabin[Parameter] [Examples (from C182 aircraft.cfg)] [units] [Description][light.n] [light.0 = 3, -3.03, -18.11, 3.58, fx_navred] [Feet ] [The switch (or circuit) code, longitudinal, lateral, and vertical position, and effect file.]

If you find them, they may reference a specific effects file, you could try changing this.Joe

[martinlest2 58]

Good idea Joe, thanks - I am fairly used to tweaking aircraft.cfg & panel.cfg files, but hadn't realised that the landing and taxi lights can be entered there, so at least I learned something!Unfortunately though, there's no entry like that in the cfg file for the a/c in question. I'll try adding one and see if it helps, but I would imagine that whatever is coded into the a/c, if that's the case, will over-ride the cfg file.M.

[n4gix 4,947]

If you look in the aircraft.cfg file for the offending aircraft under the [lights] section you may find reference to taxi\landing lights.

The entries in the [lights] section have absolutely no effect on what you "see on the ground" with regards to landing and taxi lights.The "ground splash light" is generated entirely by the model itself. Every .mdl file must have specific polygons included for both the exterior and interior "models" and those polygons must be textured by a Material with the specific names "LIGHT_LAND" or "LIGHT_TAXI."Most modelers (and I include payware modelers in this group as well!) are not aware that the color, intensity and transparency of these projected "lights" is set by the properites of the Material used in Max/GMax/FSDS. There is a program named MDLTweak that will allow an end user to carefully tweak those properties in a compiled model, but... it's easy to totally FUBAR a model if one is not careful! :(

[N60JBravo 27]

The entries in the [lights] section have absolutely no effect on what you "see on the ground" with regards to landing and taxi lights.

Not being a modeler, but always trying to learn something new, what if any purpose would those entries in the aircraft.cfg serve?Thanks for your input.Joe

[martinlest2 58]

Ah, many thanks for the confirmation. I'd like to have a look at MDLTweak, but I can't locate it on Google (or AVSIM). Any idea where it's located? M.

[martinlest2 58]

Found ithttp://www.fsdeveloper.com/downloads/mdl_tweaker2.zipM.

[martinlest2 58]

Joe,They do specify light types and positions of other a/c lighting, for example, NAV lights, Strobes, Wing lights etc.Where did you get your information re. the taxi & landing lights (types 5/6) BTW? I have seen these in aircraft cfg files, but am now confused as to why they would be there, if indeed the taxi and landing lights cannot be controlled in the cfg file in that way.M.

[N60JBravo 27]

Joe,Where did you get your info

My info came from the FS9 Aircraft Container SDK which contains a Word Doc describing the functions of the aircraft.cfg.You can download it here - http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/f...ainer_setup.exeHere is a link to a page listing links to all of the FS9 SDK's - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555857

am confused as to why they would be there

Me too. Joe

[martinlest2 58]

Oh, I have those documents already - obviously I haven't read them properly!M. :(

[n4gix 4,947]

Not being a modeler, but always trying to learn something new, what if any purpose would those entries in the aircraft.cfg serve?Thanks for your input.Joe

Joe, entries in the aircraft.cfg that are tied to the landing and/or taxi light switches are simply to add a "ball of light" at the light source......effectively it is the "glow" or "halo" that one might see from the actual sealed beam......this is precisely what the "Shockwave" lights are, except they've extended the "glow" forward of the aircraft as a series of "expanding, rotating, balls of light."This comment entry in an aircraft.cfg simply tells you what "type number" to use for each of the ten possible lighting switches:

[LIGHTS]//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing 6=taxi, 7=recognition, 8=wing, 9=logo 10=cabin

For example, the following entry from the Eaglesoft SR22T aircraft.cfg places a "ball of light" for the halogen lightbulb, as well as a bit of "light splash" on the bottom of the nose using the ESDG_SR22G3landing.fx file. The number in red corresponds to the "type" in the list above. As you can see 5 is assigned to the landing light switch:light.10=5, 6.41, 0, -1.14, ESDG_SR22G3landingIt really is just that easy... :(