This is probably the weirdest problem I have ever had.I am trying to make an aircraft.The problem is that any effects I add to it disappear from the VC view when I am more than 60ft AGL (about 900ft Above sea level).Here are the facts:The effects are light effects and are added in the LIGHTS section of the aircraft.cfg.The effects are 100% ok as they work on other aircraft (some are even default effects so there is definitely not a problem with the effects).The effects work 100% ok in the external model regardless of altitude.The internal model is a duplicate of the external model.The effects work perfectly when on the ground, it is only when you are about 60ft AGL that they disappear from the VC view.The part of the effect that causes illumination on the aircraft remains. For example, the fx_beacon has a particle that causes the fuselage to light up, all the other particles generate the effect itself. The first particle still works and lights up the fuselage while the rest of the effect disappears.If anyone has ever come across this problem and knows a solution please let me know as I really don't know where to even start with this one. All I can do is keep deleting parts of the model until things work so at least I can isolate the problem and then maybe see where I can go from there.I have attached a pic of the problem. The top half shows the aircraft in the air and I have used the fx_beacon effect because it is a default fx and it flashes. You can see the red on the wings leading edge when the effect is flashing but the rest of the effect has disappeared. The bottom half of the pic shows how it should look but it only looks like this if I fly below 60ft (no wise cracks about making a hovercraft instead please :) ).

After wasting all Sunday on this I've finally tracked it down:CLIPMODE=minimum By adding the clipmode=minimum line to my camera.cfg file under the VC entry I have fixed the problem. And this after throwing out the model (interior and exterior), trying all sorts of lights in all sorts of places, replacing the airfile, copying across the C172 aircraft.cfg, getting rid of the landing light and a hundred other things. The problem manifests itself because I'm making such a small little plane so the wing lights fall within range of the clipping level. By setting the CLIPMODE to minimum this has brought the clipping in much tighter and the effects are now displayed where they should be.I will now have to look into incorporating this clipmode into the VC view or I will have to include instructions on how to adjust peoples camera.cfg file.People, this is why developers delivery dates can blow out. A simple 10 minute job can unexpectedly become 5 wasted hours!

Been there, done that, got the black eye too! I'm glad you found your solution. You should be able to create a custom VCockpit camera view to include in your aircraft.cfg file.I spent many hours a few weeks ago creating a really nice custom .fx file that projects a "bloom of light" forward of the sealed beam, which consists of seven emitters with slightly increasing size, each offset forward on the z axis and gradually becoming less intense......only to discover that when Attached to the model all the carefully calculated offsets collapsed to zero!... <sigh>I wound up having to create seven separate .fx files and clone the AttachPoints six times, physically moving each one forward by the same offset I'd calculated previously.Currently I'm trying to figure out why the exact same FSX Material "recipie" I've successfully used in a GMax model simply will not work in a Max9 model I'm working on... :(

This is a great tip. Thanks! I

Bill

:( Wow! ...that's looking amazing :)

:( Wow! ...that's looking amazing :)

Thanks! I'm going to clone the nose's taxilight "bloom" objects and use them for the left and right wing landing lights. That way I can aim the "bloom beam" downwards about 3

You know Bill, that's exactly what I was trying to do. Just like you I have an effect that creates the "bloom" effect for the landing light made using a similar method (ie about a half dozen particles of varying brightness and increasing size aligned along the z axis).It was odd watching as one by one the particles would turn off as I got further from the ground.One of the hundred or so things I tried before figuring out the clip level solution was attaching the part to the model but like you I found the z axis data collapsed so I have left it attached via the aircraft.cfg.Here's a pic of the little monster now. The nav and white tail light are part of the 3d model (I just didn't like the way the effects would move about depending on the view angle, I think messing with the Interpolate entry in the .fx may help with this but ... ). The strobes are still a fx though.

Here's a pic of the little monster now. The nav and white tail light are part of the 3d model (I just didn't like the way the effects would move about depending on the view angle, I think messing with the Interpolate entry in the .fx may help with this but ... ). The strobes are still a fx though.

Looking very nice! BTW, the information on how to create the "Lotus" style ground splashes was posted at Freeflight Design about six months ago. Of course, it will only work for FSX and one must be using either Max or GMax as the modeling program... :(

Thanks for the tip about the FFDS post about the lotus style lights. As I'm using FSDS I will have to reread it carefully to see if I can use them.The real trick with these lights is the frame buffer blend parameters and getting the right combination. Mike sure is one clever fellow.

Actually, the real "key" is the use of animated bones, which is something that FSDS simply does not have...You see, each "light projection polygon" is created via four animated bones. The four bones are then "skinned" using a Skin modifier. As the bones move, the "skin" stretches/shrinks in size.However, it should be possible to at least recreate some of the same results by using a series of polygons of gradually increasing size...