I am aware that that from dusk-night-dawn the "panel" light illuminates the panel and turns on the "Luminous" function in the xml files in Fs9. However, I want the gauges to be lit also in daylight. Is there any way that I can force Fs9 to allow me to have lit gauges during the day as well? It is also my intention to modify the gauges so that one can see that the faces are illuminated from tiny lights inside. How can this be done?vololiberista

I've no direct experience but could the key event "toggle panel lights" be used to turn them on?

For FS9 models, daytime illumination of gauges in the VC may only be accomplished by the modeler "hacking" the .asm intermediate files and then recompiling the model, so that the emissive mode for the gauge polygon(s) is set for Additive rather than MultiplyBlend.BTW, for XML "gauges" using Bright="Yes" instead of Luminous="Yes" will result in somewhat brighter gauges...Using the keyevent for panel lights will only switch images in the "gauge" (if such have been provided), but no illumination will take place since the ambient light is still too high to allow the blended lighting "system" to be activated.

If I use Bright="Yes" then the gauges are bright at night only. This would mean that I would have to change the colour of the gauges from white on a black background to bright orange on a black background. What I want is to get close to the effect in this photo where both the panel and each of individual gauges are lit.vololiberista

If I use Bright="Yes" then the gauges are bright at night only. This would mean that I would have to change the colour of the gauges from white on a black background to bright orange on a black background. What I want is to get close to the effect in this photo where both the panel and each of individual gauges are lit.vololiberista

A simpler approach to lighting is to have two sets of bitmaps*: one for daytime use, and the other for dawn/dusk/night use. You can control which set are used with custom light switches.* This is described in the FSX SDK, btw.

A simpler approach to lighting is to have two sets of bitmaps: one for daytime use, and the other for dawn/dusk/night use. You can control which set are used with custom light switches, which will allowed for zoned lighting control.

This seems a good idea. But my next question is if you could point me in the direction of some exisitng xml coding as I am not really an expert at doing it from scratch. Many thanks.vololiberista

This seems a good idea. But my next question is if you could point me in the direction of some exisitng xml coding as I am not really an expert at doing it from scratch. Many thanks.vololiberista

Look at the gauges used in FSX for the default aircraft. The technique is described in the FSX SDK. The difference is that in FSX the bitmaps are swapped automatically. In FS9 you would have to do it yourself.

I created an extra element(more if I want needles and digits lit differently) for each gauge.The Element calls a bitmap that has only the areas I want lit only when a specific "switch" is on.Tag it Luminous=yes Bright=yes.The panel.cfg Luminous line controls the color of the light.

[Color]Day=255,255,255Night=225,225,225Luminous=200,75,75

With custom switches(L:var) and visibility statements the sky is truly the limit.The SDK has most of the L:var info. Look at other gauges for visibility examples...Don