Hi folks,I normally fly only in daylight, but now the days are getting shorter I often find I am arriving at dusk or at night.The 737-800 model I'm using is good. It is derived from the default, but with better characteristics thanks to friends adapting the Aircraft.CFG and AIR files.The landing lights work fine, but there are no taxi lights or runway turnoff lights, and really I need these for taxiing at dusk and night.I've examined the [Lights] section of the Aircraft.CFG file, and a few selected .fx files, and read the appropriate sections of the FSX SDK -- the bits on the CFG and FX file formats. I tried to define a nose-wheel landing light as a taxi light, using number 6 as the code, and tried adapting it also, with name changes, as a left and a right turnoff light by changing the 'heading' values in the FX file, and then adding them to the [Lights] section as 'recognition' (7) and 'panel' (10) lights respectively (so I could assign switches to them). I don't use an FSX panel so the panel lights switch is not used otherwise in any case.Unfortunately none of these things worked.There's obviously more to adding lights effects to an aircraft than a line in the Aircraft.CFG [Lights] section and an .fx file it references. But what? Can anyone here help at all, please?RegardsPete Dowson

Pete, unfortunately the landing and taxi light "ground illuminations" must be accomplished by the modeler, in the model itself.For FS9 it is generated by applying a material to a polygon in the model using a reserved name such as LIGHT_LAND or LIGHT_TAXI. FS9 itself will generate the effect dynamically when the a/c is loaded and the appropriate switch circuit is turned on.For FSX it is generated by attaching the effect file fx_landing.fx to a polygon in the model. FSX will then generate the effect dynamically when the a/c is loaded and the appropriate switch circuit is turned on.Both techniques will cause a point source (simulated light bulb) to be shown wherever the polygon is physically located on the model, and a wedge of "ground illumination."Effect files defined in the aircraft.cfg file will only display as "point sources" at the physical location on the model, but will not "illuminate" anything other than the user's model itself (such as a fuselage or a bit of light from a red beacon).The short of it is that if your model does not have taxi light polygons with the required FS9 or FSX technique applied, there's nothing to be done to add them short of somehow getting the source file(s) for Max, GMax or FSDS, adding the requisite polygons, and recompiling a new model.

Pete, unfortunately the landing and taxi light "ground illuminations" must be accomplished by the modeler, in the model itself.

Oh. So I need to replace the MDL file with one supporting the lights I need? That then gives rise to other problems, doesn't it? Can I use my well tuned Aircraft.CFG and AIR files with a different MDL file?

For FSX it is generated by attaching the effect file fx_landing.fx to a polygon in the model. FSX will then generate the effect dynamically when the a/c is loaded and the appropriate switch circuit is turned on.

So what is the purpose of the [LIGHTS] section in the Aircaft.CFG file?{Ah, I see you answer this, a bit, later on]

Both techniques will cause a point source (simulated light bulb) to be shown wherever the polygon is physically located on the model, and a wedge of "ground illumination."

In my case I'm only interested in the latter. I don't need to see the outside.

Effect files defined in the aircraft.cfg file will only display as "point sources" at the physical location on the model, but will not "illuminate" anything other than the user's model itself (such as a fuselage or a bit of light from a red beacon).

Oh, I see. The very opposite of what I wanted, in fact.

The short of it is that if your model does not have taxi light polygons with the required FS9 or FSX technique applied, there's nothing to be done to add them short of somehow getting the source file(s) for Max, GMax or FSDS, adding the requisite polygons, and recompiling a new model.

So really the only answer for me is to try and mix and match?Thanks & Best RegardsPete

Oh. So I need to replace the MDL file with one supporting the lights I need? That then gives rise to other problems, doesn't it? Can I use my well tuned Aircraft.CFG and AIR files with a different MDL file?

Pete, for the most part you could use your "well tuned" files to fly a solid brick. However, depending on the modeler and programmer for the gauge system, there may well be some inter-dependency between the model file's embedded XML script "code" and the gauge system's files.With respect to landing/taxi lights, there is a major difference between FS9 and FSX models. In FS9, there is of course only one model (.mdl) file, which contains both the exterior visual and the 3d interior. The "landing and taxi" polygons are duplicated in each of the sub-models.In the case of FSX, the exterior and interior models are compiled into two separate .mdl files, and the "landing and taxi" polygons are only present in the exterior model file. In this instance replacing the exterior model with one that has both landing and taxi lights modeled may solve the immediate problem, providing the modeler has stuck with default FS control key_events for the lighting.As you can probably gather by now, there simply isn't any easy answer to the question! As I recall, you are mainly interested in seeing the landing/taxi light ground illumination, and only use the 2d panel system. In this case changing the exterior FSX model used, or the entire model in the case of FS9 may be satisfactory for your needs.

Pete, for the most part you could use your "well tuned" files to fly a solid brick. However, depending on the modeler and programmer for the gauge system, there may well be some inter-dependency between the model file's embedded XML script "code" and the gauge system's files.

Understood. I don't use any gauges -- the PANEL.CFG merely provides the views for me. So I only need to find a model which has the lights I need and doesn't interact with the gauges -- like the FS9 PMDG 738, which I always used in FSX without gauges until I swapped to this other model recently.

With respect to landing/taxi lights, there is a major difference between FS9 and FSX models. In FS9, there is of course only one model (.mdl) file, which contains both the exterior visual and the 3d interior. The "landing and taxi" polygons are duplicated in each of the sub-models.

Hmm. I'm a bit confused now. I certainly used the PMDG FS9 737NG in FSX for several years. I changed to another from a friend because it performed closer to the cirrect figures in FSX.

As I recall, you are mainly interested in seeing the landing/taxi light ground illumination, and only use the 2d panel system. In this case changing the exterior FSX model used, or the entire model in the case of FS9 may be satisfactory for your needs.

Right. no gauges either, so hopefully easier. I'll experiment.I would presumably need to change something like the [Contact Points] section to suit the other MDL, wouldn't I? I know I'm not outside the aircraft much, but I'd still want it to appear as if it is properly on the ground when it is.Best RegardsPete

Yes, the contact points are unique for each model file used, so they would need to be adjusted up/down, possibly fore/aft as well.There is a huge amount of inter-dependency in FS, so it's very difficult to "generalize" answers to any question...

Hi Pete,FS9 aircraft (i.e. single MDL files) are compatible with FSX, and act the same way they do in FS9. FSX aircraft (i.e. compiled using the FSX SDK) have separate interior and exterior MDL files.Generally, when swapping MDL files you'll need to change three things in the aircraft.cfg file:1. The Contact Points section2. The Lights section3. The Views section (i.e. eyepoint). These can usually just be copied intact from the plane that provided the new MDL file. Number 3 may need to be modified, but only experimentation will decide that.Hope this helps,

FS9 aircraft (i.e. single MDL files) are compatible with FSX, and act the same way they do in FS9.

Hmm. That's not what I found so far. I tried with a Project Opensky (Posky) BA 738, transferring Model and Texture files, and effect files where referencing lights. In FS9 this aircraft has all lights i needed working fine. In FSX you can see the lights working fine from outside -- i.e. both landing and taxi lights separately lit up the ground in front of the aircraft, but from inside the cockpit there was no lighting effects whatsoever!Very disappointing.

Generally, when swapping MDL files you'll need to change three things in the aircraft.cfg file:1. The Contact Points section2. The Lights section3. The Views section (i.e. eyepoint).

All my views are handled by Ecza, so I left that alone for now whilst getting lights working. I transferred the Lights section only. Would the contacts section be responsible for the problem I got? I wasn't going to transfer too much till I knew i had a working light setup.Thanks,Pete

In rare cases the MDL switch can cause the loss of ground lighting, due to a large shift in the view point (i.e. your cockpit view no longer includes the lights). An Eyepoint change in this case may get the lights back. But as I said this is rare.I don't really know much about ground lighting in FSX; I'll wait for Bill to weigh in on that.

I solved it and now have taxi lights working both looking from outside and inside my 738.The solution wasn't in mixing and matching from other aircraft. none of those with working taxi lights would work with my model 738.In the end, what worked was installing the FSX version of Shockwave3DRedux lights, then renaming all the light fx files in my 738 [LI?GHTS] section to address the equivalent Shockwave lights, and changing the two centre-mounted landing lights in the list to be type 6 (taxi) instead of 5 (landing). So, I'm effectively using the nosewheel mounted light as the taxi light (which is correct) instead of how it would otherwise have been configured (as a landing light).RegardsPete

Interesting "solution." Presumably the "ball of light" is sufficiently large enough to provide the illusion of actual ground light, albeit not an actual beam of light. If you're happy though, that's all that matters! :)

Interesting "solution." Presumably the "ball of light" is sufficiently large enough to provide the illusion of actual ground light, albeit not an actual beam of light. If you're happy though, that's all that matters! :)

It lights the ground, same as my landing lights. I don't see a "ball of light" as such (I wouldn't know what that looked like from the cockpit), just a nice brightening of the ground in a delineated fan shape, decreasing with distance, in the area you'd expect to see it -- in other words, pretty realistic.In fact the taxi light IS what used to be a landing light, but responding to the taxi lights control. The original landing lights were three in number, one on each side and one on or near the nosewheel structure. Their beams overlapped on the ground ahead, all three of them. Now I have two overlapping beams for the landing lights (quite bright but not overwhelming like the deafults), and a less bright one in centre for taxiing.Don't ask me why it works differently to the way you suggested. I just got the hints from an AVSIM file suggesting this solution.RegardsPete

I discovered that landing lights had disappeared on the MS default planes after upgrading from FSX to FSX+Acceleration. After some research, I noticed that the "fx_landing.fx" file, which belongs in the "FSXEffects" folder, disappeared after the upgrade. If you have a standard (before updates) copy FSX, you can copy "fx_landing.fx" from that copy and into an upgraded copy, and the lights will appear again.Best,Carlyle Sharpe

Maybe a little insight on this topic..In FS9 doing electrical testing it was found that on a light circuit the A: variable monitoring the circuit "would" return a 1 if the switch was turned on, and that the particular circuit was listed in the {electrical} section of the aircraft.cfg. The weird thing was is that it would not draw any current unless an .fx file was assigned to it.Now in FSX the light monitoring variable does "not" return a 1 if the switch was on and there is no .fx assigned or not found. ( seems fixed )Now in the .mdl file, it is most likely that the "splash" illuminating the ground would not work if the modeler used the same particular A: -->L: var and an .fx was not found or not assigned to the circuit.??Roman