Hi all,

 

Can someone point me to a simple (is anything simple creating scenery?) way to add lights to a scenery? I'm finishing a small terminal building and has a few lights, inside and out...nothing too powerful. I'm hoping that they can illuminate the ground and the area around the light.

 

Eagerly waiting for a flood of suggestions...

 

Gregg

Here's what I use and I love it ! Does a lot more too. The blue taxiway lights are outstanding :wub:

 

http://www.flightsimtools.com/apwizard/

That's interesting. Can you redistribute the improved airport to others?

Here is what I use, and it's FREE.... Airport Design Editor 1.50.4402 http://www.airportdesigneditor.co.uk/index.html

That's interesting. Can you redistribute the improved airport to others?

 

You can distribute your modified airport file. For anyone else to see the effects they would need to download and install Airport Wizard. The tool has a demo capability, which most people probably wouldn't use, but by installing Airport Wizard it would give access to the "scenery effects" that makes things look nicer. You are not able to distribute any portion of Airport Wizard as part of your work.

They're nice effects but I'm looking for something simple and that I can share.

They're nice effects but I'm looking for something simple and that I can share.

Check out my Ramp Light Library here: http://fsdeveloper.com/forum/downloads.php?do=cat&id=8

 

This zip file has the .gmax source files and textures to create your own lights, but also includes pre-compiled lights, including a "street light", and single, dual and quad ramp lights you can place with many tools, including but not limited to ADE (freeware Airport Design Editor).

Well, a quick cruise through the FSX scenery design library here came up blank for light objects. Check out n4gix's object library. I have also used a set of lights from Jim Dhaenens in several of my scenery revamps. It is a really nice set and they illuminate/flood the ground around them too.

 

Edit: found them at SimV

Check out my Ramp Light Library here: http://fsdeveloper.c...php?do=cat&id=8

 

This zip file has the .gmax source files and textures to create your own lights, but also includes pre-compiled lights, including a "street light", and single, dual and quad ramp lights you can place with many tools, including but not limited to ADE (freeware Airport Design Editor).

 

Cool! So, I'm a little green on this stuff (no...a lot green). I set the texture to ESDG_ramp.dds, the night texture to ESDG_ramp_lm.dds and, finally, the ESDG_RampLight_Spec.dds as the specular texture. I wasn't getting any 'light' with various settings (Emissive mode-Additive, Bloom mode on, Allow emissive bloom...the stuff that made sense. Tried various combinations. Can you tell me what settings to use?

 

Gregg

Gregg, it has been literally YEARS since I last looked at this and uploaded it. All I can suggest is that you load one of the included .gmax source files and check the FSX Material "recipie..."

 

...or, more simply, "Merge" the objects from my source file into your .gmax project and then simply use the FSX Material for my object, changing the texture filenames as you wish.

Airport Design Editor will allow you to put the blue apron edge lights that you are looking for around the airport ramp area, it will allow you to place Ramp Flood Lights (street lights), you can move taxiways or create new ones, move or create new runways, place buildings... anything you want. All textures are default FSX.

 

you may need however, FSX SDK in order to "Compile" your airport scenery into a .bgl file for FSX to read.

 

If you need some help in upgrading your airport, just let me know by PM, and I can take a look at it, and we can get together sometime on TeamSpeak and you can tell me exactly where you want what, and I'll build it for you.

 

here is a sample of a small heliport that I created in Florida...

 

Gregg, it has been literally YEARS since I last looked at this and uploaded it. All I can suggest is that you load one of the included .gmax source files and check the FSX Material "recipie..."

 

...or, more simply, "Merge" the objects from my source file into your .gmax project and then simply use the FSX Material for my object, changing the texture filenames as you wish.

 

Well, I can't say I got it to work. I'm using Instant Object Studio and, up to now, I've been able to get everything else working but there's something here that doesn't seem to translate. It may be in the way you are using images...IOS doesn't have all the image options that GMAX has. I did accidentally manage to get this by fiddling for hours with different settings (the bar across the screen is part of the glider).

 

 

Pretty interesting effect.

 

Gregg

This 3d lighting technique is the same one pioneered by the L39 a few years ago. I also use in for my aircraft models. Since I don't have IOS, I have no idea whatever what might be happening there. AFAIK though, any placement program should be able to use the precompiled .mdl files.

I added the BGL you gave and got the lights working. Really, pretty amazing. The illuminate the ground really well.

 

The issue is that, using the BGL, it illuminates the ground and doesn't illuminate the other objects around it. The ground splash does the same. I have been trying to place a light that illuminates the inside of a terminal building I'm creating...floor...walls. The nuance of lights in FSX seems to be pretty difficult.

I added the BGL you gave and got the lights working. Really, pretty amazing. The illuminate the ground really well.

 

The issue is that, using the BGL, it illuminates the ground and doesn't illuminate the other objects around it. The ground splash does the same. I have been trying to place a light that illuminates the inside of a terminal building I'm creating...floor...walls. The nuance of lights in FSX seems to be pretty difficult.

Well, general illumination in FS is really difficult to achieve, but for the inside of a building, I'd opt to use _L or _LM lightmap textures for the interior walls and floor.

 

FS9 would require _LM texture along with setting the flag on export to enable lightmaps (scenery). FSX requires a _L texture in the Self-Illumination slot of the FSX Material.

 

The 3d lighting technique I've used for the ramp lights actually only illuminates the surface planar object itself, and anything that's under or behind it, and when viewed from an obliging angle.