Need help with starlight Halo.bmp

[Manny]

I used to have a halo.bmp which were star lights. Wherever this halo.bmp lights were used I used to get the star light. 

 

e.g. UT night lights, some airport lights etc.

 

Since I went to DX10  I now have a DX10 compliant halo,.bmp But now my lights are a blobs. I really want the star light

 

Espcially after I saw this.

 

 

How do I convert my old halo.bmp to be DX10 compaitble?

 

Any help here would be mucho appreciated.

[Paul J]

Here's one from Avsim, Manny - Mike Swannick's lights, and another, just the halo, though I can't remember from where.

 

Does REX or AS not have that star effect?

[MikeAdamo]

Thanks for posting this question!! I'm experiencing the same thing and posted a question very similar to yours so thankfully yours got answered and now I can try the fix.

[Manny]

Does REX or AS not have that star effect?

 

Thanks Paul. I'll check those out.

 

edited to add: Paul I don't think those are starlights.. those blobs too. When I get home I'll post the old DX9 bmp file here

 

Surprisingly REX does not have a nice clean star light.  I should visit their support site and request for some. starlight with 4, and 8 streams etc... 

[Paul J]

Hey Manny - Your pc - REX\Images\Lighting\sun! In the install folder There's 16 folders of sun bitmaps!!

[Manny]

Hey Manny - Your pc - REX\Images\Lighting\sun! In the install folder There's 16 folders of sun bitmaps!!

 

 

I am not looking for sun bitmaps

 

Just the halo.bmp

 

I'll post what I got when I get home.. along with the screen shot of what I see.. I think I have an old screenshot showing street lights (using that star ligh tbit map) that would probably explain much better.

 

Right now I am here in KDEN (Denver airport) using their Free Boingo connection.. and flickr is taking a long time to load my images.

 

 

 

Click on the image and see the street lights... these are the star lights..  this is because of what I had in the HALO.BMP

[Paul J]

They're still there, just in another folder - REX\Images\Lighting\runway_lights.

AS 2012 also has them too, though as bmpgfx - under Data\Lights

 

Nice shot of the rockies and Denver... but ... it sure looks like somebody slid KPHX in there.. er.. I think...  :rolleyes:

[MikeAdamo]

Paul,

 

It looks like those lights you pointed out work perfectly well with DX9 and bloom enabled but once you move over to DX10 and enable bloom the lights take on more of a solid "blob" state versus a light with a soft glow/halo effect around them.

 

I think what Manny and I are looking for are DX10 compatible lights that glow properly with bloom enabled versus looking like a solid mass.

[Paul J]

.. and the slider in the General Shader doesn't reduce the blob?

 

..., and so you're saying (as I don't use them) that the existing REX runway_lights - 01 and 02 (RWLights_4Stars.jpg & halo.bmp in the Base folder) just appear as blobs in DX10?  

[MikeAdamo]

"and the slider in the General Shader doesn't reduce the blob?" - On my end no. I've moved the slider one notch to the left and all it did was make my aircraft a little transparent.

 

"and so you're saying (as I don't use them) that the existing REX runway_lights - 01 and 02 (RWLights_4Stars.jpg & halo.bmp in the Base folder) just appear as blobs in DX10?" - On my end, correct. I've tried a few different lighting options from REX and I get the same results - solid masses versus nice soft, glowing lights.

[Paul J]

OK - I'll play with them too, then: maybe come up with something acceptable or compatible. You have to forgive me, Mike & Manny - I use REX for Clouds and Water, and then switch to Active Sky for Clouds and Water and then switch back... and back again.... but I never look at the runway lights, except to test that they work in Steve's beta testing.

 

Maybe there's someone out there, reading this, who knows exactly what should be done... and might want to save us a whole lot o' grief..? Anyone?   :biggrin: 

 

Maybe more later..

 

All the Best,

 

pj

[FlyAndFight]

I have noticed the same thing with the airport lights.  The blue taxiway lights in particular look pretty bad, like glowing lollipops...  

 

 

EDIT:  I switched the lights in REX to "Default" and it made a huge difference.  The blue lights look significantly better now.

[Manny]

This how the Halo.bmp file used to look

 

 

[SteveFx]

Normally fsx switch lights that use fx_2.fx to halo beyond a certain distance. If you are using dx10sf with effects enabled then this doesn't occur. This is why people report they cannot see ai. I am working on a variation to avoid this, I am not sure whether this thread is about the same thing or not! But I thought I would mention it.

[Manny]

, I am not sure whether this thread is about the same thing or not! But I thought I would mention it.

 

Hi Steve,

 

I don't believe we are talking about the same thing Steve

 

There is one file called HALO.BMP in fsx\texture folder.

 

How the lights in that bmp looks is how some of the street lights (UT) and few other lights appear.

 

The screen shot I posted is how they ought to look to get the star light.

 

The current halo.bmp in my texture folder is not the star light in the post above.

 

I don't believe if I put my old halo.bmp with those star lights would work.

 

What we need is take the halo.bmp that is currently working in DX10 and modify it to look like the start light shots in the post above.

 

This is current DX10 working Halo.bmp

 

 

 

I may simply go back to my old halo.bmp and give it a shot to see if works or if it breaks something..