Orbx night lighting

[doublebubble 20]

Does anybody else have issues with Orbx  night lighting? For months now I have been trying to get it right, for years it was great, now it is just very dull with highways looking big streams of blurry red lava, have spent days trying different remedies, this is with using P3dv4.5 HF3, Orbx Global packages, Full fat region's, Rex SF, PTA 2.68, the Orbx light configurator doesn't have any impact at all, reinstalled client, content, I read somewhere it is an autogen issue ,I've tried over at the Orbx forum and six weeks on still no remedy, can anyone have some input?

[Wolkenschreck 269]

The roads have a designated lightmap textures that gives them this lava look at night. But you can deactivate the road lightmaps, while at the same time keeping the 3D-Lights.

For ORBX Australia v2 go to:
ORBX\FTX_AU\FTXAUv2_03_NIGHT_LIGHTING\scenery

Remove all files that contain LM, for example: 
!FTX_AUv2_PR_LM_christmasisland.BGL

However, you want to keep any LM file that contains OBG, for example:
!FTX_AUv2_PR_LM_christmasisland_OBG.BGL

Files with LM are the lightmap textures (aka the lava textures), while LM_OBG files are the 3D-Light objects.

Naming is similar for all ORBX regions and OLC. You will find them here:
ORBX\FTX_EU_ENG_05_SCENERY\scenery
ORBX\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_GES_05_SCENERY\scenery
ORBX\FTX_NA\FTX_NA_PNW05_SCENERY\scenery
ORBX\FTX_OLC\OLC_EU_LIGHTS\scenery
ORBX\FTX_OLC\OLC_NA_LIGHTS\scenery
and so on...

And, just to keep in mind, whenever you use the Verify Files function in ORBX Central those files will be restored.

Here is the official word of ORBX's Holger Sandmann about the lightmaps. It is in German but any online translator like Deepl should translate it for you:
https://orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/159577-nacht-beleuchtung/?do=findComment&comment=1406588

[Christopher Low 5,331]

I guess the lighting in TrueEarth products works differently, because the night lighting in TrueEarth GB looks excellent to me.

[doublebubble 20]

Thanks for the reply, that certainly gives me something to work with, could these files just be named to .off to disable them?

[F737MAX 5,508]

2 hours ago, doublebubble said:

Thanks for the reply, that certainly gives me something to work with, could these files just be named to .off to disable them?

That's a lot of files to rename.

Just create a new folder within each of the scenery folders, then drag / cut all of the LM files into the newly-created folder e.g. [path] ORBX\FTX_EU_ENG_05_SCENERY\scenery\OLD_Road_LightMap_files\

[gclarkso 0]

A lifesaver! Thanks!

[Wolkenschreck 269]

As already mentioned is renaming a lot of work. What I do is:

1. Search for all files with "LM" in the name (including the OBG files). Select them all and cut them to the clipboard.

2. Move all of them to a backup folder. If you have done it with cutting function, you can now use the insert function.

3. In the backup folder searching for all files with "OBG" and move them back to the original scenery folder. 

Windows Folder Search (the one in the top right of the Explorer) should only show the files that contain the name. You only need to select (CTRL+A), cut (CTRL+X) and insert them (CTRL+V).

Edited December 19, 2020 by Wolkenschreck

[dave2013 1,123]

Are you sure that all those files with "LM" are just the roads?  I'm concerned that some of them are for the night lighting of other textures as well.

Thanks.

Dave

[Wolkenschreck 269]

Hi Dave,

Lighting for textures use a different technology and would be a texture file (dds, bmp...). But you are right that they normally also contain a _l or_lm in their file name. Best is to enable file extensions in the explorer options. Doing so, you will see what are the BGL files (the one we need here). Moreover, you can also use TmfViewer from the SDK and check what the LM-BGL files contain.

Here is Holger Sandmann's word from the link I posted:

"Hello, 

in the control panel you can't disable the urban street backgrounds, but manually you could take these files from the corresponding folders. For GES/GEN these are the FTX_GEN_LM_ files, in "\ORBX\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_GEN_05_SCENERY\scenery" or FTX_GES_LM_ , in "\ORBX\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_GES_05_SCENERY\scenery". At openLC EU the !OLC_EU_LM_ files, in "\ORBX\FTX_OLC\OLC_EU_LIGHTS\scenery"; and so on. 

However, files in these folders that also have "_OBG" in the name contain the 3D lights themselves, so do not disable them. 

Instead of renaming file extensions, you can simply move them to an appropriately named, non-active folder, e.g. \ORBX\FTX_EU\FTX_EU_GEN_05_SCENERY\StrassenLM . 

Cheers, Holger"

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

[dave2013 1,123]

2 hours ago, Wolkenschreck said:

Lighting for textures use a different technology and would be a texture file (dds, bmp...). But you are right that they normally also contain a _l or_lm in their file name. Best is to enable file extensions in the explorer options. Doing so, you will see what are the BGL files (the one we need here). Moreover, you can also use TmfViewer from the SDK and check what the LM-BGL files contain.

OK, I realize now that we're only talking about the 2D road light maps and not any of the 3D lights, which is what I was concerned about as the textures do use some 3D lights also I believe.

Thanks a lot.

Dave

[doublebubble 20]

Ok, there seems a lot of mucking around to get my night lighting back to where it used to be, I'd like to know exactly what changed to make them to look so horrid, I mean they used to be beautiful, 

[dave2013 1,123]

Well, I moved all the 2D LM bgl files out of the OLC_EU_LIGHTS folder, leaving the 3D LM_OBG files.

Still have the 2D lights on the highways in Europe:

Dave

[Wolkenschreck 269]

Hi Dave!

Looking at the secondary roads on your shot I can say that the fix does work, as you are not seeing the lightmaps. However, you seem to have some non-default textures for the freeways.

That is what I am seeing:

[dave2013 1,123]

3 minutes ago, Wolkenschreck said:

Looking at the secondary roads on your shot I can say that the fix does work, as you are not seeing the lightmaps. However, you seem to have some non-default textures for the freeways.

Yep, I'm using FTX Vector so it must use different road textures.

Actually, I'm pretty happy with the main highways having the 2D lights.

Thanks!

Dave

[Wolkenschreck 269]

Good point with Vector, as I am using default P3Dv5 vector features. With v5 I got rid off ORBX Vector and any mesh and could not be happier. Far less issues now with 3rd party scenery. 

But the Vector texture does actually look quite okay and better than the intensive, orange LM files that we deactivated.