no landing and taxi lights anymore

[Guest Miguel_Lopez]

Hello,I have the problem, that I don't see my lights anymore (taxi and landing). The other lights (navi, strobe etc) work properly. A couple of days ago everything worked perfectly, but suddenly the runway is dark (the "lights illuminate runway" is ticked - I don't know exactly the english expression since I have the german version of FSX)The last modification was the installation of SP2 - as far as I remember the lights worked. I'm not aware of any further changes and therefore I have no idea or correlation what could be the reason.Affected are all microsoft airplans. Others like the Opensky-plans are alright, because there is a distinct landing-light entry in the aircraft.cfg file.For the microsoft aircrafts the missing entry is normal, therefore the bug should be elsewhere. I also checked that the spotlight.bmp exists in the correct texture-folder.Does anybody have an idea what I can do... landing without lights during the nights makes no fun.Regards & Merry ChristmasMichael

[tasmanet 0]

Can you see the lights in a Fog ???Not on the ground but in the mist ???

[Guest Miguel_Lopez]

I have just tested it but also no lights in fog/mist. I still ask myself if there is another file that is essential for showing light but the spotlight.bmp? I've found in the forum that the definition of landing lights is either in the aircraft.cfg or in the model.mdl file. Since ALL microsoft planes have no lights anymore I guess something "global" is wrong with my system. I've already replaced the spotlight.bmp with the genuine file from DVD. Additionally, I've tried another lights (like the xenon 3.0 from the download section). But nothing helped...The other planes that define their own lights by the aircraft.cfg and doesn't link to texture-folder works fine... but I don't want to edit all microsoft-aircrafts.cfg by hand and add the cordinates manually.

[Guest Nils79]

As far as i know, the landing light has to be built-in in every model to work. I use the nice Shockwave 3D Lights Redux effects, but i tested the default CRJ and the landing lights aren't very strong:http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/4955/97158642mh5.jpgDid you mean that?Here with the Shockwave Lights:http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/3926/85305038rr4.jpgSo, i would suggest you the Shockwave Lights ;) Their installer will exchange the aircraft.cfg and the panel.cfg from all default airplanes (including the Xpack airplanes).They are improving the landing lights, strobes, beacon, nav lights and including a new and better halo.bmp.

[n4gix 4,947]

Just to be absolutely crystal clear...ALL landing/taxi lights (ground splashes) in "true FSX models" are generated by special polygons IN THE MODEL (.mdl) file, to which a special .fx file named fx_landing.fx is attached, period. If someone or something has replaced or corrupted this special .fx file, then you will not see the "ground splashes" any longer.For "FS9 models," those same special polygons will have had a special Material applied named LIGHT_LANDING or LIGHT_TAXI. This tells FS to automatically generate the necessary .fx file internally.The only thing .fx files set via the aircraft.cfg file do are generate a "point source" of light, including those from Shockwave...The Shockwave .fx file simply creates an ever-increasing-radius series of "point sources" that project forwards to create the illusion of a "cone of light." But they in no way provide any "ground illumination" at all.

[Guest Miguel_Lopez]

Hi Bill,you are right. I fx-landing-file wasn't there, I brought it back from backup and ... voil

[Guest Nils79]

That's exactly what i meant ^^ No, not really. Thanks for the detailed explanation! :)

[n4gix 4,947]

>Hi Bill,>>you are right. I fx-landing-file wasn't there, I brought it>back from backup and ... voil

[Guest Regg001]

I'm not in the SIM much more, but from time to time i do give a shot in FSX to have some fun. One thing that do annoyed me a lot are the big (and totally) white splash of lights from any of the aircraft using the default lights from FSX.Tonight i had some time to spare (holidays ;-) ) , and tried an old trick i used back in FS2004-FS9, and it still does work fine and looks similar to what Shockwave did (i said looks - i have no clue on how they did it on their side).. But here's a pic of it. Not bad for an old timer touching back with the product.At the time (few years ago) i never had time to go further around that idea, but looking at what shockwave did... i think they did worked on it alot ;-)

[cklink 0]

Bill ... and what if all the files are there? I have an add-on a/c where I have no ground illumination from the landing or taxi lights. They both are MDLXMDLH models (checked with hexedit) so they are true FSX models. I get the point of light, but no ground light? The used to work on SP1, but quit working after SP2/Acceleration install.I read your informative "lighting" pdf you uploaded awhile ago (and the SDK) in an attempt to try and learn up to possibly figure out why they aren't working, but still can't figure it out.All halo, fx.2 and spotlight bmps are original. This is in the cfg:// landinglight.8 = 5, 19.80, -2.75, -2.39,light.9 = 5, 19.80, 2.75, -2.39,// taxilight.10 = 6, 21.85, -2.72, -1.19,light.11 = 6, 21.85, 2.72, -1.19,But no effect is at the end? I tried adding fx_landing.fx to the end of those statements as part of my testing, but that did nothing as the point of light is already illuminating.All my other a/c's work, just this one. And ideas of what it might be or why they are not illuminating on the ground?EDIT: What's interesting is the cockpit lights up (from viewed from the external view) when you flip (only) the landing lights on. Could they be pointing 180 degress around in the mdl LOL?Thanks'Garett

[Guest Regg001]

Maybe the coordinates of your lights are either to high or to low.As a test, try to raise the lights higher to see if they do appear.I'm sure you know, but these coord.. are displacements from the aircraft's own cg. Furthermore, if you do have landing lights from Fx_Landing.fx working on other planes, then the problem is surely with the coordinates of that plane.

[Lange_666 167]

I'm gonna bump this because i have some similar problem which affect all my aircarft.Install:FSX + SP1 + SP2, nothing extra installed.I have been away from FSX since the beginning of this year, about the time when SP2 came out, which at that time, i installed.A few days ago, i ran FSX again (still the same installation from beginning of this year with the same videodrivers etc, nothing has changed much) and because i made a small error in the time managment, i ended up in the cockpit during the night. No problem, i turned on the lights but... i did not have any landing lights.Weird, i used to have them before. I'm also doing some sort of trip around the world and i checked some screenshots of nightflights i flew on the trip and there i still had landing lights.So my landing lights must have been gone after the installation of SP2.I started to dig here to see if i could find something and a few topics thouched the problem but without giving any real solution.I then started to look into FSX itself and i noticed that the landing lights are still there but very faint. In fact, the darker it gets, the fainter they go until you can't see them anymore. They don't illuminate enough to see the ground and see where you are going at night while taxiing.Is there a way to brighten these faint landing lights?I have uninstalled and re-installed FSX but it did not help. Once SP2 is installed, the landing lights are as good as gone.Is there a way to brighten these faint landing lights?I've included 2 pics, one at dusk on which you can see the lights illuminating the ground in front of the aircraft and the other at night, same position, only 3 hours in the future. Here the lights are not powerfull enough anymore to illuminate the ground in front of the aircraft but they are still there if you look real closely (not on this pic because of the reduction in quality).Landing lights are still visible at dusk but used to be brighter.http://users.telenet.be/lange/images/2008-...-18-7-vroeg.jpgLanding lights are still on but barely visible. The darker it gets, the fainter they become.http://users.telenet.be/lange/images/2008-...-19-12-laat.jpgIt should look like this (prior to SP2):http://users.telenet.be/lange/images/ATW/atw_41-03.jpg

[Yoda967 23]

I had a similar problem. Look carefully at any addon graphics programs you might be using, and see if they change the landing lights texture.

[Lange_666 167]

No add-ons installed, just plain FSX with SP1 en 2.

[Guest Nils79]

Maybe you will like this replacement texure: http://library.avsim.net/search.php?Search....zip&CatID=root