VC Gauge Back Lighting Question

[Guest Milton]

The one issue I have with this is that the back lighting seems to be activated by the Landing Light Switch, not the Panel light switch. This does not seem right.The backlighting bitmap is tied to the VC $planar bitmap as a self-illumination map.Any ideas why this is so, and any ideas as to how to get it tied to the Panel Lights Switch?Milton

[Guest Milton]

Bill answered this some time ago like this:"Actually I did mention it in another reply (above), but according to the SDK, we should be able to use the Alpha channel on a $dummy.bmp file to control which electrical buss the gauge illumination in the VC will use: black for NAV light buss and white for Landing Lights buss.However, I've never managed to get this to work properly, so I'm stuck with the LL buss... "Maybe this will help answer the same question for others.Milton

[Guest]

>Bill answered this some time ago like this:>>"Actually I did mention it in another reply (above), but>according to the SDK, we should be able to use the Alpha>channel on a $dummy.bmp file to control which electrical buss>the gauge illumination in the VC will use: black for NAV light>buss and white for Landing Lights buss.>>However, I've never managed to get this to work properly, so>I'm stuck with the LL buss... ">>Maybe this will help answer the same question for others.Milton, I've continued to experiment with this. As I mentioned some months ago, one simmer I was corresponding with actually managed to get it working (for him), but using *his* files on *my* system, it reverted to the LL switch. I'm forced to conclude that the differences in our results is video card dependent (although how that might be remains an open question!).As a result, since the 'cure' doesn't work consistently and reliably, I've been forced to leave the VC gauge lighting on the LL buss. In the Socata, I 'fixed' the issue by taging the actual LL's to turn off when the gear is retracted.On the soon-to-be-released (payware) Beech400A, since there are no "taxi lights" on the real a/c, we've been able to use the TL buss for the LL, and concorde-nose-visor tag to extend/retract the physical LL units.Hopefully, FS:CoF will have all these issues "fixed" and "working properly." :)BillAVSIM OmbudsmanFounder and Director,Creative Recycling of Aircraft Partshttp://mtco.com/~rsam/fartslogo.jpg