I'm looking for a way to adjust the brightness levels and colors of virtual (3D) cockpit night lighting.I know how to do this easily with 2D panels (by editing the panel.cfg file), but a quick examination of VC night lighting reveals that the code is imbedded in the aircraft.cfg file, and that this code references an effects file, which in turn references a bitmap. Beyond that I'm lost.Is there a reference or tutorial available that could help me?Thanks.-- Walt

As far as I know, only color values in the effect file is used as long as it is set to be a lightsource. Just change that.As for "bright" textures illuminating vc gauges, I have no idea if this is possible to change at all.

Walt,If the VC lighting is in fact done with effects, then there are several ways to reduce or soften it, or change its color.A simple way, depending on the room you have to work with, is to move the effect farther away from the cockpit. That means moving it rearward and/or downward. Here is an example out of my AC520VC:light.6=4, 1.50, 0.0, 0.0, fx_vclight,This vclight effect is 1.5' forward of the reference point, on the centerline, and the height is the same as the vertical ref point height.Changing the 1.50 to a less positive number like .50 or further back at = -1.5 would significantly limit the light that hits the VC.Moving the light downward (negative direction in this example) can also hide some of the light.Secondly you could copy and rename the vclight effect and change its particle attributes in Color_end. Simply lower them to a darker shade.Third, you can copy the referenced bmp like fx_2, rename it, darken the bmp, save it as a new bmp and change the reference name in the effect file, saving the effect as a new one. Then change the aircraft.cfg file to reference the new effect in the Lights section.However, if the VC lights are actually backlighting, then lightmaps create the effects. These too can be changed depending on how they are implemented, some easier than others.Look in the panel.cfg for the vcockpit sections. Determine which are the main panels. May be one or more. In each, look for a file= parameter that calls out the panel bmp. This name will have a lightmap in the texture folder if light maps are used.Example: file=vcpanel; the lightmap in texture folder would be vcpanel_L.Once you find this, open it in a program that can separate the base texture and the alpha channel (like DXTbmp). Edit the base texture to lower its brightness. Then recombine the alpha channel with it and save back to the texture folder and test. Do not change the alpha channel; it determines which light switch activates the night lighting.Have fun.

>I'm looking for a way to adjust the brightness levels and>colors of virtual (3D) cockpit night lighting.>>I know how to do this easily with 2D panels (by editing the>panel.cfg file), but a quick examination of VC night lighting>reveals that the code is imbedded in the aircraft.cfg file,>and that this code references an effects file, which in turn>references a bitmap. Beyond that I'm lost.Walt, there are several methods used by modelers to achieve gauge/panel lighting in the VC.Karl has covered one method, and Milton a few others.To change the color/brightness of backlighted gauges, use this entry in the panel.cfg file:Day=255,255,255 :(

Thanks Milton. You've provided me with a gold mine of info! :-)-- Walt

Thank you Bill. I thought that color/brightness entries in the panel.cfg file affected the 2D panel only; I've never seen such changes influence the 3D/VC panels.-- Walt