Light-based Effects

[Guest mtom]

Hi all.Could some one please tell me how to get light-based effects (those effects whose position is determined under the [LIGHTS] section of the aircraft.cfg file) to activate in conjunction with normal operations rather than all at once when the lights are turned on. I've been trying to apply some of the effects from Dino Cattaneo's F14B to Mike Stone's F111. I've got these in the correct locations, but they only work when I turn the lights on. For example, with the F14B the afterburn works when the aircraft is throttled up (It'll also work when you turn the lights on, but it does function normally without the lights). In the F111 the effects only work with lights on. The problem applies to all of the other effects. This means I get the aftern and the sonic boom all at once when I turn the lights on. Not very realistic :-) So, I wondering whether there is anything in the AIR or CFG files that I can edit so the effect display normally?Cheers,Matthew.

[Guest Milton]

Not to my knowledge, but you can define the effects as a logo, wing, or recognition light (as examples) in the lights section and write XML code to call out the effects when you want them under the conditions you specify.

[Guest mtom]

Hi Milton.Thanks for the reply. Could you please clarify things for me? I think I know what you mean in terms of the type of light effect, but what do you mean by the using XML code to call out the effects? I've done a little XML code for object placement and gauge design, but not sure how it applies in this context.Cheers,Matthew.

[rcbarend 37]

Hi Matthew,Since I wrote the effects controller for Dino's F14B, maybe I can shed some "light" :-) on this subject.As you can see in Dino's aircraft.cfg file (LIGHTS section) various effects are coupled to unused "lights", like Taxi lights, recognition lights, etc. Usually light number 5 - 10 (the first parameter in the light.*= definition).Now, to have these effects automatically controlled based on certain conditions, you need a gauge that switch these "lights" on/off.Example:Open the XML gauge F14EffectControl.xml (default in folder gaugesrcb-gauges) with Windows Notepad.Somewhere in that file you'll see the codeA:ENG1 N2 RPM,percent) 80 > (A:GENERAL ENG1 THROTTLE LEVER POSITION,percent) 90 > &&if{ (A:LIGHT TAXI,bool) ! if{ (>K:TOGGLE_TAXI_LIGHTS) }This means that, when N2 > 80% and Throttle > 90%, the Taxilights are forced on. Which means (see aircraft.cfg, light# 6 definition) that the afterburner effect for the left engine is visible.This also means that the gauge code should correspond with the definitions in the aircraft.cfg.If such a gauge is not defined in the panel.cfg (like when you only copy the light definitions for effects to another aircraft), the effects obviously are not controlled automatically. But you can still switch on the effect manually, by assigning a keystroke to the specific lightsitch toggle.One disadvantage of using these "light" switches to switch effects on/off, is that the "all lights toggle" will affect all light lightswitches. In case of manual control this is very awkward, as you have noticed.When the effects are controlled automatically (and the gauge is designed correctly) this isn't really a problem, since a certain light switch remains forced to the proper state; ie. the occurance of an "all light toggle" command, that changes the state of all light switches, is immediately corrected again by the gauge. So the effect is only visible/audible for a fraction of a second.Another limitation: FS2004 only supports 19 light definitions (light.0 upto light.18).And the same story applies to the Smokesystem, which can also beused to switch an effect (not necessarily a smoke effect). However, where the LIGHTS has 10 different switches, the SMokesystem only has 1.Hope this helps...Cheers, Rob Barendregt

[Guest mtom]

Your a gem Rob! Nice work and thanks for the elaborate explanation.Made the appropriate edits to the panel config file and all works well. Good stuff! Did not know anything about these non-visual/unseen gauges. Also, never understood what the purpose of the RCB Miljet and RCB Gauges sub folders served. One more thing mate. The F14B panel config file also includes COP config and sound gauges. The notes state that these are for reading/saving parameters and sound, repsectively. Obviously, these relate to COPs activities and are provided as part of the HUD addon. However, it's not clear to me what they do in practice. I thought most of the sounds (bar the sonic boom) are determined by the aircraft's sound config file. I don't have a clue as to what happening in relation to reading/saving parameters :-)Thanks again.Cheers,Matthew.

[Guest mtom]

Your a gem Rob! Nice work and thanks for the elaborate explanation.Made the appropriate edits to the panel config file and all works well. Good stuff! Did not know anything about these non-visual/unseen gauges. Also, never understood what the purpose of the RCB Miljet and RCB Gauges sub folders served. One more thing mate. The F14B panel config file also includes COP config and sound gauges. The notes state that these are for reading/saving parameters and sound, repsectively. Obviously, these relate to COPs activities and are provided as part of the HUD addon. However, it's not clear to me what they do in practice. I thought most of the sounds (bar the sonic boom) are determined by the aircraft's sound config file. I don't have a clue as to what happening in relation to reading/saving parameters :-)Thanks again.Cheers,Matthew.