FSDS2 lights being awkward!

[Guest Mark Hazeldine]

Hi everyone,I ve been trying to make a floodlight pole with four lights on top with FSDS2 and using the Light_Land function. In a basic test of all the different types of lights, they all displayed correctly except the wierd effect that the light beam of landing lights and taxi lights points in the opposite direction to the poloy surface normal.When trying to make my light pole i find that whatever way i flip my poly, i can never get the beam to point down. It always points up towards the sky! Is this just an FS bug?Thanks, Mark

[spotlope 0]

I think the light's direction is based on the z-axis of the parent object to which it's linked. At least that's how it seems to work in Gmax. try selecting the parent object and rotating its pivot so that the z-axis points directly away from the direction you want your light cast. That should solve the problem. Since the poly is reinterpreted by MakeMDL to a single point, I don't think it matters one whit what you do with flipping the normals.hope that helps,

[arno 1]

One note, the question was about FSDS2 and not about GMax. I don't use FSDS2 myself, so I can't give a good advice. But I think you must be able to change it, it is probably not a problem of FS.Arno

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Member Netherlands 2000 Scenery Team[link:home.wanadoo.nl/arno.gerretsen]Arno's FlightSim World for scenery design hints, tips and other tricks...

[spotlope 0]

Yes, I saw that it was a FSDS2 question, that's why I said how it works in Gmax; hopefully there's an analog in FSDS. I don't have any experience in FSDS, but the concept should be roughly the same.

[Guest luissa]

Mark,Did you try to rotate the poly instead of using the "flip" tool?Regards, Luis

[Guest gorchi]

Hi Mark!In FSDS V2 (and I hope You updatet it to v 2.11!) making this kind of effects looks like this:1. make an polygon, let say with three edges2. coordinate system for this poly should appear at the source of light (move it to Your light source)3. move Your poly away from it, preferably to the floor. But! As I understand philosophy in FSDS 2, You should move it in the Z axis directon4. rotate this poly (object) in POLYGON mode in such way, that Z axis lokks into the directon light should be projected to the ground5. if the normale of the polygon is pointing towards the light source, flip it to opposite direction.6. Name the object properly: light.landing or light.taxi are proper name for producing this kind of effect.I hope this will help You. I think I made a little tutorial making FSDS lights 2-3 months ago but nevertheless, I can say this is a "brief tutorial" :)Best regards,Goran BrumenFS Slovenija 2002 teamhttp://slovenia.avsim.net

[Guest]

Hi, I had the exact same problem when I was making some directional approach lights. Couldn't figure it out for AGES.Its the AXIS orientation in FSDS, u need to hold shift while rotating the axis...im not sure in which direction the cones emmit offhand...but they lie along the Z axis I believe. Its not a matter of rotating the light, just it's axis.Regards, Oli.