FS9 default landing lights are bugged??

[Guest raf]

Hi all,the suspect of some 'original sin' into Fs9's landing lights is becoming stronger in my mind.I was giving to my project the ground night illumination using Gmax-built landing lights projecting a lightcone on the ground, when I noticed that, at a certain heading and distance, they disappeared.Ok - I thought - let's see what I've done wrong.Then I noticed that also default AI's LLs do behave the same way than the ones I made..........Just try the following, then please let me know if I need a good psychiatrist or not:at dusk, go to any West US default airport (e.g KSFO), in slew mode, go upward a bit (500 feet for KSFO is good), set your hdg at 258

[martin_ktpa 0]

I didn't notice this particular bug (will check) but I think when using landing lights for scenery ground illumination they can become plain squares under low visibility in FS (fog). not a big issue depending on where your airport is, but you might want to check.

[arno 1]

This problem with low visibility I am certainly aware of. For a place with a lot of sunshine this might not be a problem, but I think it looks really ugly, so for an airport that often has such visibilities it might be something to consider.The other bug I have not check yet either.

[Guest gorchi]

Raf,I have noticed that also on my LJLJ airport whee the ground is not 100% flat and really landing lights do dissappear at some distance. But I may have a solution for You if YOu need ground illumination from REIL/TAXI lights on the ground. The idea came from PaavoP in his scenery. He made a ground polygon with DXT3 texture (just a small texture, 64x64pix), which is in colour of light with alpha channel and concentric circles. This way, You can control the distance when they will light up.Also, if You use light_nav for a taxiway edge light, then a distance is more than sufficient, let's say 5km.Hope it helps!Best regards,Goran BrumenFS Slovenija 2002 teamhttp://slovenia.avsim.net

[arno 1]

Yes, that is the old approach that we also used in Fs2000 (when the lights did noy yet light the ground). I think in many cases this is still be best approach, as it gives you more control over the final result.Also it is better for the performance I think. I once had made a few light poles with the LIGHT_LAND option and they lighted the ground very nice. But when I placed them around the airport at all positions they needed to be the frames went down a lot. In total I have placed maybe 100 poles or so, with 6 lights each. My PC certainly didn't like that amount of LIGHT_LAND lights :).

[Guest raf]

Arno,I didn't notice any fps drop-down, but this's likely why I still had to place all the lights into my airport (fortunately!)Anyway, the bug I found (default or custom that is) is more than enough, to me, in order to give up about the use of LLs for ground illumination, at least until more knowledge will be available about the issue. Maybe the reason is also the one reported by Goran, since terrain under my airport is not 100% flat.Guess I'll use something like night-painted bitmaps for that: not a so sophisticate technique, but something that looks nice anyway and, moreover, 100% bug-free and not so fps-hungry (they just make the texture folder a bit more heavier).Raf