I've been trying to get spot lights to shine on the ground in FSCOF. I know it's possible to have lights shine on objects because my new tower is placed next to a rotating beacon and the light beam "circle" passes over the front surface of the tower. I don't know if this is possible with the concrete FS tiles though. I tried doing a light _lm map, which works great for buildings but displays a big ugly black disk around it when hit by aircraft landing or taxi lights. I've read some stuff on this but nothing I can get to work. I set up a dummy scene with a large box and a light shining on it. It shows the light in GMAX but not COF.I can't find any tutorials or info that will help me do this. Can anyone help/make suggestions. I have 4 airports ready for release. As soon as I can get these lights working I want upload them.Thanks a lot in advance, Adam

just guess..not sure if it will work but how about makin or changin the the beacon fx

Jersey shore, I finally cracked it this afternoon. Well, sort of. I had downloaded a Gmax file some days ago called "lamp" which is an example of a light effect. The light appeared very very large in FS and I couldn't figure out how to make it smaller. In the end I deconstructed it, took one triangluar polygon and it works great for the effect. I'm just going to use it in all my sceneries.Over the weekend I made a local scenery that includes a large dam and dike. I'll put the lights on top of the dam. Should look really good.I'm going to look into beacon fx as I still need red lights atop of my radio towers. Always something to keep one busy.Thanks,Adam

Adam,I would be interested in reading that. Where did you find it and can you supply the full name and/or author?Searching for the word 'lamp' brings up slightly over a million file names. Thanks,Al

Al. I could email you the file if you like. There are no directions. It's just a GMAX file. I just pulled it apart until it worked in the capacity I needed. The lights look very good. I plan to learn how to create this effect myself in the next day or 2.Just email me if you want the file.Adam

>I'm going to look into beacon fx as I still need red lights>atop of my radio towers. Always something to keep one busy.Since you are using GMax, simply create a "beacon light," and apply a Material with the name LIGHT_BEACON. Make the Diffuse Color Red, and it will "automatically flash" for you in FS... Simple, no?

HI Bill, I figured that one out lol. I have a strange problem...When I make a scenery in xml and merge a Gmax light into that scene from another scene created with the 2002sdk, everything in the scenery, when exported, is on about a 45 degree angle sticking out of the ground. This is very weird. Have you heard of this before? It's not really a big deal because I can export in the old 2002 sdk way but that limits the effects I can have such as the strobe etc.CYWG is progressing well. I have about a dozen hangers/buildings etc done and the terminal is complete.ttyl, Adam

>HI Bill, >>I figured that one out lol. I have a strange problem...When I>make a scenery in xml and merge a Gmax light into that scene>from another scene created with the 2002sdk, everything in the>scenery, when exported, is on about a 45 degree angle sticking>out of the ground. This is very weird. Have you heard of this>before? It's not really a big deal because I can export in the>old 2002 sdk way but that limits the effects I can have such>as the strobe etc.Adam, I'm just guessing, but have you tried creating a "dummy node" at 0,0,0 (using the Helpers Tool), and then making that the parent part (using the Link tool) for all the elements of your scene? On an a/c, that will make only ONE "reference point" for orientation purposes.origin <=dummy node at 0,0,0...building_a...building_b...lights...etc.

>I have a strange problem...When I>make a scenery in xml and merge a Gmax light into that scene>from another scene created with the 2002sdk, everything in the>scenery, when exported, is on about a 45 degree angle sticking>out of the ground. This is very weird. Have you heard of this>before? It's not really a big deal because I can export in the>old 2002 sdk way but that limits the effects I can have such>as the strobe etc.I have experienced the same problem with the newest Gmax SDK :(When I try to use Light_land the scenery rotates.Whithout the light everything looks allright.I think it is an error in BGLC.

I think the new gamepack no longer supports that type of lights correct (although it is still written in the SDK). I also noticed that when I compiled a scenery that used them every displayed rotated etc.Maybe we are supposed to use effect files for the lights now? Maybe once I understand the new structure of the code better, I can make the light work again, but at the moment I have no idea yet :).

Thanks guys. Yeah, it's a mystery to me but as I said no biggie. Arno, do you remember some time back I had those blurry problems? Well, I was having them again doing more buildings for CYWG. I decided to try making each building as a separate scene and bgl and the problem totally disappeared. It's not a complete cure of course as the terminal is one bgl but it worked for the smaller hangers. I did get rid of the blurries for the terminal by using non-mipped DXTBMP DXT1 textures. A bit of a compromise as I get some texture 'swirling' on the jetways but nevertheless a major improvement.ttyl, Adam

BTW, Bill, I'll check out your recommendation... Thanks!Adam