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Guest abent

How the "H" do ya get GMAX lights working???...

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Guest abent

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

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Guest jersey shore

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

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Guest abent

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

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Guest FR153

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

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Guest abent

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

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>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?


Fr. Bill    

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Guest abent

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

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>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.


Fr. Bill    

AOPA Member: 07141481 AARP Member: 3209010556


     Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator

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Guest knnygar

>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.

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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 :).


Arno

If the world should blow itself up, the last audible voice would be that of an expert saying it can't be done.

FSDeveloper.com | Former Microsoft FS MVP | Blog

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Guest abent

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

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Guest abent

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

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