When I had a look at all the default objects, it seemed strange that the beacons did not rotate.http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/133485.jpgAlso, the beacon light is a separate object:http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/133486.jpgIf you attempt to place the objects as such:while the objects while display, there will be no rotation at all, even at night.Here is the default object placement code; notice the difference:And this does result in a rotating beacon (rotation only at night, of course):http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/133489.gifI am not proud and am quite willing to do things the right way, but I wonder where the conditional time variable and the rotation are embedded in all this.Best regards.Luis

Luis, the only thing that comes to mind is the conditional variable is the Day, Night, Dusk, Dawn, code that you would input for the FX component but id love to know how they get the lightbeam to work as it seems like a Cone with a textured Alpha.

Hi Luis,I guess it is the XML Beacon command that does the rotation. The library objects are probably not intended to be used standalone. But this is an interesting find I must say.

The lightbeam is a textured cone with a semi-transparent alpha channel. I believe the texture for it is in the "..Flight Simulator 9Texture" directory with the word "cone" in the filename. IIRC, the bitmap's color is green, white, and gray.

I don't know if this is a clue or not, but the MakeMDL SDK makes reference to stock animations:Stock Animation Names (Aircraft and Scenery)Any part with a part name from the following table automatically uses the corresponding stock animation; you do not have to author a keyframe animation in the input file.Part name Stock animationBeacon2 Heading rotation is 17-second cycle at 3 hertz (Hz).Beacon3 Heading rotation is 12-second cycle at 3 Hz.Beacon4 Heading rotation 9.4-second cycle at 3 Hz.Beacon5 Heading rotation 7.7-second cycle at 3 Hz.Could that have anything to do with it?

I don't think that has anything to do with these XML beacons. The variables you mention are "just" timers that run between 0 and a certain value in a given amount of time. There functionality is already there since Fs98 (might even be Fs5) and it can be used to make animations. But I don't think they are the answer to the XML beacon problem.