How do I use lights for my GMAX Objects?

[Manny 1,293]

This is what I did. I built a Street light using the primitives. Cylinder, Cone and box. Grouped them together to look like a decent street light.I then added another object to it. A Light of type OMNI and placed it like I would a bulb. (I took all the GMAX default values). I then exported it to MDL and then placed it the object in my scenery. The street light looks good during day time but there is no light...even when I changed to the time to Night/Summer. Nothing.. Nada.. All I see is the street light like its bulb is not working.What am I doing wrong? Is the GMAX OMNI Light the way to do lights for FSX or is there another way that is specific to FSX?Manny

[Manny 1,293]

All right. I realized I cannot use light effects from GMax. That I needed to use effects files from FSX Folder.I then searched FSDeveloper.com site and found many threads on this subject.I read through this. I also added another box over the attachpoint box with Opacity of 0. I did that because of th" Creating a bounding boxQuote "Once you have placed all of your lights and have attached your effects, you **must** create a transparent bounding box around the entire set of lights / boxes. To do this simply draw a box, and ensure that it encompasses all the boxes / lights, and then apply a standard texture. Once that is done, set the texture to "0" opacity, then convert the box to an Editable Mesh. "I then exported it with GUID and used it in my scenery. I still don't see a light.http://www.fsdeveloper.com/wiki/index.php?...tachtool_ScriptHere is that scriptstrAttachNumber = 0 for obj in $box* do ( obj.name = ("attachpt_obslight" + (strAttachNumber as string)) strBufferText = ("<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?> ") setUserPropBuffer obj strBufferText strAttachNumber += 1 )http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185020.jpgPS: I tried registering at FSDeveloper.com. But I have not received their e-mail to confirm my registration.

[Manny 1,293]

http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185021.jpgDuring day time, when I get real close to that light. The outer box where I had set properties as Opacity=0 is shown here in Black. Not sure why.Is that the problem? and if so..how do I avoid it?Manny

[toprob 105]

The script you've run is designed to cut out the manual work of attaching an effect to hundreds of lights on a GMAX-built apron. You don't really need to use it to just place one effect, you can do that with the normal Attachpoint Tool from the FS Tools menu in GMAX.For the same reason (you don't need to have a huge number of effects visible over a large area) you won't need the bounding box.Some people have trouble placing GMAX-attached effects in certain areas, because of an Effects Exclusion, so try it away from your scenery as well -- it may just show up. If it is excluded and you can't fix the exclusion, there are other ways to place effects which are not affected by exclusions.One way I've used is to copy the XML code for your lights placement, and replace all references to the light GUID with an Effect. This places the effect in the same location as the light, but without the limitations of GMAX attached effects.-RobinGodzone Virtual Flight, for 'Real New Zealand' sceneryhttp://www.windowlight.co.nz

[Manny 1,293]

Hi Robin.I came here to post that I got that single attach effect working for me. Yeah. it works like you said. And this time..I did not use the bounding box either. BTW.. I didn't find a single source where it says we could use the attach thingi in GMAX for this. There must be a secret coding book somewhere. :(ThanksBut I wonder why that script was not working. I need to try to figure that out. But at least I can now add lights. I also now need to figure out how to turn on and off the light/effect during night and day.Lots of works.. Lots of work!:)Thanks for your help.MannyTa Da! :)http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/185026.jpg