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landing/taxi lights

Discussion, tutorials,hints and tips relating to designing military ai aircraft.
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andras1021
Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Posts: 16
Joined: 18 Aug 2016, 06:15
Version: FS9

landing/taxi lights

Post by andras1021 »

Good evening,

I am working to get taxi lights and landing lights to work on one of my models. It seems that I have forgotten how this actually works and the FSDS handbook is inexistent on this point.

Also, I remember that these lights have always been a weak point in FS9 and X. It got better when the shockwave lights came out but I think they are still payware so I would not want to use an acft cfg with the shockwave entries. Is there something similar and freeware in the meantime?

The model should be usable from FS9 to P3D

What would in your opinion be the best solution?

Many thanks

Andras
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John Young
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Joined: 12 Jul 2008, 15:15

Re: landing/taxi lights

Post by John Young »

Andras, the process is different for FS9 and FSX/P3D.

In FS9, you can't attach effect files, but you can attach light materials. In FSX/P3D you can attach effects. Also, in FS9, there is a stock part called "c_gearlight", that will switch off the landing light when the gear retracts. In FSX/P3D there is no c_gearlight, but you can attach the light to a gear leg, or create a piece of animation to retract the light, eg into the wing root, unless you want it on permanently (below 10,000ft I believe).

This is what I do in Gmax, FSDS should work the same:

FS9:

Create a tiny cube and call it "c_gearlight" and hide it somewhere. Create a small triangular plane and call it "LIGHT_LAND". Clone the part and call it LIGHT_LAND_01. Place both parts where you want the lights. Link LIGHT_LAND_01 to LIGHT_LAND and link LIGHT_LAND to c_gearlight.

Taxi lights are similar. Create a tiny cube, called "light_case_taxi", or something similar (it's not a stock part) and hide it. Create two small triangular planes called LIGHT_TAXI and LIGHT_TAXI_01 and place them where you want the lights. Link them in series back to light_case_taxi.

Put all the light parts in a separate LOD called [LIGHTS].

This technique also works for helicopters with an animated lift, so long as "light_case_taxi" is linked to the lift part.

FSX/P3D:

This is much simpler. Just attach "fx_landing_light" and "fx_taxi_light" to the light parts in the model. Taxi lights will turn off at the hold line. For the landing lights, you could attach them to the gear leg, so they retract with the gear. If necessary you can create a very small cube with a gear part name and animate it so that it retracts when the gear retracts.

Put the light parts into the first LOD of the model only.

This technique also works for helicopters with an animated lift.

Hope that helps,

John
andras1021
Second Lieutenant
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Posts: 16
Joined: 18 Aug 2016, 06:15
Version: FS9

Re: landing/taxi lights

Post by andras1021 »

Thanks John.

Is it correct that the taxi lights do not generate the light cone on the ground in FS9?

Andras
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John Young
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Re: landing/taxi lights

Post by John Young »

Andras, the method described above creates light cones in both FS9 and FSX/P3D.

John
andras1021
Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Posts: 16
Joined: 18 Aug 2016, 06:15
Version: FS9

Re: landing/taxi lights

Post by andras1021 »

In my case, it works only with the landing lights.

Also in order to have the landing lights work, I had to assign a material to the landing light polygons called light-Landing which was either there or must have programmed years ago. The denomination light_landing alone did not work. Maybe it´s the same with the taxi lights. There is, however, no taxi light material in my FSDS.

Andras
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John Young
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Re: landing/taxi lights

Post by John Young »

Sorry Andreas, should have mentioned that. You are quite right. You need to copy the landing light material and re-name it LIGHT_TAXI.

John
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