Shockwave Lights

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MIKE JG
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Shockwave Lights

Post by MIKE JG »

I have to say that for $15 American, this is one of the better purchases I have made. The package comes with new light effects for aircraft and airport lighting. So far I'm really liking the looks of these lights.

As for putting them on AI aircraft, they can be used just like any other effect would. The nav and strobe lights can be swapped out just by changing the effects name in the .cfg file.

As another one of our users has already pointed out in this thread, http://www.militaryaiworks.com/forum/vi ... =shockwave
the Shockwave langing lights can't be used for AI aircraft in the air. However the landing lights effects can be substituted for the taxi light effects that the AI aircraft use on the ground. The pictures are a bit hard to see because they are taken at night but here are the results on two payware military aircraft models.

AlphaSim's C-5 Galaxy
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CaptainSim's E-3 (707 package)
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MIKE JG
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Post by MIKE JG »

Alright I've started messing with these lights on our AI models and I like the results. I will start posting the necessary Aircraft.cfg mods when I get a chance.

Here are the first three I've modded.

The RWAI A-10:

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The NBAI F-15E:

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The NBAI B-1B:

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Post by djnocturnal »

sweet, i too have the shockwave lights but never figured out how to use the landing lights properly, for some reason mine stay on the whole flight.
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Post by BadPvtDan »

When you post them you should make a sticky.
"The first rule of Zombieland: Cardio. When the zombie outbreak first hit, the first to go, for obvious reasons... were the fatties."
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MIKE JG
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Post by MIKE JG »

I will.

DJ, (it's Mark right?), short memory sorry, they can be used either way. However, if you make them a "landing" light type in the cfg file, then they will indeed stay on the entire flight. If you make them a "taxi" type light, then they will extinguish when the AI takes the runway for departure. So even though the effects themselves are meant to be used as landing lights, you can still use them in any capacity you want. You could put them on the wingtips if you so desired.

Since the AI use a different system to turn their laning lights on and off, we can't make them use the Shockwave lights for that. In fact the AI landing lights are not effects at all. Instead they are triangular shaped polygons that are colored to look like landing lights. This is done inside the design program like FSDS.
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Post by djnocturnal »

Mark is the name 8)
Ok, that makes sense. I guess the tuff part is finding the coordinates.
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MIKE JG
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Post by MIKE JG »

Mark this should get you started for the A-10 model:

//Shockwave taxi light
light.xx = 6, -18.40, 1.30,-2.45, fx_shockwave_landing_light

Just add that section to your lights section in the .cfg file changing the xx to the next appropriate number. You can play with all their different versions of the landing light effect to see if any of the other ones look better to you.

The easiest way to get started from scratch is to go into the cfg file and find the contact points section. One of the points is usually for the nose wheel contact point. It normally will be the one with a "0.00" point for the second value which is the displacement left or right from the fuse.

The first value is the displacement fore and aft from the model's centerpoint. The final value is the up and down displacement from the centerpoint.

So by using the nosewheel's point initially, that will get your light effect "in the ballpark". From there you just make small adjustments to those coordinates until you get the effect moved to where you want it at.

The nice thing is that you can make the changes to the cfg file in game and not have to reboot to see the results. you DO have to switch to a new aircraft type and then switch back to the one you are working on to see the changes. So it works really well to work on two models at the same time so that you can switch back and forth between them making the small tweaks to the coordinates.

I've also swapped most of the nav lights in my AI aircraft out for the Iris ones that came with their F-15s. They look very good IMO, even on the AI models. In those pictures the A-10 and F-15 both have the Iris nav lights on their wingtips. So if you have an Iris payware product you can use them as well.
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Post by djnocturnal »

Thanks for the great info Mike! i've been using the shockwave lights for all my flyable aircraft and my ai aircraft with the exception of the landing lights for my ai (couldn't figure it out) i did find a site that should add them to most of the commercial ai.
http://www.alpha-india.net/content/view/35/42/
go to enhance your ai then select lighting & exhaust.
I did find that the cdai kc-10 info didn't work for me but it should with some tweaking.
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MIKE JG
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Post by MIKE JG »

Thanks Mark, I was just on their site looking for that info.
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Post by djnocturnal »

8)
Image
i've started messing with the NBAI F-22, just need some minor adjustments. It takes a minute to figure out which set of numbers moves it what direction, but not too hard.
The C-17 looks like it might be kind of tough tho. the good thing is that it has lights that aren't just on the landing gear.
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Post by MIKE JG »

Mark I'm going to start a stickied thread in the Misc forum where we can post the additional line needed in the lights section to add the effect.


For each one I do, I will post a small screenshot of it so people can decide if they want to use it before they add it into their model.

Give me a day or so to get that going and then we can start adding them as we get through the models.
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Post by KevinJarvis »

I use Shockwave lights on all the aircraft I fly on FSE. It really adds a touch of realism.

And if you check the Shockwave forums you will find threads with cfg edits for a lot of aircraft. Plus you can pick up tips on how to add and adjust.
Kevin Jarvis

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Post by Greg »

Definately one of the best addons I've bought lately! It adds so much to realism.

Thanks for the settings in the misc forum Mike. Much appreciated buddy.

Greg
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