P3D Ground Light Splashes

[John Young]

Could anyone advise on how to make ground light splashes work in P3Dv5 please?

In FSX I use pairs of effect files for the splashes with dawn/dusk and day/night entries in the effect parameters in ADE. They also work fine in P3Dv4.5, but the effect height needs to be raised by 0.01ft in order to prevent flickering with the ground.

In P3Dv5.2 the splashes appear too, but they are orientated vertically like this:



If I try and rotate the vertical placement by 90 degrees (bank angle) in ADE or by rotating the angle in the effect file itself, ADE generates an error and will not process the splashes.

I have used ADE Ground Polygons (GP's) successfully before for light splashes in P3D, but try as I might, I can't get them to display in 5.2. I have the "illumination" parameter ticked in the compile options.

Does anyone have a working method for light splashes for P3Dv5.2 please?

John

[TimC340]

I just use dynamic lighting. It takes a bit of fiddling to get the effect you want, though there are a fair few variations already in the effects files (many more if you have Orbx!). Trying one or two then importing them to MCX to play with the parameters to see what they do is probably the best way of doing it.

[John Young]

Thanks Tim, I'll keep trying.

[hschuit]

I agree with Tim, dynamic spotlights are the way to go for P3Dv4/5. I learned how they work from an FSDeveloper tutorial by Arno. I used them in some scenery conversions I did for Greg's Matrix. Attached are the files:

MAIW_Spotlights_P3Dv4.BGL
fx_spotlight_apron_orange.fx
fx_spotlight_apron_white.fx

The library includes 6 spotlight objects which can be placed in the scenery with ADE.

[John Young]

Thanks Henk.

I placed the "fx_spotlight_apron_white.fx" directly in ADE P3Dv5, duplicated it and then filled in the parameters for DAY=0;NIGHT=1 in the first appearance and DAWN=1;DUSK=1 in the second. However, the splashes didn't show.

Looking at the .bgl you sent, it looks like you have attached the effect to a triangular polygon before placing in ADE. I could probably do that with Gmax and make a light splash model, but I can only compile for FSX. If I need a polygon to attach the effect to, what method did you use to do that? Would it be useful to send me the tutorial, or a link to it please?

John

PS: thought about it a bit more when out with the dog. On returning, I exported the models from the .bgl file and placed those in ADE and they illuminated fine. In fact with dynamic lighting, the effect is much greater than the 2-D light splashes in FSX, because everything gets illuminated, including the AI aircraft.

I have a bit of interference, but that might be down to a specific building object. I'll do a few more tests elsewhere to see if I can narrow it down.

Thanks for the files. Am I able to use them as supplied and extracted without breaching a license condition please? If they are yours Henk, I can of course acknowledge that in the manual.

[TimC340]

I'm pretty sure you don't need those parameters for these lights, John. IIRC, the fx file includes the instructions to the graphic engine as to when to turn the lights on. That may be over-simplifying it, however!

Arno's original instructions are here. I'm not sure if he's published anything since then (that was 5 years ago!). This thread includes some useful advice too.

Edit: this is the associated forum discussion about Arno's tutorial: https://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/threa ... ng.441768/

Further edit: This page from the SDK documentation may be helpful. Arno's latest stable version of MCX (1.5) includes a new manual, which may also be helpful.

[John Young]

All good, apart from a little flicker over a couple of buildings as I move, but I should be able to track that down:



John

[TimC340]

Aha! Looking good!

Another helpful resource may be the inibuilds dynamic lighting library. Their ULA prohibits distributing their effects in other scenery, but trying the fx out and learning what the variables do could be useful. I have to say I haven't tried it myself yet, as I only just found it while trying to find the Arno tutorial, but maybe worth a look.

Edit: One of the things I'm intending to try is dynamic lighting inside buildings, which should give a much more convincing effect than 'yellow windows' or LM textures.

[hschuit]

John, I created those objects and fx files from scratch and shared them with MAIW (Greg) to use in the MAtrix or anywhre else so do with it what you need.

Henk.

[John Young]

Spoke too soon.

The bit of interference I noticed in the above screen shot (Al Magro, Spain), was far more pronounced when I tried the splashes in my other Tiger scenery (Frizlar, Germany). I get a much larger saw-tooth rendering on the hangar walls that moves as I move:



I thought it might be due to the MAIW library objects used at Al Magro, but the hangars at Fritzlar are the ones I made and converted for P3D.

I need to go through the forum discussions I think, to see if this is a common problem.

John

[TimC340]

I haven’t seen that phenomenon, but I was looking at KSKF last night (in connection with the Randolph thread) and noticed that the textures in Tony Dalton’s scenery reflect the dynamic light FX I’m using from miles away, and look almost like they’re emitting themselves. They aren’t, but it’s a bit bright round there! But the FX look great on the apron surface and the aircraft, so it’s a case of getting the balance right I guess. In this case I think I’m using a light I nicked from UK2000, but I’ve got a few I did myself so I’ll see how they do.