Invisible taxi light

[camaflight 3]

Hello all,

I'm not sure how general this sub-forum is meant to be, but I give my following request for assistance a try:

With some addon aircrafts the taxi-light will not be visible when in cockpit view. In spot view, however, the taxi light, and the light beam of course, is visible.

This will cause a problem of not being able to see the taxi way properly when taxiing at night and sometimes at dusk (the latter depending on airport).

Is this a porblem related to the model, air file or aircraft.cfg ??

Is there a remedy to fix it ?

Carl

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Hello all,

I'm not sure how general this sub-forum is meant to be, but I give my following request for assistance a try:

With some addon aircrafts the taxi-light will not be visible when in cockpit view. In spot view, however, the taxi light, and the light beam of course, is visible.

This will cause a problem of not being able to see the taxi way properly when taxiing at night and sometimes at dusk (the latter depending on airport).

Is this a porblem related to the model, air file or aircraft.cfg ??

Is there a remedy to fix it ?

Carl

the effects file most likely. What aircraft are we talking about?

[camaflight 3]

Oh quite a number I'm afraid of.

For starters;

- a380_800_2005a by Robert Versluys

robert.versluys@AirCanadian.com

- Project GlobeTwotter DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter

- FiftyNorth Boeing 737-300/400/500 Family Aircraft

( PAYWARE with no support )

Carl

[holi 13]

With some addon aircrafts you need to go into VC even if the have none and you will see the taxilights,

just try it and may you are lucky.

I´ve got also a few aircrafts with no Taxi lights in normal Cockpit view, if I then change to VC the tayi lights are their.

Regards

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

With some addon aircrafts you need to go into VC even if the have none and you will see the taxilights,

just try it and may you are lucky.

I´ve got also a few aircrafts with no Taxi lights in normal Cockpit view, if I then change to VC the tayi lights are their.

Regards

Yes all effects have settings for that:

[Properties]

Cockpit=1

VirtualCockpit=1

Spot=1

Tower=1

Map=1

1 means visible

0 means invisible

[camaflight 3]

Hi again,

I stugle and I strugle with this issue and I have so for months now.

I refuse to give up on it and it's encouraging to get assistance !

Unfortunately the VC suggestion heven't worked.

As regards the section;

[Properties]

Cockpit=1

VirtualCockpit=1

Spot=1

Tower=1

Map=1

Where does that belong ? Into the effect.cfg ? I have such a cfg located in the effect folder, but it only contain one section as follows:

[sprite Limit]

Medium=500

High=9999999999

Low=100

I have also tried to change the panel.cfg by using another taxi light gauge that comes from another aircraft where the taxi light beam is visible from cockpit view. Neither did that help.

Carl

[Shaun Fletcher 570]

Hello Carl,

The section Mathijs refers to is in the actual effects file, open a light effect in notepad and you'll see the properties at the top.

I have the FiftyNorth Boeing 737-300/400/500 and they seem to show the taxilight okay. Just loaded the default Cessna then just switched on the taxilight and can see them in the 2D panel view.

[camaflight 3]

Thanks Shaun,

I'm a bit ebarrassed having missed on this knowledge. I now feel a little like searching for an ostrich just near me but can't see it because it has hidden it's head in the sand...........

As for the 50N-Boeings - I try to fix the 735. The taxi lights are fairly good with the plain model, but I want to use the VC-model and with that it is very poor taxi lights. You can barely see them (if they really are the taxi lights) at both sides of the cockpit, but no beam at all in front of the aircraft, making it impossible to taxi after dark. So, taking into account that the two models have all in common except the models themselves, it occured to me that this maybe has something to do with the model.

However, I will test the effect-light-files one by one by adding the section as you mentioned. As I can see I have to do this as I really don't know which effect-file is in use for each aeroplane I would like to provide with visible taxi lights when in cockpit view.

Carl - the confused ostrich.

An additional comment from the ostrich;

OK, I have now consentrated at the 50N-Boeing. It is taxi light that I can discern at the sides - comming from light poles at the wings, but there are a third taxi light at the front wheel which in spot or tower view sends a beam in whichever direction you turn the front wheel.

This third front-wheel-taxi-light does not give any visible beam when in cockpit view.

I will try to add a taxi light using a proper effect file (perhaps self-made) in the aircraft.cfg using type 6 - for taxi light. I do not have very much believe in this experiment though, because as far as I understand the beam (or cone...) has to be defined regarding direction, "sector angle"(?) and distance. Mayby I can manage to make a fixed light beam forwards, but I doubt that too. So far it seems to me that the remedy is to adjust or edit the model file as there must be some missing parameters in the model that define the effect or visibility of this third taxi light.

I don't know why there should be taxi lights positioned at the wings when the pilots can't benefit from them.

By the way, I have a lot of aircrafts where taxi light is no problem. All default planes are good and I also have other addon planes (free and pay) that have visible taxi lights. But as said I also have those without proper taxi lights. It's a shame though that the payware 50N has this problem. I contacted 50N who came up with a kind of wanna-get-off-the hook-answer and have now as I understand stopped all customer support.

[Shaun Fletcher 570]

Hello Carl,

I'll post a screenshot of what I see later.

[camaflight 3]

Oh, that would be nice - I kind of feel a little lonesome with this taxi-problem :wink:

[Shaun Fletcher 570]

Hello Carl,

Sorry about getting back to you a little late, not been feeling my usual good self just lately.

Heres a few pictures of the 50N Taxilight from inside the 2d cockpit and external view. As you can see the taxilight shows in the 2d panel view.

I have recently re-installed my FS9 so I think somewhere along the way something may have changed in your system by some add-on possibly.

[Snave 466]

No-one has asked for system specs. Without those, Carls problem is not even academic, just fiction. The rendering of light sources is as much a function of GPU as game app or fx.

[camaflight 3]

Heres a few pictures of the 50N Taxilight from inside the 2d cockpit and external view. As you can see the taxilight shows in the 2d panel view. I have recently re-installed my FS9 so I think somewhere along the way something may have changed in your system by some add-on possibly.]

Thanks Shaun, thats how the spot view looks on my monitor too. As for the cockpit view it is similar to what I experience - that is for the plain model though. Is your cockpit view screen-shot with the VC (Wingviews) model or the plain model? As mentioned earlier, the problem with taxi light in cockpit view with the 50N aircrafts occurs with the Wingviews model (VC-model).

With my other aircrafts, some do have good visible taxi lights in cockpit view and some don't. 50N is the only payware aircraft that doesn't have it though.

No-one has asked for system specs. Without those, Carls problem is not even academic, just fiction. The rendering of light sources is as much a function of GPU as game app or fx.

I haven't added my system specs as I think this is not relevant for this isue. However, in case you're right Snave, the specs are as follows:

Intel ~3612 Mhz

Memory 2 GB

XP Professional SP 2

NVIDIA GF 7800 GT (Driver 163.71)

Some graphical settings in FS:

[GRAPHICS]

FULL_SCREEN=1

PERFORMANCE_MODE=0

DEF_PERF_MODE=7

TEXT_SCROLL=1

AUTO_LOD=0

DETAIL_TEXTURE=1

WATER_EFFECTS=2

TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_MAP=1

TERRAIN_USE_VECTOR_OBJECTS=1

EFFECTS_QUALITY=2

GROUND_SHADOWS=1

SMOOTH_VIEW=1

IMAGE_SMOOTHING=1

TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD=1024

COCKPIT_HIGH_LOD=1

AIRCRAFT_SHADOWS=1

LANDING_LIGHTS=1

IMAGE_QUALITY=0

TEXTURE_BLDG=1

TEXTURE_GND=1

TEXTURE_WATER=1

AIRCRAFT_TEXTURE=1

SEE_SELF=1

TEXTURE_QUALITY=3

LOD_TARGET_FPS=21

NUM_LIGHTS=8

[DISPLAY.Device.NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT.0]

Mode=1280x1024x32

MipBias=5

TriLinear=1

AntiAlias=1 (Can't be set to be controlled by NVIDIA settings with current driver)

[DISPLAY]

UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=30

TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=400

DisableSoftwareWarning=1

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=1.0

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=1.3

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=1.25

RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.4

[sCENERY]

IMAGE_COMPLEXITY=4

DYNAMIC_SCENERY=1

DYN_SCN_DENSITY=5

DAWN_DUSK_SMOOTHING=1

SUNGLARE=1

LENSFLARE=1

[Shaun Fletcher 570]

Hello Carl,

That was a basic plane no VC etc.

Let me look. NNo I dont have them.

I just searched Google and found an interesting post.

It'll probably save you smashing your head to bits trying to fix it.

Take a look here.

Seems unless it was done in the model phase then it cannot be altered afterwards.

[Snave 466]

163.71 known to be buggy. Try the 169.09's or the WHQL 163.75's.

[camaflight 3]

Hello Carl,

That was a basic plane no VC etc.

Let me look. NNo I dont have them.

I just searched Google and found an interesting post.

It'll probably save you smshing your head to bits trying to fix it.

Take a look here.

Seems unless it was done in the model phase then it cannot be altered afterwards.

With reference to the link you gave I can read following;

The FSDeveloper website has moved to a new server. If you are seeing this page, your DNS has not yet updated. Once it has updated you should get the new site. Do not edit this Wiki any longer, as all changes will be lost and not transfered to the new server!

I will just have to wait a little to read through what you found on this subject. As mentioned earlier, however, I expected / suspected, the problem to lay within the model itself. Will be interesting to read what you found on the FSDeveloper forum though.

163.71 known to be buggy. Try the 169.09's or the WHQL 163.75's.

The diriver is working fine here, thank you. The problem with the taxi lights has been there all the time regardless which driver installed.

Thank you, however, for paying attention to this issue.

[camaflight 3]

I will just have to wait a little to read through what you found on this subject. As mentioned earlier, however, I expected / suspected, the problem to lay within the model itself. Will be interesting to read what you found on the FSDeveloper forum though.

The link worked now and the lights are programmed within the mdl !

So, thank you Shaun for finding that post, you really saved me from smashing my head to bits as I was starting to beleive that the problem could be solved otherwise.......

To tweak or edit the mdl is beyond my knowledge, so I will keep the landing lights switched on while taxiing - be it right or wrong, it seems to be the only way with those planes.

Carl