Strobe lights

[garymbuska]

Where are the strobe lights on any aircraft controlled from?
I thought it was in the aircraft cfg file but have discovered that is not always the case.
I had downloaded a UPS B727 and was not happy with the panel it used but I noticed that the strobe lights looked very realistic but when I put in the new panel the strobe lights no longer worked at all and I did nothing to the aircraft cfg file.
I am not sure where in the panel cfg file I can find any mention of the strobe lights . I would like to keep the strobe lights but not the panel
The panel has no way of entering a altitude though the auto pilot does have a altitude hold switch that does work
Any ideas

[A Hobbit]

This might not apply, but when you added the new panel did you, by chance, change an entry in the aircraft cfg? I have, in the past, screwed myself by not adding this or removing that and not having made a safety folder where I could keep a copy of the particular file I was messing with. The Strobe lights are usually found in the aircraft cfg file in the aircraft main folder... One memorable occasion of a screw up was about 18 years ago in the game CFS2, I messed with shyte and lost the guns on my favorite Corsair. It took me about 2 weeks to find and fix the problem...lol

[garymbuska]

This might not apply, but when you added the new panel did you, by chance, change an entry in the aircraft cfg? I have, in the past, screwed myself by not adding this or removing that and not having made a safety folder where I could keep a copy of the particular file I was messing with. The Strobe lights are usually found in the aircraft cfg file in the aircraft main folder... One memorable occasion of a screw up was about 18 years ago in the game CFS2, I messed with shyte and lost the guns on my favorite Corsair. It took me about 2 weeks to find and fix the problem...lol

That is the problem I did not change a single line in the aircraft cfg file.
what I have discovered is that there are five folders in side the Panel cfg file that have XML statements in them

I have tried putting all of the folders in the new panel folder but so far nothing

This is the entry inside the aircraft cfg file
[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing, 6=taxi, 7=recognition, 8=wing, 9=logo
light.0 = 8, 5.59, -30.23, 2.39, tdsb8_wing_light
light.1 = 8, 5.59, 30.23, 2.39, tdsb8_wing_light
light.2 = 6, 60.0000, 0,-1.96, tdsnose_gearwell

million dollar question which entry is for the strobe lights
from what I see there is no entry for the strobe lights
so that has to mean that the strobes are controlled some place else where is the question of the year
I only changed one folder and that was the panel folder so what happened.

If the types of lights are accurate the only lights here are two wing lights and 1 taxi light
judging from the first two entries these lights are on opposite sides of the aircraft which means they could be the lights that shine down the wing or on the wingtip
the tdsb8_wing_light is inside the effects folder and do have an .fx extension so these could be what is controlling the strobes
This is driving me nuts I will eventually figure it out or go crazy in the effort

Now here is the kicker I checked the aircrft cfg file of some of my other aircraft that I know have working strobe lights and the crazy thing is I could not find one entry inside the file that actually had a line for the strobe lights
the line below is from a payware CRJ700/900 from Aerosoft

[lights]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
light.0 = 10, -22.00, 0.00, 4.00, fx_crj_vclight,

Now the strobes on this aircraft are very visible
So it is back to the original question where are the strobe lights controlled from?????????
Does anyone know

[Tiger1962]

Some aircraft models have some or all of their lights embedded into the .mdl file and are not editable.
Where strobes are specified in the [lights] section of the aircraft.cfg, the strobe itself is a .fx file in the main Effects folder and the .fx file controls the size, brightness and frequency of the flash etc. and the .fx file can be opened with Notepad and edited.

[EVVFCX]

Hi Gary,

With the sample you have given it makes sense, I've also looked at one of my favourites and again, the lights section makes sense.

With yours, the lights version is 10 : This means it's a cabin light and when you look at the file name it makes sense as it's a virtual cockpit effect.

If in the .mdl file you can't do anything unless you had the source files for the aircraft.
The numbers given in the aircraft.cfg file for what type of light you have is not complete, here is the complete list.
1 Beacon
2 Strobe
3 Navigation or Position
4 Cockpit
5 Landing
6 Taxi
7 Recognition
8 Wing
9 Logo
10 Cabin

regards

Steve

[A Hobbit]

check to see if the strobe light effect file is either in the main fsx effect folder or in the panel folder...it a real head scratcher as my grandpa would have said...

[garymbuska]

Thanks everyone I finally managed to get strobes back on my B727 now its just a matter of fine tuning them so they are at least close to where they belong.
I never thought about the Model file but was well aware of the fact that you cannot edit this file.
But once again the only folder I changed was the panel folder I did not touch any other folder
So I still do not know why they stopped working
I wound up adding two lines in the aircraft cfg file in the lights section.
As of now the lights are close but not exactly where they belong. I just might leave them alone as they are close enough