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Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:19 pm
by JimBrown
Can anything be done about the lights on AI aircraft? In particular, the landing lights?
This screen capture is cropped from a 3840x1024 pic. (I have the TH2Go.)

Any advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
...jim
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:32 pm
by NickN
I have heard about this problem with the THg
My old lightfix for FS9 made them much more resonable in scale but its not made for FSX and I never finished the FSX version although I do have the texture files here for FSX with some FX files rewritten for scale..
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 9:59 am
by JimBrown
I was poking around in the aircraft.cfg file. Found the Lights section. That lead me to the effects folder and the various .FX files. Which lead me to the BMP files they use.
Apparently I don't have the right graphics editor to open those files though.
And, I have no idea what settings would need adjusting in the .FX file either.
I do have the SDK installed (because I want to run ASA, which I just purchased, on a laptop.)
If it's not too complicated, can you give me a bit of direction on where to start playing with this?
Or, if you want, I'd be happy to test out your unfinished FSX lightfix. I work with computers and know how to move files around and modify cfg files. (Not to brag, but my web site in my sig was written from scratch by myself, using PHP, MySQL and Apache installed on my old XP machine, then uploaded to the web host. I also write small .net console apps to collect stats data on a large Exchange environment at work.)
Thanks,
...jim
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:07 am
by jwenham
Can anything be done about the lights on AI aircraft? In particular, the landing lights?
This screen capture is cropped from a 3840x1024 pic. (I have the TH2Go.)

Any advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks,
...jim
Hey Jim, you could try ShockwaveLights. I have them and do not see that issue, but I dont have THG. They only cost 16.00 so it is not a big investment. The only thing I dont like about them is that if you want the lights installed on any aircraft other that the default you will need to add them manually. So if you are using a 3rd party ai program they will need to be added manually. They also added the ability to adjust the golf ball size runway lights as well as adjustment to the intensity of them. With the adjustment I can a BLOOM like effect on the runway lights without using Bloom.
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:23 am
by JimBrown
Thanks for the suggestion. I may take a look at those later, as I don't relish the thought of manually editing 93 AI aircraft to add them. :o
If I can at least fix what I'm seeing by editing only the effects files, that would be my preferred first step.
Regards,
...jim
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:42 am
by Anxyous
3840x1024!?!?!?!?!?
Unholy unholiness...
You could try downloading this:
http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/syb2. ... mentv1.zipIt's a new halo effect for lights in FSX.
And how are you liking the SF.260? My favourite add-on ever

Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:01 pm
by NickN
[quote]Thanks for the suggestion. I may take a look at those later, as I don't relish the thought of manually editing 93 AI aircraft to add them.
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:12 pm
by JimBrown
3840x1024!?!?!?!?!?
Unholy unholiness...
TripleHead2Go. Love it.
Thanks, I'll take a look at that later. I seem to recall using a modified halo file in FS9.
And how are you liking the SF.260? My favourite add-on ever

Love it. It's the only payware aircraft I've ever purchased. I love it for sight seeing. Had it in FS9, and upgraded it for FSX.
...jim
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:16 pm
by JimBrown
However Jim the main problem is the sim itself and the scale of the images for lights in Halo.bmp, not the FX file
SP2 made landing lights rediculously large and how I control them is through a redesigned halo.bmp file located in the main FSX\Texture folder
You can download Nicks Lightfix V2 for FS9.. extract the file Halo.bmp, back up the original in FSX from the patch listed below and place the one from my FS9 package into
Filght Simualtor X\Texture
that should provide some relief
Nicks Lightfix V2.. Halo.bmp is located in:
Nicks_Lightfix_V2\Install New Lights\Airport Lights
its a ZIP.exe file for automatic install... you can just select a new location for it to unzip to and then move the extracted Halo.bmp to the main FSX texture folder... but DO remember to backup your original first
Thank you Nick. I'll give the above a go and report back.
...jim
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:42 pm
by NickN
However Jim the main problem is the sim itself and the scale of the images for lights in Halo.bmp, not the FX file
SP2 made landing lights rediculously large and how I control them is through a redesigned halo.bmp file located in the main FSX\Texture folder
You can download Nicks Lightfix V2 for FS9.. extract the file Halo.bmp, back up the original in FSX from the patch listed below and place the one from my FS9 package into
Filght Simualtor X\Texture
that should provide some relief
Nicks Lightfix V2.. Halo.bmp is located in:
Nicks_Lightfix_V2\Install New Lights\Airport Lights
its a ZIP.exe file for automatic install... you can just select a new location for it to unzip to and then move the extracted Halo.bmp to the main FSX texture folder... but DO remember to backup your original first
Thank you Nick. I'll give the above a go and report back.
...jim
That is not the halo.bmp I use for FSX but it will work
The file I use now has a simulated haze desinged into the artwork to give volume to the illumination with a hotspot
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:20 pm
by JimBrown
It's a bit better, but still needs some improvement. I'd like to try editing the file. Can you let me know what editor I can use?

Or, if you're willing to share, I wouldn't mind trying your FSX halo. ;)
Regards,
...jim
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:26 pm
by Anxyous
[quote]
Or, if you're willing to share, I wouldn't mind trying your FSX halo.
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:38 pm
by JimBrown
Gave it a shot...

I'll admit, it's different.
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:40 pm
by NickN
the problem is the scale of the images in halo.bmp
for your resolution Jim they need to be cut down to about 1/3 the size if not more and the alpha tweaked
MY FSX halo file is much smaller but would probably still be too large
Re: Ugly AI Aircraft lights.

Posted:
Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:47 pm
by NickN
Jim give me about 15 minutes and I will send a file to you.. I assume the email addy for the forum will get to you