Logo Light coordinates woes

[stephan]

Thought I'd stop into the forum and open another bag of problems.
I use the stock FS 9 747-400 quite a bit.Made a flat black repaint and included the flag of Blackbeard on the tail.
I had downloaded a DC-10 sometime past,and dont remember which it was,but it had a working logo light gauge.
I think the file was something like DC10Logo.gau or something simple and similar to that.
I have no problem moving or adding nav,strobe or beacon lights to different ac,but the logo lights seem to have a different format of coordinates.I would also think,from what I have seen while adding the logo light to the stock 747, that there is a spread or divergence of the light to be figured in,in order to guestimate where to make the point of origin coordinates for the light. I dont really know.Just guessing there.
SO...QUESTION...does anyone know how to figure the coordinates for the logo light so I can get it to illuminate my tail logo to the fullest brightness and get it centered correctly?
Any help would be appreciated,and thanks in advance.
/ / Stephan ''Altitude With Attitude! ''

[Apex]

OK, try this.

> Go to this page:
http://simviation.com/1/search?submit=1 ... &x=10&y=11
> Download one of the F5's. I think either will do, I got the Blue Tiger.
> Open the effects folder inside the F5 zip file. Look for this effect:
fx_f5_llight.fx
> Put it in your FS9 effects folder (Flight Simulator 9>effects)
> Add this to your aircraft.cfg file under the [Lights] section. You may have to change the light numbers to run in sequence. Back up the aircraft.cfg file first, just make a copy of it:

//nose
light.8= 2, 20.0, 3.0, 3.0, fx_f5_llight
light.9= 2, 20.0, -3.0, 3.0, fx_f5_llight
//bottom
light.10= 5, 0.0, 0.0, -5.0, fx_f5_llight
light.11= 5, 0.0, 0.0, -5.0, fx_f5_llight
//bottom & nose
light.12= 5, 12, -5, -5.3, fx_f5_llight
light.13= 5, 12, 5, -5.3, fx_f5_llight
//wings & mid fuse
light.14= 5, 0.0, -10.0, 5.0, fx_f5_llight
light.15= 5, 0.0, 10.0, 5.0, fx_f5_llight
//top stabs & rear fuse
light.16= 5, -10, 4.0, 5.0, fx_f5_llight
light.17= 5, -10, -4.0, 5.0, fx_f5_llight

This will light up various parts of any aircraft, including the tail. You may not have to adjust the coordinates, I have found that it doesn't do much to do that. You have to have the lights on, of course, for this to work.

If you don't want certain parts of the aircraft lit, just put "//" in front of that line. I do not know how I came up with the coordinates, it's been a few years.

Curious to know if this works for you.

[stephan]

Thanks Apex ! Always willing to try something new to me.IF it isnt what I am looking for,for my 747,I'm sure I'll use it for something else,with all the ac I have.Appreciate the time you spent posting this to me.I will be sure to get back to you on the results. (y)

[Apex]

You're quite welcome, Stephan, always looking to help out fellow Simmers here. What's cool about this is that when flying at night, you can light up your plane and see it on the chase view.

[stephan]

Afternoon Apex.Thanks again for going thru the time and trouble to help solve my logo light problem.I realized,after reading your first entry here,that I mis-spoke,as it were...and called the logo light a gauge rather than an effect.It is in fact an effect.Thanks for that . Now..in regards to your proposed solution,...no dice , ...and really,it doesnt come as a surprise.When I tried the effect you mentioned,and used the DC10Logo effect coordinates,the new light effect performed identically to the DC10logo light,...location,..luminosity and such.So...I got t' thinkin'...'I have seen many gauges and effects that do the same thing,but are named different..and maybe this was the case with our logo light situation.'. Now...I am starting to think...'Maybe it has to do with MY repaint...MAYBE it has something to do with the Alpha layer.''. So I use a bitmap editing program for editing FS ac,and there on the alpha layer,which was predominately white,was a hazy black spot.I photoshopped it out,..reloaded my new alpha to the bitmap ,..saved it and loaded it into the FS9 and bingo...the logo light shines much brighter.Now,since I wanted the entire height of the tail of the FS9 747-400 to be illuminated,I had to double up the logo effects,locating the logolights higher up the tail.Really pleased with the results.Would have rather been able to use one light per side of the tail but ya gotta do wut ya gotta do.The F5 download...the blue tiger...,,I download that one,and it takes some getting used to after flying PMDG and the larger freeware ac,but it's fun and a keeper.Thanks for that as well. Thumbs up ! Stephan/ ''Altitude With Attitude.''

[stephan]

Afternoon Apex.Thanks again for going thru the time and trouble to help solve my logo light problem.I realized,after reading your first entry here,that I mis-spoke,as it were...and called the logo light a gauge rather than an effect.It is in fact an effect.Thanks for that . Now..in regards to your proposed solution,...no dice , ...and really,it doesnt come as a surprise.When I tried the effect you mentioned,and used the DC10Logo effect coordinates,the new light effect performed identically to the DC10logo light,...location,..luminosity and such.So...I got t' thinkin'...'I have seen many gauges and effects that do the same thing,but are named different..and maybe this was the case with our logo light situation.'. Now...I am starting to think...'Maybe it has to do with MY repaint...MAYBE it has something to do with the Alpha layer.''. So I use a bitmap editing program for editing FS ac,and there on the alpha layer,which was predominately white,was a hazy black spot.I photoshopped it out,..reloaded my new alpha to the bitmap ,..saved it and loaded it into the FS9 and bingo...the logo light shines much brighter.Now,since I wanted the entire height of the tail of the FS9 747-400 to be illuminated,I had to double up the logo effects,locating the logolights higher up the tail.Really pleased with the results.Would have rather been able to use one light per side of the tail but ya gotta do wut ya gotta do.The F5 download...the blue tiger...,,I download that one,and it takes some getting used to after flying PMDG and the larger freeware ac,but it's fun and a keeper.Thanks for that as well. Thumbs up ! Stephan/ ''Altitude With Attitude.''

...btw,... Sometimes people miss the obvious when it stares them right in the face.I experienced that in this thread,Hahaha. NEVER did it ever cross my mind to use the logo type light effect to make WING lights.I read it in your instructions and now,I have good looking wing lights.So your tips n tricks helped all together VERY well for me. Bravo ! And MUCH appreciated for everything.

[Apex]

OK, way to go! It's a big thrill when you finally get something to work the way ya want it to. I did find, in the past when I use to do this stuff, sometimes things never work, sometimes you have to try it more than once to be sure you're doing it right, and sometimes things don't work with one aircraft but might with another.

But all this give and take with extra sim stuff is cool, and we learn a lot from it.

Glad again to have been of help.