FIAT G18v lights...on...

[dc6tryer]

Hi,

...or not, as I cannot find the 'effects' folder in the download. Some of them are present; the VC lighting , red nav light, and the cabin lights. but only one of the landing lights works sometimes and the green nav light is missing. I've tried changing the name of the lights to those present in the Effects folder, but that doesn't work and now I've looked all over to try to figure out what to do and am stumped..as usual !


Much as I enjoy the airplanes ,I'm not a good enough pilot to fly about at night without lights

Andy.

[emfrat]

Hi Andy -
I hadn't actually noticed that, but on looking at the aircraft.cfg, it seems to be calling for the Shockwave lights, which I don't have.

However in the DOCS folder, there is a lights.txt file you can use to replace the shockwave entries in the cfg.

I haven't tried this yet, but it is obviously what it is there for ;D

UPDATE: I have just tested it. I had no port nav light at first, but I found a typo in the replacement text - navredsm should be navredsml
I can't criticise typos - I see I made one meself in the filename
Cheers and thanks
MikeW

[dc6tryer]

Hi,

Thanks for that,emfrat. I thought 'shockwave' were a pay item, so
I'd changed the text, but maybe I'd left the typos in...I will go and check now!

Andy.

ps. how do the authors of the G18 get the lights into your FS9 installation without having an 'effects' folder? Is it coded in the model or something?? or have I yet again failed to understand something ?!

A.

pps. In fact it looks like they are missing ''.fx'' at the end, so I'll try that now !

A.

ppps.I just tried the S73 and that has all it's lights except for the navigation lights....even though there is a switch for them in the cockpit, and neither do they have '.fx' at the end in the cfg, so I am defnitly confused !

A.

[emfrat]

Hi Andy -
Many designers just use the default effects that come with MSFS and they are already in the FS9\Effects folder. It is only when they have created some new effect that they need to provide an effects folder in their download.
In that case there will be:
a file called say cooleffect.fx , or fx_cooleffect.fx (this is best practice, because recent forms of Windows by default do not display the filetype - the letters after the dot - and starting the filename with fx_ makes it easy to find effects files on machines set up like that) which is placed in the FS9\Effects folder
and:
a line in the aircraft.cfg to call up that file when required.

When the sim reads the aircraft.cfg, it knows when certain filetypes are required, so for once you don't need to tell it. In the same way, when you want to specify a different texture or panel, you just say panel=myone or texture=tartan and the sim will know to look in the folders called panel.myone and texture.tartan.

;)Hope that makes things clearer

ATB
MikeW


Should have done this in the first place:
If you make the [lights] section of your aircraft.cfg look like this:

[lights]

//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing

light.0 = 3, 3.54, -36.45, -1.12, fx_navredsml
light.1 = 3, 3.54, 36.45, -1.12, fx_navgresml
light.2 = 3, -40.33, 0, 2.8, fx_navwhisml
light.3 = 4, 15.97, -1.19, 2.53, fx_vclight
light.4 = 5, 2.72, -26.67, -2.74, fx_landing
light.5 = 5, 2.72, 26.67, -2.74, fx_landing


//light.0 = 3, 3.54, -36.45, -1.12, fx_shockwave_navred
//light.1 = 3, 3.54, 36.45, -1.12, fx_shockwave_navgre
//light.2 = 3, -40.33, 0, 2.8, fx_shockwave_navwhi_l_old
//light.3 = 4, 15.97, -1.19, 2.53, fx_shockwave_vclight
//light.4 = 5, 2.72, -26.67, -2.74, fx_shockwave_landing_light_tail_old
//light.5 = 5, 2.72, 26.67, -2.74, fx_shockwave_landing_light_tail_old

it will be the same as mine, which has all the lights working.

MikeW

[dc6tryer]

Hi Mike,
your reply did make things clearer, so many thanks....but I still cannot get the nav or landing lights on on the G18 !
Of the others the S74 has it's landing lights , but no green nav light and the 506 has it's panel light and a candle [unlit] in the passenger section.

All the effects are in the FS9 folder and I've checked the cfgs for typos...it's probably something really simple and later on I shall go Duuuh !

Andy.

[emfrat]

Andy, that's very strange...
I can create a flight with the G18. By default any flight on my machine begins with the engines and switches off - that's how I set it up.
Before doing anything else,
If I press L all the lights come on, and go off if I press L again.
If I go into the VC and use the Nav Lights switch, the nav lights come on.
This happens with the Battery Switch on or off
If your [lights] section is exactly like mine as pasted above then you should be seeing the same.

The double slash // at the start of a line disables it, by turning it into a comment rather than a command. You should have six disabled lines for the shockwave lights. Make sure you don't also have the original six 'shockwave' lines still active.
Now delete any line in the [lights] section which is calling for 'shockwave' lights.

You should now have just the six lines calling for the default lights. Make sure they are in unbroken sequence from light.0 (zero) to light.5, dots in place, no extra spaces.
If the line calls for fx_navredsml, look in the folder FS9\Effects for a file called fx_navredsml.fx
Make sure the line is asking for fx_navredsml (all alphas) not fx_navredsm1(which has a numeric 'one' instead of the letter 'l' and that the actual file is also correctly named.
Do the same check for each line.
If a file is not there, search your machine for it and, if found, put it back into the FS9\Effects folder.

It's sleepytime down here

Good Hunting!
MikeW

[dc6tryer]

Hi,

Sleep well and thanks for your time. I'm sure it'll work out in the end. I always start out with the Cessna at KSEA and run through that checking things work as it says on the tin, and so it's especially frusterating when the G18 (and the others) decide to foola bout when they get loaded up. I have redownloaded the 506 and S73 just to see if that makes any difference, and it doesn't!
All this as I'm starting to try to follow FSAviator's words of wisdom about the vintage phase of Aviation in Europe and now, instead of a finely controlled descent into Lille at 8'o'clock on a winter's evening, landing lights flaring brightly to show the runway looming out of the dark, I'll probably have a completely uncontrolled crash-up into the pub next door

Andy.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi,

The short answer is that effects like fx_navredsml are not default effects - they are from some addon. Edit yours to look like this:

[lights]

//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing

light.0 = 3, 3.54, -36.45, -1.12, fx_navred
light.1 = 3, 3.54, 36.45, -1.12, fx_navgre
light.2 = 3, -40.33, 0, 2.8, fx_navwhi
light.3 = 4, 15.97, -1.19, 2.53, fx_vclight
light.4 = 5, 2.72, -26.67, -2.74, fx_landing
light.5 = 5, 2.72, 26.67, -2.74, fx_landing


//light.0 = 3, 3.54, -36.45, -1.12, fx_shockwave_navred
//light.1 = 3, 3.54, 36.45, -1.12, fx_shockwave_navgre
//light.2 = 3, -40.33, 0, 2.8, fx_shockwave_navwhi_l_old
//light.3 = 4, 15.97, -1.19, 2.53, fx_shockwave_vclight
//light.4 = 5, 2.72, -26.67, -2.74, fx_shockwave_landing_light_tail_old
//light.5 = 5, 2.72, 26.67, -2.74, fx_shockwave_landing_light_tail_old

And they should show up.

Hope this helps,

[dc6tryer]

Hi,
Thank you Tom. I will try that. The landing lights were the same as default already. Could it be something to do with the date of the effect or it's size in Kbs?
Perhaps the 'model' requires a newer .fx file than in my copy of FS9 as the dates on these come from 2001 and 2002.

Andy.

ps. The S73 has all it's lights, but when I changed the cfg in the G18 to have the same landing lights of the S73 they still didn't illumine. Odd. A re-download and new install is probably best.
Thanks for the assistance,as always!

Andy.

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi,

The landing light "effect" is just a white light at the landing light bulb. The splash on the pavement is built into the model.

Hope this helps,

[dc6tryer]

Hi,

Thanks for the info..I have noticed before that some aircraft don't have that landing light 'bloom' on the runway and I've just assumed it was because there was no 2D panel, which the G18v doesn't have, but that still doesn't explain why the light doesn't show on the light itself under the wing.

I redownloaded and reinstalled both airplanes and changed the cfg as I don't have the shockwave lights.

Anyway, Thank you for all your assistance in this small matter!


Andy.


ps. just flying at night with the G18 and I use FlyBy;and I noticed that when the airlpane is far off the nav lights [and landing lights] are on,though very dim, but as it gets closer to the viewer they go off ;D ! They are only there in that view; the normal spot view is lightless!

A