Panel lights, need help

limjack

limjack

Charter Member 2016
The question is, do all aircraft panel lights come on at the same time or is this different for each aircraft. When flying the Boeing 737-800 default plane my panel lights do not activate until GMT 22:48 (by this time it has been dark in the cockpit for 15min). Any way to edit an earlier time for activating these lights?

Jim
 
I just tested my 737 and I can see my panel lights whenever I want to.
 
Hmmmmm, thanks warbird. Something must of got messed up somewhere. Will try running the fix option on the FSX disk and see if that fixes it.
Jim
 
these kinds of posts are what lead me to believe that no one flies FSX at night....

the vc lighting in FSX is screwed up - you can set the lights to be pilot operated and you can turn the lights on and off...HOWEVER -

when you turn the lights ON during daylight or dusk you get a nice lighting level in the cabin and on the instruments if they are backlit (we are speaking of the default aircraft here) BUT after dusk and at around the ingame time mentioned above - the VC lights go up to high intensity brightness...its not right and there is no way to change it by conventional method (no tickbox or setting to prevent it )

But there was an effects tweak you could do to the VC lighting that was posted on this forum about two months ago and you could look that up.

I used it to create on or two other lighting levels and then slaved the respective (offending) aircraft .cfg's to those effects
 
heywooood said:
these kinds of posts are what lead me to believe that no one flies FSX at night....

the vc lighting in FSX is screwed up -
Click to expand...

Actually, the lighting system works just fine; it's just that ACES didn't take the time to do a good job on the default a/c... :monkies:
 
Yes - as in parenthesis in my post - default aircraft...the 737 and the Dc-3 as well as the Caravan seem to get the brightest and cannot be flown at night (full darkness) without the tweak that I think you provided in that other thread - :ernae: Thank you for that...

this is what proper cabin / instrument night lighting should be...
 
So am I missing another area that I can activate the panel light. The two places I know are the "L" key that kicks them all on or going to the 2D panel and turning the Panel light on manualy and both these methods leave me dark in the cockpit at dusk in the VC.

I do agree heywoood on the brightness. Once those panel light kick on it blinds you from seeing outside. Your shot of your panel is nice and somber and easy on the eyes....I like it.

Been working all day, had not a chance to run a disk fix to see if that helps.

Jim
 
thats the Eaglesoft Piper Comanche Twin and those fellows did a great job in their lighting dept.

for the default planes - you can go into your effects folder...scroll down to fx_vclight_caravan for example - make a copy of it and rename to

fx_vclight_caravan01 or something similar...

here is mine - opened with notepad :

[Library Effect]
Lifetime=5
Version=2.00
Radius=-1
Priority=0
[Properties]
[Emitter.0]
Lifetime=0.50, 0.50
Delay=0.00, 0.00
Bounce=0.00
Light=1
No Interpolate=1
Rate=1.00, 1.00
X Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
X Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
X Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Y Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Z Rotation=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Pitch=0.00, 0.00
Bank=0.00, 0.00
Heading=0.00, 0.00
[Particle.0]
Lifetime=0.00, 0.00
Type=19
X Scale=1.00, 1.00
Y Scale=1.00, 1.00
Z Scale=0.00, 0.00
X Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Y Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Z Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
Color Rate=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Fade In=0.00, 0.00
Fade Out=0.00, 0.00
Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Static=1
Face=1, 1, 1
[ParticleAttributes.0]
Blend Mode=2
Texture=fx_2.bmp
Bounce=0.00
Color Start=32, 32, 12, 1 <--------these are the entries to adjust*
Color End=25, 25, 22, 0 <--------and these*
Jitter Distance=0.00
Jitter Time=0.00
uv1=0.00, 0.00
uv2=0.01, 0.01
X Scale Goal=0.00
Y Scale Goal=0.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Extrude Length=0.00
Extrude Pitch Max=0.00
Extrude Heading Max=0.00


* if you look at your default setings and compare to this adjusted one , you'll see the difference is not slight.

now - during dusk FSX lighting - the VC light is very dim - but when the floods kick on in FSX night conditions - these settings will give you a much more accurate light in the cockpit for night flying...

** important - to see these settings in the 737 or other - YOU MUST also go to that particular planes' .cfg folder and change the vc_lighting to
use fx_vclight_caravan01 instead of its default
 
heywooood said:
thats the Eaglesoft Piper Comanche Twin and those fellows did a great job in their lighting dept.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I suspect that one of the primary reasons for the success of Eaglesoft's team in this area is because we consider the lighting so critically important that we determine what we wish to achieve during the initial planning process...

...because the "system" is a tight integration of the model's mesh, the Material properties, the artwork of model and gauges, the gauge code itself, and the rather complex interdependencies of the sim's display engine and control variables.

In my considered opinion, most folks tend to treat the "lighting" as an afterthought, which in turn leads to unsatisfactory results.

It seems to me that most developers focus the majority of their attention to the exterior model, and give barely any thought at all to the interior -especially the cockpit- where the simpilot spends the most time... :faint:

It may sound weird, but I think that the design process truly should begin with the virtual cockpit, gauge system, etc. :gossip:
 
As you say - "they treat lighting as an afterthought, leading to unsatisfactory results.." Indeed.

right on the head with that statement.

And the way Eaglesoft split the VC lighting into three seperate entities - as it should be on this particular plane, as well as most of the latest types... instrument lighting - panel light - and cabin light.

Not only that - but they appear to have measured the lumens with a light meter or else been very gifted at the estimated light values as these lights come closest to depicting real cockpit/cabin lighting than any other 3d model I've seen - well - Realair does a nice job too.

So as you see - it can be done...and by rights should be done this way and no other.

The one and really only gripe I have with Carenado is their VC lighting - now I don't have their Mooney M20J so I don't know if it has accurate lighting - but the converted fleet so far is lacking and if their new twin isn't right I wont bother to get it.

"from the cockpit out" sounds right to me - and proper lighting is crucial.

You don't drive on the freeway at night with your dome light on...do you?
 
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