Traffic X Dash 8 No Lights

Lawgiver wrote: I wanted to apologize to you both for not responding to your forum posts before now.  I am presently serving in the US Military and had to go out of town on short notice.  I didn't have a chance to reply before leaving.  I just returned yesterday and will give the updated "Lights" section a try.  Thanks again for your time.

No need to apologise.  Serving one's country takes precedence, of course. 

Lawgiver wrote: It's too quiet around the ole Traffic X forums ...

Yes, sadly it is very much quiet around the ole Traffic X forums. Regardless, Traffic X is still a major part of my FSX world, constantly being updated by me to keep my FSX as up to date and as current as possible.

Ah yes ... Dash 8 lights ... another one of those things Just Flight missed when they released (and even subsequently Service Packed) Traffic X.

I modified the [LIGHTS] section of the Traffic X Dash 8 ages ago to put lights on to it. A copy of my edits appears below.


Notes:

1) My edits below work for and use the default FSX lights.

2) I don't believe both of the Traffic X Dash 8s are flying in the Traffic X flight plans; only one of the them (the Dash8-x00). So that's the one I've added the lights to.

3) My positional numbers are slightly different from those shown in Dan's post above. Whether or not the A2A Shockwave 3D Redux lights used by Dan are larger or smaller (or whatever) and thus require different positioning form the FSX default lights, I have no idea. To be honest, I'd say not. We probably both just have slightly different numbers. Nonetheless, I am happy with my positioning. But, if you wish to experiment and adjust the numbers, feel free to do so.

4) I have used the high intensity navigation lights (as indicated by the "h" in "fx_navredh" and "fx_navgreh"). You may like to try lower intensity navigation lights ("fx_navred" and "fx_navgre") which may suit a smaller aircraft such as the Dash 8 better. Or, a trick, use TWO of the lower intensity lights positioned on top of, or positioned VERY VERY CLOSE TO (right next to and probably overlapping), each other to get a MID-intensity effect. Similarly, another good trick is to mix lights together with WHITE ("fx_navwhi") to increase the brightness (for example, using a low intensity red or green light positioned on top of, or positioned very very close to, a white light would give a brighter effect, and, at the same time, provides a lighter shade of color red or green). Feel free to simply use what I have used, and not make any changes at all, or, experiment with your own choices and/or changes. But, a short word on using lower intensity lights ... whilst they might look correct on a smaller aircraft such as a Dash 8 when you are viewing the aircraft from a close distance, they can tend to appear too small (and sometimes almost even non-existent) when you view the aircraft from a long distance away (hence the need to possibly use more than one on top of the other, or at least very very close together). This could be graphics card dependent (I'm not sure), so mileage may vary from machine to machine. Experimentation is thus probably the only way to find out which intensity/size light effect, and whether you need to "double them up", looks and works best for you.

5) My light settings include a WHITE anti-collision light on the rear end of the aircraft fuselage, beneath the tail/rudder. It doesn't look like Dan's settings has one of those. (Hey Dan, you might like to copy my values and perhaps add one to your model.)

6) There are no contact points on the Traffic X Dash 8 AI model for FSX landing lights to be "attached" to. Therefore, annoyingly, the Traffic X Dash 8 doesn't (and as far as I know, can't) have landing lights. That is, unless the model itself is modified and contact points are added to it. Dan's post above shows landing lights because, I am guessing, A2A Shockwave 3D Redux lights allow you to add landing lights even if the aircraft model has no contact points for them. (However, if I am wrong, and anyone out there does know how to get landing lights to work for the Traffic X Dash 8 AI aircraft, then I'd be interested to know.)


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This fixes the (lack of) night lights for the Traffic X JFAI_Dash8-x00 AI aircraft. Copy this information in to the [LIGHTS] section of the aircraft.cfg file (completely overwrite and replace what is already there) for this aircraft. The aircraft.cfg file for this aircraft is found here: "C:\...\Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\TrafficX\JFAI_Dash8-x00".

[LIGHTS]
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
light.0 = 3, -32.6, -42.9, 5.5, fx_navredh ,
light.1 = 3, -32.6, 42.9, 5.5, fx_navgreh ,
light.2 = 3, -75.9,   0.3, 1.0, fx_navwhi ,
light.3 = 2, -32.7, 43.0, 5.5, fx_strobeh ,
light.4 = 2, -32.7, -43.0, 5.5, fx_strobeh ,
light.5 = 1, -73.0,   0.0, 18.0, fx_beaconh ,
light.6 = 4, -7.91,   0.0, 2.64, fx_vclight ,

Hello Everyone,

It's too quiet around the ole Traffic X forums so I thought I would post a question about a problem I have always had with the Dash 8's.  Simply, they have no lights.  No nav, landing, strobes, passenger lights.  Nothing but logo lights on a few of them.  It's something I have always noticed since day 1 of owning Traffic X.  I just added it up as another quirk of the software.  Now, I need those stealth Dash 8's as part of an AI scenario I'm making for myself and was wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue.
This is the entire "LIGHTS" section from the config file:
[LIGHTS]       
//Types: 1=beacon, 2=strobe, 3=navigation, 4=cockpit, 5=landing
light.0 = 1, 0, 0, 0, fx_TS_Turbo ,

It's the same for both models of the Dash 8.  I have attempted copying coordinates from a similar AI Dash 8 into the config file.  While the results were amusing to say the least, It wasn't what i was exactly looking for.  Something of note before I forget, they all do have rotating beacons.

Regards,
Rob