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Citation-X compositor lights

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Citation-X compositor lights

Postby SurferTim » Sat Sep 25, 2021 9:26 pm

I'm adapting the compositor lights that WoodSTokk installed for me on the Twin Otter for use on the Citration. The first goal was the landing lights. They work good! What a difference!

I have a couple questions for WoodSTokk if he is still around. There is a vertical square where the landing light is on each wing and I'm not certain how to adjust/move it. I'll shoot a video to show you.

Edit: Video of lights with squares.
Fly low. Fly slow. Land on a dime. Twin Otter. https://github.com/SurferTim/dhc6p
My other aircraft is a Citation-X https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX
PirateAir videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/SurferTim850
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby WoodSTokk » Sun Sep 26, 2021 12:08 am

Hi SurferTim, i'm here and read every day :)
I have opened the model of the CitationX in Blender, but there is no objects like this.
It must be a object that you have imported/included for the lights.
Normally, if you only want Compositor lights, you dont need to edit the model.
The lights will be only defined in the xml-file of the model.
If you want, you can upload it to your repo and i take a look on it.
But this will take some time because i'm on vacation right now.
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby SurferTim » Sun Sep 26, 2021 12:50 am

No hurry. I thought you might have known the cause off the top of your head. The squares only appear when the landing lights are on.
The lights work fine, just the exterior views are weird. I Just imported the files from the Twin Otter in the /Model/Lights folder that you had added.
There were some sim/multiplayer/generic/float array variables that I changed to match the new lights. Maybe that caused it?
These lights really improve night landing visibility.

I have my sim machine shut down for the night. I'll push it up to Github in the morning and edit this post when I do.
Thanks for your help! :)
Fly low. Fly slow. Land on a dime. Twin Otter. https://github.com/SurferTim/dhc6p
My other aircraft is a Citation-X https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX
PirateAir videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/SurferTim850
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby WoodSTokk » Sun Sep 26, 2021 8:39 am

The generic floats are the intensity of every light. If you are on battery and the battry goes slowly down, the intensity of the lights goes also down.
I feet it to multiplayer so that other pilots see it also in the right brightness.

Additionally the update on the Twin Otter includes lights for 2020.3 and 2020.4 because the old lights doesnt look good.
Looks like you have imported files for 2020.3 lights that have ac-files for Rembrandt (the face show the corona/glance/dazzle if you look into the light).
If you update the CitationX only for 2020.4, you need only the light-definitions in the xml-file, the effect-files for procedural-lights and the procedural_light.ac file.
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby SurferTim » Sun Sep 26, 2021 11:40 am

Here is my new code for the CitationX. Had some issues getting it uploaded.
https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX

Edit: If you like flying at night, these landing lights are the BEST!
The landing lights are all I tried here. I haven't adapted the taxi light or the running lights yet. The only difference in the taxi light should be the variable. In the Twin Otter it was tiller. In the Citation, it is rudder.
I set the landing lights brightness to a fixed value (0.9) instead of using the battery voltage. I wondered why those brightness values were changing in your new code in the Twin Otter.

If you want to know where I switched the landing lights on/off/brightness, it's at the bottom of /Nasal/CitationX.nas

How did you turn the taxi light on the Twin Otter? Nasal or animation? I can't seem to find where it turns the light.
I found the animation. The taxi light now turns with the nose wheel.

Here is a night approach and landing with the new lights at KDTS.
Fly low. Fly slow. Land on a dime. Twin Otter. https://github.com/SurferTim/dhc6p
My other aircraft is a Citation-X https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX
PirateAir videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/SurferTim850
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby WoodSTokk » Sun Sep 26, 2021 7:04 pm

There are some switches missing on the Citation X.
You can only switch taxi-light and the 2 landing-lights.
Beacon, strobe and nav-lights are allways on.
You can find the boolean props in /controls/lighting/.
This will switch the power in /systems/electrical/outputs/.
It should by no problem to copy over all lights and integrate it, you miss only the intensity.
You can delete the intensity part in the lights or set it to a fixed value or you calculate it.
The Citation X has a 24V system (alternators give typically 28V), so you need only some filters that devide the output by 28 (with max 1.0) and the result is a float in range of 0.0 to 1.0.
To set the lights exactly on the right place, i normally open the model in Blender and read out the coordinates (for better illusion 2 or 3 centimeters in front of the real light).

I dont know why, but your Citation X result in a 'seg fault'. I can start normal with the Citation X from the trunk hangar.
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby SurferTim » Sun Sep 26, 2021 7:08 pm

My apology. I'm not surprised about the SEG FAULT. I had trouble getting it to upload, and I'm not certain it was all good.
I'll try another upload again later. I want to play with it a while.
I guess all I need is to figure out where the squares are coming from.

Edit: I rebuilt the repository and downloaded the zip, and it works ok now.
https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX

BTW, the nav, beacon and anti-collision lights are not always on. They are turned on in the autostart sequence.
The switches are on the lower copilot's panel. All work. I just checked.
Fly low. Fly slow. Land on a dime. Twin Otter. https://github.com/SurferTim/dhc6p
My other aircraft is a Citation-X https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX
PirateAir videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/SurferTim850
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby WoodSTokk » Sun Sep 26, 2021 8:47 pm

Okay, will check. I found the problem with 'Seg-Fault'. It has to do with the displays. I commented out the 2 'navigation-display' in '/Systems/instrumentation.xml'.
Now i can check the lights better.
Found out that the old als-secondary-light are in use. Actually i commented out all staff from the old lights.
Also '/Nasal/light-manager.nas' will not be used, its only to manage the als-secondary-light.
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby SurferTim » Sun Sep 26, 2021 8:51 pm

Thanks! That should make things go smoother.

Edit: The Github code is not the current code. Good thing I had a backup. The process reverted my code to the previous version. ??
I'm taking it off Github temporarily. Now that i think about it, the cause may have been an oversight. When I downloaded the code after the canvas display was installed, I removed the .git directory. :(

Edit2: I have it corrected on Github. I can't download and test it without screwing up the Github stuff on my sim box.
https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX
Fly low. Fly slow. Land on a dime. Twin Otter. https://github.com/SurferTim/dhc6p
My other aircraft is a Citation-X https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX
PirateAir videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/SurferTim850
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby WoodSTokk » Sun Sep 26, 2021 10:10 pm

No problem, for setting the lights i dont need the displays and/or canvas staff.
There are switches for logo-light and recog-light, but i dont find it.
Is this modeled on the Citation X?

And the model has no white tail nav light. Anyway, i have set it on the upperside of the tail because the fuselage tail is the exaust of the APU i think.
Currently, only the beacon are missing on my side. Will look when i'm finish.
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby SurferTim » Sun Sep 26, 2021 10:16 pm

The newest code has the steerable taxi light. The older code didn't.

Edit: If you plan on deleting the light-manager.nas file, ensure you move the last few setlisteners to CitationX.nas. I've already moved them here, but haven't uploaded it yet. Test first.
I plan on leaving the secondary als lights for a while. Some haven't upgraded to a FG version with Compositor.
Fly low. Fly slow. Land on a dime. Twin Otter. https://github.com/SurferTim/dhc6p
My other aircraft is a Citation-X https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX
PirateAir videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/SurferTim850
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby WoodSTokk » Sun Sep 26, 2021 11:03 pm

Its good to hold an old version for 2020.3. My update will be only for 2020.4, so all als-secondary-lights and Rembrandt will be gone.
I have a GitHub account. Will try to clone yours, alter it and make a push request.
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby SurferTim » Wed Sep 29, 2021 11:29 am

I'm trying out the Compositor lights without the als landing lights (light-manager.nas deactivated). The landing/taxi lights look a bit more realistic without the als lights.

I'm leaving the als lights activated on the public version until Compositor becomes the norm.
Fly low. Fly slow. Land on a dime. Twin Otter. https://github.com/SurferTim/dhc6p
My other aircraft is a Citation-X https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX
PirateAir videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/SurferTim850
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby WoodSTokk » Wed Sep 29, 2021 2:02 pm

Have set a push request on your repo.
I have only a laptop here to work and cant see all in detail. So please check if all looks good.
This update remove all exterior Rembrandt and ALS-secondary lights and add Compositor and ALS-procedural lights.
So it is only for FG2020.4.
For FG2020.3, hold your old version back.
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Re: Citation-X compositor lights

Postby SurferTim » Wed Sep 29, 2021 6:54 pm

I downloaded the code from your Github site. It looks AWESOME!

I'll finish my tests with it. The squares are gone. Thanks!! :)
Fly low. Fly slow. Land on a dime. Twin Otter. https://github.com/SurferTim/dhc6p
My other aircraft is a Citation-X https://github.com/SurferTim/CitationX
PirateAir videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/SurferTim850
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Posts: 1708
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