Lights look like balloons!

[Gary Summons]

Unfortunately I cant do that without a reinstall of FSX, those shots were taken last month and were in my history folder. As a Beta tester of the FSX "Acceleration Pack" By Aces/Microsoft I have installed it and it appears to 'effect' the lights(all lights). I cant say too much as I dont want to get into trouble with MS NDA. But the code used at Bristol is the same as Gatwick (same macro), maybe you have another addon which is showing on top for Bristol.

I am aware that some user do get some bad effects with lights, it could be driver related or some sort of file change the user has done, and I always look for alternatives, the next development is pure FSX code and I will see if that make a difference with the lights, the current system uses the FS9 'light' instruction, in which there is no option to change the brightness or size.



 

[Paul Fryer]

Hi Everyone ..

Ok .. well I haven't got an answer to the 'lights looking like balloons'   but without a doubt I am sure it is a 'Resolution' issue .

Using the Matrox TripleHead2Go module I am running at 3840 x1024 and I have my party balloons all over the runways ..but if I lower to 1280 x 1024 which automatically places me on the one screen instead of three .... I have perfect lighting everywhere...

Such a shame we can't get to the bottom of this ....   I will get in touch with Matrox direct and see if they have any ideas on this one

Regards

Paul

[Paul Fryer]

Ok I have an answer for the problem of the lights looking like balloons when using the TripleHead2Go module ...

This worked for me ... but .. you will find the taxiway lights and airport building lights are still unfortunately  large ... but everything else is fine

Download aht5.zip from the AVSIM library. It contains alternative halo.bmp textures and info on how to scale runway lights. While originally for FS2004 it works in FSX.

Choose a replacement halo.bmp from the small folder and paste it into your FSX/texture folder. You might want to save the original halo.bmpfile first.

Then paste the light scaler text into your fsx.cfg DISPLAY section.

You can adjust the scalar values as desired.

The following values worked for me.
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=0.4 //scales edge,center,end,touchdown,runways
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.4 //scales VASI lights)
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.4 //scales approach light bars
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=0.4 //scales RAILs and ODALs)
Good luck.

Paul     :-)

[Brandon Eden]

Paul... thanks for the fix.. I have the download on my computer but am having trouble getting to the file I need to paste these runway scalar lines to.  Could you give a step by step dummy description to get to this fsx.config display section.  I really am having trouble getting where I need to be. Thanks Brandon

[Paul Fryer]

Hi Brandon    Ok no problem    ...but first can you tell me whether you are on Vista or Windows XP?   

Depending on which operating system you are on it will be a different route I have to take you

Paul

[Brandon Eden]

thanks paul for the quick response.   I have windows vista ultimate.  Thanks Brandon   

[Paul Fryer]

Hi Brandon ....

Ok ...   This is the way you navigate to the CFG file ...

Every command requires a double click to get there  ... ok 

Start at ...

My Computer

C Drive

Users

Owner (or maybe it might say your name)


App Data  ... now if this is not listed .. you need to do this ....

Far left of the page you will see Organise ....  click on this and select  'Folders and Search Options'   select this  and then click on the  'View' Tab ...   About half a dozen lines down you will see  'Show hidden files'  .. make sure you select this ...     then close the box ..

Now you will see  App Data

Next double click on ....

Roaming

Microsoft

FSX

and then click on  fsx.cfg

there is a good chance it will then say that it needs to be opened with a program .. and it will give you a selection to choose from ....  select  Notepad

You will then see the CFG listing .... all you need to do is then scroll down the where is says  [Display]    and  paste the lines I told you about into there ...

Then close the CFG window making sure you say  'yes' to saving the changes   and voila you're done ...

Make sure you have selected the BMP files and placed them in the Texture folder of FSX too

I hope this makes sense Brandon  ..

Regards

Paul

Alpine Systems

[Brandon Eden]

Paul, I thank you for the time you took to show me how to install the scalar. Unfortunately it zoomed my display in so I couldnt even zoom out enough to see me vc.   If you can think of anything I may have done wrong??  I restored my computer to the old way it was. I noticed zooming in does help at about 1.5 or over.  I'm eventually going to put my instruments on some other screens with project magenta. I think I may just live with it till then, then just zoom the 3 large screens the outside visuals are on in a bit. and I think it should be fine.  Thanks  again for your help. Brandon

[Paul Fryer]

Hi Brandon  ..

Ok to sort that problem out it is dead easy   (when you know how  :-)  )

All you need to do is this ....

Go to the FSX  cfg file again using the route I explained above ....

Then all you have to do is scroll down to the entry which reads ...

Wideviewaspect=False   

and change it to ...

Wideviewaspect=True 

Close the CFG file making sure you save the changes   and .. Bingo     you can zoom out in the VC mode as far as you want

Hope this helps

Paul

[Brandon Eden]

Hi paul . I will give that a try.  Your directions were perfect . I was kind of laughing thinkin. This is just what I meant when I said dummy directions.  I did it like a pro. except for the zooming problem. but I will give that a try. Ill let you know how it works out.    Thanks Brandon         

[Brandon Eden]

Hi Paul.     I just got back from working on the sim and it worked great. I used the 0.4 values also. Now the lights look great.
I sure thank you for the help !! Brandon   Iowa City,IA

[Paul Fryer]

Excellent news  ....

Well all there is to say now is Happy Simming ... and have a great Christmas and prosperous New Year ...

Let's raise our glasses to ....  no more balloons   :-))

Paul

Alpine Systems    UK

[Stan Carpenter]

Nice one Paul but how does it pan out in Windows XP. Being long in the tooth I need it all explained in detail, could you do that for me? almost one year behind the conversation, Stan.

[Paul Fryer]

Hi Stan

Sorry to take so long in replying .... haven't been back here in a while  ....

Ok in XP its all very similar  the only difference is  you start ...

C Drive

Documents and Settings

Owner or  your name 

App data

Microsoft

FSX

etc etc


If you can't see App Data  then you might have to select  show hidden files which I have explained how to get to in an earlier post

Hope this helps

And  ... hey   it'll soon be Christmas ... AGAIN   

Paul

[William Hall]

http://www.simforums.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=22271&KW=TripleHead2Go is fairly informative about large lights and triple head.