MD_Flier Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 I was hopping through the Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia freeware airports and I landed at 2W6 at dusk. As I was taxiing back to the runway, the airport lighting turned on. At first, it looked fine. Then, I noticed that one light was flashing like a strobe. I figured that it was part of an approach, or something marking an obstacle, so I didn't dwell on it. As I passed a long row of buildings on the left, I noticed that all of the pole lights were flashing. I stopped to see what was happening. I found that they were 'controlled' by the strobe light switch on my panel. Turn the strobes on, and the pole lights flashed. Turn them off, and the pole lights stayed off. Then, I turned on my landing light. The pole lights turned on. Landing light off, pole lights off. The landing light switch overrides the strobe light switch. Strange. Attached are a couple of screen shots with the coordinates. The date & time were set to May 6, 2015 0021Z. Default FSX Cessna 172SP w/G1000. I have the A2A 3D Lights Redux package installed, if that matters. First, with the landing light switch off. Now with the landing light switch on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Hi MD_Flier, Flashing/pulsing - street/airfield lights are a symptom of the buggy FSX/ DX10 preview mode, where these lights pulse in time with the aircraft strobe or beacon. To fix this DX10 problem you will need the "Steve Parsons DX10 fixer" or run FSX:SE in default DX9 mode. Are you by any chance running FSX:SE with "Preview DirectX 10" box checked in FSX> settings> Display>Graphics, without having installed (Steve Parsons DX10 Fixer). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 Thank you for replying, Jeff. I am running DX10, but I also have Steve's fixer. I moved to another Orbx airport, KMTN and tried it. I get similar results. The landing light switch controls the lights on poles around the terminal area. The strobe light switch didn't make them flash here, though. Maybe this is normal? Edit. Looks like you are right, Jeff. It does not do this under DX9. That being said, Steve's fixer should correct this, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Hi MD_Flier, The problem is related to DX10 and the lighting system in general, so it is not triggered by one particular aircraft light toggle or airport. I don't have the fixer myself and useFSX Boxed version DX9 only, but feel there may be a checkbox or setting within Steve's Fixer control/configuration panel that will resolve this issue, otherwise have a read of your fixer setup guide in this thread for any new information or fixer updates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 I would suggest running the Fixer to see if "Effects" have been changed and the Fixer wishes to scan the Effects folder. If so, allow the scan and go back and see if the flashing lights still occur. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Also, there is a section (13) in the Fixer manual (page 97) about Lights and Effects and Section 7 deals with Light Fields that some airports required to be properly lit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted December 7, 2015 Author Share Posted December 7, 2015 2 hours ago, Nick Cooper said: Also, there is a section (13) in the Fixer manual (page 97) about Lights and Effects and Section 7 deals with Light Fields that some airports required to be properly lit. I saw that note, but wasn't sure how to tell which airports needed to have that modification. I thought that it was only referring to "legacy" airports. I'll try it when I get home. It's no big deal to just leave the landing lights on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted December 9, 2015 Author Share Posted December 9, 2015 I did some more testing. It happens only at the Orbx freeware airports. The landing light switch turns the white airport lights on and off. Only the white ones. The blue(ish) and yellow/orange(ish) lights stay lit all the time. Other than that, all of the lights look fine. I tried it at KMTN, KFDK, KHEF, KVKX , and KOXB. I have Global Base, Vector, and HD Trees installed, but no payware Orbx airports to try it on (yet). The issue does not happen on any of the default airports, or at my only payware airport, Taxi2Gate's KMCO. I wish I could edit the title to remove the reference to St. Mary's County... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jethro VH-JET Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Hi MD_Flier, Did you find the reference in Nick Cooper's Post #6 referring to (Section 7) "lighting effects" and Section 13 / P97 "Light Fields" in the DX10 Fixer manual. I wish I could assist more with this but as said no DX10 for me. Maybe Nick can direct you on a possible method if installing the "Light Field .bgl's", it seems this might eliminate the pulsing lights with DX10 and fixer. and also edit your Topic title to remove reference to ( at 2W6 - St. Mary's County Regional Airport ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted December 9, 2015 Share Posted December 9, 2015 Hello, I have edited the topic title as requested. I have also been to 2W6 and I cannot replicate the issue, unless I remove the libraries from the Direct X 10 fixer. I therefore suspect that you have not correctly installed and run the Fixer and that it is not working as it should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted December 9, 2015 Author Share Posted December 9, 2015 5 hours ago, Nick Cooper said: Hello, I have edited the topic title as requested. I have also been to 2W6 and I cannot replicate the issue, unless I remove the libraries from the Direct X 10 fixer. I therefore suspect that you have not correctly installed and run the Fixer and that it is not working as it should. Thank you very much, Sir! When I get home tonight, I'll use the button in Steve's fixer to remove the libraries. Then, I'll run FSX in DX9 mode for a bit, exit, and reinstall the DX10 libraries. Surely, this is something silly. I appreciate the help. I don't like taxiing in the dark, but I also hate taxiing with the landing lights on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted December 9, 2015 Author Share Posted December 9, 2015 10 hours ago, Jeff Gilmour said: Hi MD_Flier, Did you find the reference in Nick Cooper's Post #6 referring to (Section 7) "lighting effects" and Section 13 / P97 "Light Fields" in the DX10 Fixer manual. I wish I could assist more with this but as said no DX10 for me. Maybe Nick can direct you on a possible method if installing the "Light Field .bgl's", it seems this might eliminate the pulsing lights with DX10 and fixer. If removing and re-adding the libraries does not work, I'll try this. I read about it, but I ran out of time to try it. I had to get some sleep... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Tonight's update. I switched to DX9, and then removed the DX10 libraries in Steve's fixer. I then went into REX4 and changed the textures to DX9, and reloaded the current theme. I went into FTX Central 2 and applied the Vector configuration settings, ran the Global Lights Config tool, and then ticked hybrid mode, applied group, unticked hybrid, and reapplied group. Everything worked fine. I reversed the process to get back to DX10, and the problem reappeared. The landing light and strobe light switches still control the airport lights on FTX airports. Nowhere else. I added the light field = > no difference. Nick, I'm sure that the DX10 fixer is working. Every issue that it is supposed to fix is fixed on my installation. I'm still leaning towards this having something to do with the A2A 3D Lights Redux package... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 You may be right, I don't have it myself. Have you tried their forum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 Nick, I have not. I'll go do that. Maybe someone there has seen this. I really do think that wherever Orbx is looking for the white light texture, it is getting redirected to the 3D Lights white light texture or something like that. It seems as though the two got mixed together somehow. On a different note, I want to thank everyone involved with the decision to create and include KMTN in the NA Freeware pack. My father, who passed away in May, 2014 worked in the large hanger and surrounding buildings shown in this screenshot. He was in the ANG, and worked on their 16 C-7 Caribous for many years and then on the 8 C-130 Hercules that replaced them until he retired. I spent many days watching those airplanes with my dad. Microsoft put KMTN in FSX, but Orbx made it feel like home. Thank you for the memories! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 SUCCESS! Nick - You nailed it in post #6 - I managed to get the light field working and the problem went away. Apparently, without the light field on the airport, certain lights only work if something in the field of view is using already a particular effect. When I hit the landing lights, they used that effect in the field of view, and the airport lights that needed to have that effect in use started working. If I turned off the landing lights and turned on the strobes, they became the user of that effect, and the airport lights would flash in sync with my strobes. In post #13, I said that I had already tried installing the light fields and that they did not work. That was accurate. I am not sure why that attempt was unsuccessful. Unfortunately, it was 3 weeks ago and I do not recall exactly where I placed the files. I have been considering reinstalling FSX since I play with all sorts of things and I do occasionally blow things up. I was pondering the possibilities this morning when I realized that maybe FSX did not load the light field when I flew into the area. I decided to locate the scenery folder where the default airports were. On my system, both KMTN and 2W6 are in: C:\Steam\steamapps\common\FSX\scenery\0302\. I placed the KMTN and 2W6 light field files in there thinking that they would certainly load when I flew into that area. It seems to have worked. The lights at both airports stay on when they are supposed to be on. Is there a map, index, or list of scenery folders, and the areas that they encompass? Thank you very much for the help! Final edit: After I made this post, I took one last look. I realized that the ..\FSX\Addon Scenery\Scenery\ and ..\FSX\Addon Scenery\Texture\ folders were missing. I've never put anything into them and they are empty by default, so I never noticed it. I recreated those two folders, and moved the light field files into the ..\FSX\Addon Scenery\Scenery\ folder. The light fields work when placed in there. Looking back, I think I just dropped them right into the ..\FSX\Addon Scenery\ folder 3 weeks ago. No wonder they didn't work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Cooper Posted December 30, 2015 Share Posted December 30, 2015 I am very pleased to read that you have finally succeeded. Here is a map that you can use to decode the scenery areas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted December 30, 2015 Author Share Posted December 30, 2015 Thank you very much. I did a "spatter shot" and copied the light field BGLs for every FTXNA and FTXEU freeware airport into the ..\FSX\Addon Scenery\Scenery\ folder. Now, I can continue hopping all of the FTX Freeware airports on the East Coast in the light. BTW... Can you light a fire under the guys working on the East Coast? I see the folks out west grinning from ear to ear. I think they're taunting us... Na na na na na... All of our home turf is covered in FTX goodness... Your's is not.... Na na... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 On 12/30/2015 at 0:56 PM, MD_Flier said: Thank you very much. I did a "spatter shot" and copied the light field BGLs for every FTXNA and FTXEU freeware airport into the ..\FSX\Addon Scenery\Scenery\ folder. Now, I can continue hopping all of the FTX Freeware airports on the East Coast in the light. BTW... Can you light a fire under the guys working on the East Coast? I see the folks out west grinning from ear to ear. I think they're taunting us... Na na na na na... All of our home turf is covered in FTX goodness... Your's is not.... Na na... I encountered this phenomenon, too, with Don Grovestine's Campbell River CYBL, and I suspect his 5 other British Columbia airports are also affected. However, I had to place the lightfield bgl into the CYBL scenery folder before the fix was effective. But it works nevertheless. Thanks for opening this thread--I couldn't figure out what the problem was and hesitated bringing it up on an ORBX forum, since it didn't appear to be an ORBX problem, and I really didn't want to bother Don about it. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD_Flier Posted January 8, 2016 Author Share Posted January 8, 2016 You're welcome. I enjoy chasing down the answers to issues like these. I learn a lot that way. I wish Steve would change the manual from: "Legacy runway, taxiway and PAPI lights are often a problem. Typically they may turn on and off as the viewing angle changes." to: Airport, runway, taxiway and PAPI lights are often a problem. They may turn on and off as the viewing angle changes, or as other lights are activated... I would have never doubted that the light field was the answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stewart Hobson Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 As it turns out, only 3 of the six needed correction. All six now work perfectly. Again, thanks for the tip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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