ANSWERED FTX Global Lights: how to change nothing but the color to more orange?

[Stefan1182]

Dear Orbx team and community,

 

first of all: it is about orange lights - yes, the topic has been discussed in these forums, but I only have a small detail question that will hopefully bring me further!

 

 

I use the FTX GLOBAL Lights Configurator and already set the most warm colors as those are the most realistic ones. The dominating color is (in my szenario) the yellow light which is quite...yellow.

In realitiy, those lights are far more orange and warm. I gave it a try and changed the RGB-values in all lights-fx files to warmer ones, but no change.

 

Now, what worked for me is changing the 4 color bitmaps "!ORBXLightB.bmp" (...-O, -W, -Y) via DXTBMP and Gimp. BUT : When I do so, the lights with the now great colors become extremely small. Only those which I recolored, e.g. the -Y and -O.

 

 

I was wondering where I can find the textures that define the shape of the lights, because the bmp's mentioned (in my case they look like "REX1" from the FTX 3D Lights Tweaker within FTX Central)

semm to set only the color, but not shape and size.

I also tweaked all files within "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\ORBX\Scripts\Lights\Halo.1 (1-6)", but no change at all within FSX.

 

So if you could kindly tell me where to finde the file(s) that define the shape of the lights in the end? I know, you do not support tweaking around, but I am just one meter before enjoying realistic, orange night lights! Pleeeeeease help me! 

 

Many thanks, Stefan

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Stefan,

 

it's the mipmaps embedded in the textures that define shape and size of the lights with increasing distance from the user aircraft. Since the default mipmaps get too small too quickly you'll have to learn to manipulate them individually to achieve the same result as our original textures. I'm not aware of any tutorial for this but your best bet would probably be a search/post at fsdeveloper.

 

Cheers, Holger

[Adam Banks]

I'm a bit wary of tweaking perfectly decent payware scenery but I'm quite intrigued by this topic.

Holger - is there one specific set of lights for *street lights* only? I'm interested, as most of the street lighting in the UK (for instance) is yellow/sodium - and very distinctive. You really wouldn't want to apply that colouring to any other lights. Also - would these edited colours affect other FTX areas (other than the UK I mean)?

Adam.

[Stefan1182]

Hi Stefan,

 

it's the mipmaps embedded in the textures that define shape and size of the lights with increasing distance from the user aircraft. Since the default mipmaps get too small too quickly you'll have to learn to manipulate them individually to achieve the same result as our original textures. I'm not aware of any tutorial for this but your best bet would probably be a search/post at fsdeveloper.

 

Cheers, Holger

Hi Holger,

 

thanks for your kind feedback. I will try to find a solution at fsdeveloper.

 

Maybe I can simplify my wish a bit: I do not want to change ANYTHING but the file(s) where FTX lights get their color from. No vectors, no shapes, no sizes. Everything is perfect.

 

What irritates me is the fact that I DID find those two files because my color tweaking works perfectly within FSX. But as a side effect (whyever), the size of the lights with the tweaked color chances to veeery small whereas the non-tweaked files stay large and bright. This does not make sense to my non-developer-brain. Even if I paint a yellow wall orange, it should still be... a wall, right?

 

Cheers, Stefan

[Holger Sandmann]

Hi Stefan,

 

I realize that changing the color is all you want to do but things aren't always as simple as they may appear at first. My previous answer outlines what is involved so that's what you'll have to dig into.

 

Adam, basically the same answer applies: there are many interrelated files at work with the lighting system so what you'd like to see would require some serious work and, yes, it would affect more than just one FTX region.

 

Cheers, Holger

[Adam Banks]

Thanks, Holger - I'm leaving well alone !

Adam.