Cockpit Lights

[368thFG_FC]

Hello All, was just wondering if there is a way to backlight the gauges in the Stock F4's in WOV. Any of you that mod is it possible? Speaking as an old F-4 crewcheif 474TFW the cockpit of the phantom at night was an awesome sight during runups after maintence, to set in the seat and look at the gauges and lights. Seems to me it would add a great deal of immersion to flying the F-4's or any aircraft. For being considered a light sim with the mods available and all the information posted here in these forums,it sure has brought back alot of good memories for an old knuckle dragger. My hats off to all of you who post and mod and frequent these pages with all your help.

[+76.IAP-Blackbird]

I would welcome this, also the seperate activation ot different lights, like in FS9 or X you can switch on/off landing lights, Nav lights and strobe or how it`s called in english. Also would be cool to have the Pit lights

[Jug]

I would welcome this, also the seperate activation ot different lights, like in FS9 or X you can switch on/off landing lights, Nav lights and strobe or how it`s called in english. Also would be cool to have the Pit lights

 

I have had a lot of fun adding landing lights to aircraft. Some aircraft have landing light files you can cut and paste from here in CA's download area, but for those aircraft that are not listed, you can try this:

 

Add this to the bottom of the [aircraft]_data.ini:

 

[LandingLight]

SystemType=LIGHT

Color=0.88,0.88,0.88

Brightness=0.50

//Position=[right/left of centerline],[fwd/aft from acft center],[above/below acft center]

Position=0.0,4.6,-1.6

LightSrcOffset=0.0,0.0,0.1

LightSrcRange=150

LightRange=45.0

CanFlash=FALSE

LightNodeName=LandingLight

IsLandingLight=TRUE

 

Add this to the bottom of the [Fuselage] (or sometimes the [Nose]) section:

 

SystemName[XXX]=LandingLight

 

Change the XXX to be the next sequential number.

 

Then if you follow the positioning info line above in the [LandingLights] section and move the numbers around, you can put the light on the nose gear above the wheel as is common on many aircraft or doubleup and put the lights just below the wing near the main landing gear. If you double up, rename the [LandingLights] to [LeftLandingLight] and [RightLandingLight] and add the SystemName[XXX] to the appropriate wing. Play around with the numbers until you see the bright light around the area that you want it to be and correct from there. CTRL-L turns the nav lights on along with the landing light and I have found resting on the runway ready for takeoff is a good place to test corrections in positioning of the lights. Some aircraft (F-106) have lights on the nose gear and under both wings. The lights go off and come on with gear retraction and extension respectively.

 

This is an easy mod and fun for someone who is new to the game or of limited capacity like myself.

[+76.IAP-Blackbird]

I knwo this procedure but what I wanted to say that you can switch only landing lights on without having Navlights on...

[Jug]

I knwo this procedure but what I wanted to say that you can switch only landing lights on without having Navlights on...

 

No. You can re-program the CTRL-L to a joystick or throttle button, but the nav lights are linked to the landing light. I realize I was a little off topic since discussion on this thread is about instrument lights, but I thought to toss in the landing light thing. I think I have read here on a previous post that there is some linkage as to when (what time of day) the interior lights come on and when (what time of day) the runway lights come on in the knowledge base. However, instrument lights, their colors, and which ones actually illuminate are not programmable that I know of.

[+Bongodriver]

You can have illuminated instruments, take a look at my typhoon, all the digital displays are illuminated at night, but as jug says, there is no function for actually switching them on, unless they were linked to a spare external animation.

[368thFG_FC]

Thanks Guys it's a shame that they either have no way to turn on or they are just not hardcoded into the sim. The F-4 was an awesome bird at night in the pit all the lights and buzzers the roar of the engines. I think every crewcheif for a bit anyhow became the greatest ace that never took off. Thank You for the ini info I now am a little closer I have landing lights cool.

[+Zurawski]

Hmmm...

 

Would mapping them to a self-illuminated texture (like the slimers on my Osprey) work? Granted they wouldn't "glow" per say... but they would appear to illuminate.

 

...Gonna have to experiment now... damn-it... like I don't have enough to do.

 

LOL!

[368thFG_FC]

Zurawski, please keep us informed if you are able to get the pit lights to work or appear to work.Thanks in advance for any and all effort,I think alot of people would like to have pit lights. Flying at night or in low light conditions,such as heavy clouds and rain,it's very hard for an old knuckle dragger like me to see the gauges without being zoomed in.

[+Bongodriver]

Would mapping them to a self-illuminated texture (like the slimers on my Osprey) work? Granted they wouldn't "glow" per say... but they would appear to illuminate.

 

 

That is exactly what I did with the typhoon, so yes it works, IMHO it works best for digital displays, not sure how analog instruments would look if done that way.