My question is for SDK developers:
Each time I want to draw a light row, I have to select the “type” and the “spacing” between lights. WHY cannot I just select and change it once and it stays there at least until I re-start the SDK? And Who calculated 60.959999 meters? Is this a standard at airports?
This is too frustrating when you have to draw hundreds of light rows beside taxi lines. I know Taxiway paths have light option but they are no good at all with differing light spacing throughout the whole project.
Thanks for the reply but I know it, my question was “not” what it equals to in feet. If you are one of the SDK developers, then I should not ask any more questions in order not to get such answers.
When I first read your post, I guessed that you wouldn’t get a reply directly from the developers – they may have taken a note of this, and may even do something about it, but you probably will never know.
However I did wait a while before replying, just in case someone had more info, and after a while it became obvious that nobody was answering. Then it just came down to the fact that this is a public forum, and if someone else was wondering about the distance, then I could point them in the right direction.
I hope you get the answer you want at some point.
The constant number that you cannot freely fix to “whatever you want to use througout your project” in SDK is fixed to 60.959999 and not even 60 or 61. Does it really have to be soooo precise? Not being able to change it to my liking is my main question. For example, I mostly use a custom taxi line and every time I want to draw a light row beside it, I have to first change the type and then the spacing. The first option should be whatever I used last time both in type and in spacing to make the tool user friendly.
To answer your question, yes, it does need to be so precise, if it’s to follow regulations. the difference between 60.96 and 61 will add up quickly over a mile.
The .9599999 is likely related to machine precision of number representation digitally. To show it differently would require another piece of code to recognize such things (not an easy one at that), and round the display. Possible, but, then people will get peaved that it’s rounding the numbers they put in, not to mention “ain’t nobody got no time for that”… I dunno, maybe they do… kinda the least of my worries, but, yeah, I hear you.
Your real concern, should it remember the last value you put in? I agree with that…
Thanks. I also know that but when you do that, then “unnecessary” (copy), (copy 1), … remarks are added to the name of the asset which makes thing worse for me. Who needs all that addition to the asset names which means nothing at all other than adding more data to read for the packager. Mind you, I am not dealing with a small regional airport at the moment. I advise developers to study WED for X-Plane as it is much user friendly than SDK.
As for the decimal precision, how can you discriminate 60.96m against 61m in a simulator? There are only 26.4 of the precise 7 digit decimal number in a mile against 26,382688 of the rounded one! (difference being 26.4 * 4 cm = 1.056 meter/mile) This could be required for runway lights but my question was not related to runways.
Are we really looking at such a precision in our projects and in MSFS 2020? This does not seem real for a simulator that could not add a giant airport to it’s data since 2020!
And if an airport places them at 61 meters instead of 60.9599999, will it not be accepted by the authorities (here, authorities are simulator pilots) as a “landable” one?
Yes sir, my real concern is to push developers to make things easier for the non pro, end users like me.
Here is a ss from my project and another one from a yt video rl landing at LAX
The only difference I see is that we do not have the option of amber/green lights to use in our projects.
Spacings also differ depending on the curvature of the taxi lines. If we are talking about “as real as it gets” then we should be more demanding.
And finally, thanks for agreeing with me on the “last value” issue.
The displayName (copy and so on) are ignored by the “packager”, because they don’t serve any purpose in the bgl.
They are there to help you discriminating the items in the scenery editor.
Are
Light Row
Light Row*
Light Row*
(adding one by one instead of duplication)
More helpful to know what and where the specific light Row is?
And yes, the msfs game can provide millimetric precision when placing stuff in the world, and is needed e.g. to place a piece of paper on a wall
Btw I was simply suggesting you a method to speed up your work (duplicate stuff).
Maybe suggest to the Dev to remove some decimals from that textbox would be more appreciated than complaining about it, because it can be your own personal preference, maybe other devs may need more precision
Obviously remember last setting could be an option, but that for sure will need Developer and computational work (save a to file each time a setting is changed)
The point everyone is making is not that, but rather that the default is 200 feet, the FAA standard. The dev mode UI is just displaying that 200 feet in metres.
If any one of the “devs” have anything to say about this subject, I am all ears.
We all read and write in English but I think we do not understand each other so please don’t bother to reply if you are not one of the developers.
At the risk of putting my head in the lion’s mouth, the title “SDK developers” can be interpreted to be referring to developers who use the MSFS SDK. As FlyingsCool said, we’re all developers. If the title were to say, “A few questions to the developers of the SDK,” that might clear up some ambiguity.
No one who has replied in this thread is on the team that developed the SDK.
The people who work for the SDK team are the people listed on this page:
Unfortunately, the team has limited time at the moment (one of them told this to me a few months ago), probably because of the impending release of MSFS 2024. It is improbable that they will be replying to anything in here for the next few months, so unfortunately, support from the community is probably the only thing you might get for a while.
This could be required for runway lights but my question was not related to runways.
