Hello Microsoft/Asobo,
This is just a follow up to my preceding post about the same subject, dated Feb. 24, 2024, that received no answer to this date.
Our aircraft light effects, based on the default Asobo (legacy) light effects that are used in the sim, still appear square instead of round when displayed, although we are using the same texture (FX_0.png) that is used for the Asobo lights. This texture consists of a circular (white to black) gradient surrounded by a pure black background that should not appear when displayed but should be transparent. Unfortunately, our light effects appear like luminous squares. Why?
Fortunately, they are so small that it’s not obvious for the user, but nevertheless, this should not be.
We tried using different color backgrounds, a transparent background, even an alpha channel for the transparent background. We also used different blend modes in the FX file, without success.
In addition, we noticed that our (particle) light effects become smaller when we zoom into the model with the camera (in the exterior view) and they grow larger when we zoom out. Why?
The [LightAttributes.0] section at the end of the FX file (for the spotlight, Type=spot) produces the expected result and the projected light effect is accurately displayed in the sim. It’s only with the particle’s texture that we have this issue.
Again, anything we missed that should be rechecked?
Same comment as before: Until lights can be created with the new SFX editor, it would be very useful to have a section in the SDK about the slightly modified legacy light effects that are still in use in the sim. There are some parameters in the light effect file such as “NearEndFade” that we are unfamiliar with and for which we cannot find any information, even in the legacy FSX special effects SDK.
Thank you.
Alain
Producer
Xtreme Prototypes Development Team
Montreal, Canada
My original post:
https://devsupport.flightsimulator.com/t/several-issues-with-aircraft-light-effects/8331
SPECS:
Using MSFS v1.37.19.0 (latest update), SDK 0.24.3.
Dell Alienware R15 AMD (latest update)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12-Core Processor 3.70 GHz
Windows 11 Pro (latest update)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (using NVDIA DLSS Super Resolution mode MSFS graphics options)