Dome Light vs Spotlights
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I don't fly often at night as I favour VFR, but with the clock changes and dull UK weather recently, I've had a few IFR flights running into darkness lately. I think the dome light could be improved in terms of its light spread. I wonder what others think.
I know we have the Alt-L flashlight option, but my feeling is that the Duke's dome light should have a much wider light spread across the cockpit. It has a rather narrow light cone, covering the seats and pedestal but that's all. It seems identical to the passenger spotlights in the back in terms of the light cone, despite have a large, rectangular cover which should diffuse the light more. Again, just my opinion / educated guess.
Reason for asking is that startup/shutdown can be challenging in the dark. Even with dome + panel lights on, many switches are very much in the dark and hard to find without the flashlight. If I'm in VR, Alt-L is a difficult keybind to find too! (I could change it, but don't normally need it.)
Compare the two images between light cone of the front dome light (top) and rear passenger spotlights (bottom). Very similar:
This is the Grand Duke. Haven't flown the others in a while but assume they're the same. Thanks for any consideration :)
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@Rolo-Bach that's the light I am referring to with 'dome light' (the aircraft manual refers to it as a flood light, having just checked).
See the top image: you can see the large, rectangular panel that is lit in the roof. It should cast a much wider, softer light than a focussed spotlight, yet it appears to shine down between the pilot and copilot positions just like a narrow spotlight - just like those for the passengers in the back.
Quick edit to say I've had a glance in the aircraft files. The below from systems.cfg. I imagine this first line of code is for the flood light and could be tweaked to change the "LIGHT_ASOBO_CockpitSpot" to something else. As it seemed, it uses the same light file as the passenger spots - guess that file determines the light cone/brightness/colour etc. I seem to recall there's a light editor in the tools in Dev Mode; might try it out next time I load up the sim.
//Cabin lightdef.61 = Type:10#Index:1#LocalPosition:0.15,0,3.35#LocalRotation:90,0,0#EffectFile:LIGHT_ASOBO_CockpitSpot#PotentiometerIndex:8 lightdef.62 = Type:10#Index:2#LocalPosition:-3.65,-0.52,3.35#LocalRotation:80,0,90#EffectFile:LIGHT_ASOBO_CockpitSpot#PotentiometerIndex:18 lightdef.63 = Type:10#Index:3#LocalPosition:-3.65,0.52,3.35#LocalRotation:80,0,-90#EffectFile:LIGHT_ASOBO_CockpitSpot#PotentiometerIndex:19 lightdef.64 = Type:10#Index:4#LocalPosition:-6.78,-0.52,3.25#LocalRotation:83,0,90#EffectFile:LIGHT_ASOBO_CockpitSpot#PotentiometerIndex:20 lightdef.65 = Type:10#Index:5#LocalPosition:-6.78,0.52,3.25#LocalRotation:83,0,-90#EffectFile:LIGHT_ASOBO_CockpitSpot#PotentiometerIndex:21 lightdef.66 = Type:9#Index:1#LocalPosition:5.0,0.0,1.6#LocalRotation:100,0,0#EffectFile:bksq_Duke_NoseBaggageLight#PotentiometerIndex:9 //BaggageLight -
@Rolo-Bach I don't use any of those tools but thanks for the offer. I still believe we're talking about the same thing, i.e. flood light = dome light. Or is there another light in the aircraft which has no clickable cockpit switch/button in the 3D model?
Here is the extract from page 59 of the manual about the flood light. This is the one I am using (but I called it a dome light), and its effect is shown in my first screenshot above.
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OK, I had a quick look at the lighting options via Dev Mode. Really handy actually :) A picture speaks a thousand words!
Here's the default light, showing the origin and the lighting cone using the ASOBO_CockpitSpot effect:
And here's the same light but with the "outer" property increased to give a wider cone of light (almost 180°). This is just what I was wanting to see from the flood/dome light in the Duke. The light reaches most of the cockpit from the diffusion of the light cover:
Now, I'm not sure how to save that so it actually gets used in the aircraft. Those properties such as "inner" and "outer" are baked into the .fx files as far as I can see.
However, I tried changing the name of the light effect file to see if any others would be suitable - then the systems.cfg file can be updated to use a different kind of light.
Here's the ASOBO_CockpitSpotLarge light. It's better than the original effect, also a less warm light, but still quite focussed - note it doesn't catch the top of the instrument panel, but but it does light up the floor quite well:
The ASOBO_CockpitSpotWideShort effect is not much use, only just reaching the armrest:
There's an effect called ASOBO_CabinBounce (not shown) and ASOBO_CabinBounceLarge (below) which gives more of ambient light. It's dim, but it does provide a nice, wide light so all the switches and controls are visible:
So, two final comparison shots to close out.
Here's the CabinBounceLarge (left) vs the original CockpitSpot (right), when sitting in the left seat with nothing but the battery and flood light on. I know which I prefer ;)
Sorry for the long post. I found it fun to experiment. If nothing else, I can swap out light 61 in the systems.cfg file for the CabinBounceLarge effect as a workaround (probably) until Nick has a chance to review. I'm no aircraft developer, just a curious flight simmer!
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@Rolo-Bach OK, I understood now. That one just lights up the instrument panel (white or red or a combination) and I use it when flying, but it doesn't light up other important areas around the cockpit, such as the switches on the left side (fuel pumps, cowl flaps), which are particularly important when on the ground. Means a lot of fumbling around in the dark.
@Raller glad to hear the .cfg change works. I hadn't actually tried it yet, so thanks for being a guinea pig :)
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@Mustang said in Dome Light vs Spotlights:
And here's the same light but with the "outer" property increased to give a wider cone of light (almost 180°). This is just what I was wanting to see from the flood/dome light in the Duke. The light reaches most of the cockpit from the diffusion of the light cover:
That's my favourite of the ones you showed off. (Perhaps fine tuned a bit further with slightly less intensity).
I feel the bounce effect is too much all-round lightning, with the roof being just as bright as the things the light is facing. Perhaps a combo, with a much reduced intensity of the bounce and then the spot effect to give the best of both worlds.
I have had the exact same trouble seeing the switches outside the main panel during night ground-ops. -
@Avionic I agree with you 100%, the wider spotlight is better (if a bit too intense) than the 'cabin bounce' effect. To implement our own fix, as far as I have read, we'd need to copy one of the Asobo light .fx files to create a new light with the wider cone and reduced intensity (easy enough), and then reference it in the systems.cfg file. It might also be necessary to put the path to the effects folder (with the new effect) in the aircraft.cfg file. I've skimmed the SDK and it gives all the information for each part, but doesn't 'join the dots', so I'm not sure if would work or whether more steps are needed.
I'll wait for an expert on this one. If I try it and fail, I'll likely waste hours trying to solve it out of dogged determination. I'm not sure it's worth that much time investment so it's safer not to start! I can get by with the cabin bounce effect for now until something better comes along.
