Apron Lighting - FS9

[g.forwood]

Hi everyone,
I'm making a new (fictional) airport, and I have got to the stage of doing lighting for the aprons - I'm just wondering if there is any way to have different colours of light over the apron? This link shows a photo of what I'm trying to do, with a combination of the greenish light and the orange lights.

http://www.airliners.net/photo/-/-/0669015/L/&tbl=AIRPORT&photo_nr=118&sok=WHERE__(place_%3D_%27Frankfurt_am_Main_(Rhein-Main_AB)_(FRA_ESCSLASH_FRF_ESCSLASH_EDDF)%27)_&sort=_order_by_photo_id_DESC_&prev_id=0673729&next_id=0661775

I'm using 3DS Max - will the lights I create there have any effect on the aprons I create in AFCAD?

Thanks for any help that can be offered.

Gareth

[Flying Officer Jevans]

If you attach an effect onto a specific light, and place these lights round the aprons, it will be the exact colour you specified.

[g.forwood]

Thanks for that - just wondering tho, how do you attach effects? is this done through gmax or do you need another program?

[scruffyduck]

You can place effects directly in FS. In fact there are several light effects that could be used I think and placed directly on the ground. For FS9 something like SBuilder or Object Placer XML can place effects

[g.forwood]

I have EZ-scenery - is that able to place effects too? Also, I read the Gmax AttachTool documentation, and it said you can attach any of the effects that are currently installed in FS9 - is there any way to preview them first? And do you know of any tutorials on how to make my own effects?
Thanks heaps for the replies so far!

[scruffyduck]

No EZ-Scenery can't place effects as I recall.

If you create your own objects in GMax then clearly you can attach effects to them. Otherwise you can only attach effects to objects that have attach points (such as towers to take beacons).

I am not aware of any way to preview effects apart from placing them in FS and seeing how they look.

Designing your own effects is an arcane art. The usual place to check for tutorials related to FS is http://www.scenery.org/tutorials.htm but there do not seem to be any

There is a discussion forum here: http://www.fsdeveloper.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=45 and this is probably the best place to start.

[g.forwood]

Thankyou so much for all that, I'll check out that forum!
Thanks also for such a quick reply.
Gareth

[Flying Officer Jevans]

To preview FX, you can use the FX SDK in FS to look at them. Doesn't work on my system, but there you go.