I’m enjoying modding the lights of my favorite planes. I’m making the strobes more powerful , the red beacons brighter. That sort of thing.
But to test the modded lights out means a constant time consuming process:
Mod lights in Notepad
Launch game
Wait for game to load to map screen
Type airport name
Pick start position
Launch flight
Test lights
End flight
Quit to Desktop
Back to Step # 1
…again and again and again…
I wish there was an in-game menu function where it would detect changes to anything in the Community folder and ask if we want to refresh to register those changes.
Is there some software out there I can just drag the plane into and test these things quickly instead of loading and reloading the game?
I wish! Or hope someone comes on here and posts a way. I’ve done a bit of airport development and that bit can get painful.
The final build and load with the sim is always a little different than what you see in the SDK.
I use Addon Linker and unload most community content when I’m developing. At least it helps speed up the process. That and it prevents me from accidentally using non-base sim content.
You are right about this being a time-consuming process. There are some things you can do to speed it up.
To mod an existing plane, you can create a new project with a different name and copy the existing aircraft files into that project. It would be like you are creating a new aircraft. This way you can use the aircraft editor and other tools in dev mode. With this workflow, you can edit and rebuild the project to see the change.
The lighting system has a debug screen that allows you to preview changes to the lighting effects. This does not save the changes, but does let you see them in real time. You still have to edit the effect files by hand. After you do most of the edits, you can create the mod as you normally would and test.
Also, in the behavior debugger, there is a quick reload command that can refresh many settings without closing the sim.
Thanks very much for this, I didn’t know any of this and I’m eager to test it out!
Even if it cannot save it will save massive amounts of time if I can just see the effects of the tweaks (the power of the lights).
Once I’m happy I’ll just make a note of the values and plug them into the .txt file, close the game, relaunch and test again on the ground and by flying around at night.
I had this screenshot where maybe you can get the idea. It’s helpful to identify where the lights are located and aimed. You can open up the Emitters tab to modify the light properties.
Best of luck to make the mod that’s perfect for you. Personalization is important in aviation and in this sim, it’s possible.
The simple answer is yes. You can make changes via the Aircraft Editor tools as already suggested, or if you want to keep making the changes directly in the relevant .cfg file etc you can do this too.
For this option you will still need to download the SDK, run the sim in dev mode and open an aicraft project - but this can be any project as you will not be using project editor tools. You can make your edits in the file directly and then do a ‘resynch’ - that reloads Community on-the-fly without a sim restart and your direct edits will be applied.
Both methods have their pros and cons. The direct-edit method I describe is good when you want to tweak values not showing in a debugging tool (eg certain flight dynamics parameters). It’s also good if you are getting compiling errors or issues within the editor tools. Using the dev mode editors can be good when the debug tools let you see the changes made right away.
That really helps thank you, i know what to look for now. I haven’t got a chance yet to sit down at the PC cant wait to try this out! for sure personalization is so important and I’m glad the files are easily accessible and all you need is Notepad. I use Sublime Text which is super!
Thanks very much for this info that is exciting to know about the comm file resynch that will be so useful. I got a lot of learning to do and will follow along yours and the others instructions and suggestions. Once Im happy that the lights look good and realistic I will share them to flightsim dot to and post the link on here to see what you all think!
Be careful or you’ll get bit by the development bug! I think I have way more SDK time than flying time.
I’m not sure if it’s the same with airplane development, but scenery development does look a little different in the SDK compared to loading it in the sim. It’s usually more polished looking in the final export.
I got a bad feeling this is whats going to happen when Friday evening comes. I’m going to be glued to the PC looking at beacons , strobes, landing lights, taxi lights, watching YT vids trying to match the colors…
Interior lighting improvements/fixes are one of my favorite reasons for the community mods.
The TBM 930 Improvement project had really nice interior and exterior lighting improvements but AAU1 broke that mod. I really hate using the default version now.
Yes, I hear you. Its a constant game of cat & mouse with the updates. You enjoy a mod but dread the incoming update that for sure will smash it.
The best light mod I have come across is the UWA one. In fact I asked the author if I could tweak some of his work and he kindly said sure go ahead. This is the modding spirit I like!
If you’re interested its this one (this is the original authors work not mine)
I posted this way back in Nov. 2020. I think the developer mode menus have been reordered since then. But this is how I used to modify config files without restarting:
" But you do NOT have to restart MSFS to see the effect of a change in the .cfg file, it can be seen on the fly. Do the file changes with MSFS running and Developers Mode on and while flying the plane in a flight.
Click DevMode, New Project, OK.
Click Tools, Aircraft Editor, File, Resync.
After you see the aircraft pop out and back into view, close those 2 menu windows, there is no reason to save the project, so click NO when asked.
A refresh button for the community and aircraft folders in the main menu could remedy that. Takes a bit of loading time but better than a complete restart.
Yes that would be ideal. Just tell the game to re-scan Community while we are on the launch screen.
They could put that feature in the Content Manager section.
In X-Plane11/12 you can add/remove airplanes into the folder while the games running and it will detect this, saving you from having to restart. MSFS should copy this…
I haven’t tried it with scenery though.
It still works fine. Its basically what I use all the time. I make edits directly in the .cfg and then do a resynch and test the new values. Speeds up flight testing by a factor of 100 at least!
I think I have way more SDK time than flying time.