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Interesting find - Autogen Tree/Night Lighting view distance tweak

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Rob Newman from Orbx has found and posted this tweak. Looks really interesting.

 

Here's the original quote from Rob and link to forum post 

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/84653-p3d-autogen-treenight-lighting-view-distance/

 

Hi all...

 

I adopted P3D back at the 2.2 stage and have been a very happy camper since then... But one thing that always bugged me a little was how the autogen buildings were always visible from much further away than the trees (and subsequently, the Orbx Night Lighting). 

 

After some experimenting however, I appear to have found (what to some may be quite obvious!) a solution that works for me.

 

Basically, the LOD_Radius in P3D no longer applies to trees it would seem. The Autogen trees have been completely separated from the buildings and now obey the rules of an entirely different setting line in the config files. These settings are not found in the P3D menu, and have to be adjusted by hand in the prepar3d.cfg file.

 

Open up the prepar3d.cfg file (in my case, C:\Users\Rob\AppData\Roaming\Lockheed Martin\Prepar3D v2\prepar3d.cfg) and look for the following lines in the [sCENERY] section:

 

AUTOGEN_TREE_MAX_DRAW_DISTANCE=9500.000000
AUTOGEN_TREE_MIN_DISTANCE_TO_LOD=2500.000000
 
Adjust the number how you like, but for me, I prefer:
 
AUTOGEN_TREE_MAX_DRAW_DISTANCE=12000.000000
AUTOGEN_TREE_MIN_DISTANCE_TO_LOD=6500.000000
 
This gives me trees that appear at the same distance as buildings (the 12000.000000 setting) but still can thin themselves out in the far distance to help frames and VAS usage.
 
It's worth noting, entering anything higher than 12000.000000 is pointless, as this is the highest setting and it will automatically reset to this number if you do try higher.
 
 
As for how 12000.000000 (for the trees) equates to 6.5 (for the maximum lod radius), I'm not sure... I'm guessing that LM uses nautical miles for LOD radius and kilometers for tree draw disdtance wink.png
 
Anyway, applying this adjustment gave me trees as far as buildings, at much higher distances, and had the knock on effect of increasing the night lighting view distance to a very respectable level too.
 
 
Remember, you can't get something for nothing, so VAS usage will be higher, but if like me you just want your buildings and trees to match, then this might be your answer smile.png
 
 

 

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Thanks, but I do not understand what the connection is between the trees and night lighting.

 

The Orbx/FTX night lights along streets etc. are in fact trees in the shape of a light. So changing the vegetation/tree autogen density and distance will also change the Orbx/FTX night lights density and distance.

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The Orbx/FTX night lights along streets etc. are in fact trees in the shape of a light. So changing the vegetation/tree autogen density and distance will also change the Orbx/FTX night lights density and distance.

Thank you, I discovered a new thing.

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If the light is a tree, then there is no way to lower it's intensity nor size is that correct? I kept trying to use the lighting app and set it to size 3 or something and saw no effect.

 

 

Bob

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ORBX street lights can be adjusted in size, color, and intensity via the FTX Global Lights Configurator.

 

Frans

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ORBX street lights can be adjusted in size, color, and intensity via the FTX Global Lights Configurator.

 

Frans

Ran the and even went down to the smallest size and it made no difference whatsoever. Would be nice if I could find out what the problem is. This is the PNW region.

 

Bob

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Is your PNW fully updated? It was relatively recently that the region was updated to the new FTX Global style lighting, the FTXG light configurator would have no effect on the old effects based lighting, likewise the old lights tweaker would have no effect on the new autogen based lighting. The latest PNW service pack should bring you up to date if you happen to be a couple SPs behind. Haven't tried the new FTXG light configurator yet myself, for what it's worth the textures for the new lights are in scenery\global\texture, the !ORBXLight*.bmp and !Neon_*.bmp ones, they could be swapped around or edited manually to change the look of the lights if a person so desired.

 

Jim

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ORBX street lights can be adjusted in size, color, and intensity via the FTX Global Lights Configurator.

 

Frans

 

I think that configurator only works with the old style FTX lights: the 'autogen-tree-lights' are quite new (introcuced last year, I think).

 

EDIT

Jim has a more precise and correct answer. ^_^

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This adjustment has actually been around for a while ... it does have a performance hit associated with it especially in high density larger cities.  Also be aware the adjustment may revert back if you make and changes in your display settings.

 

But it will extend the lights out a little further so if you have performance to spare, it's a good adjustment.

 

Cheers, Rob.

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Is your PNW fully updated? It was relatively recently that the region was updated to the new FTX Global style lighting, the FTXG light configurator would have no effect on the old effects based lighting, likewise the old lights tweaker would have no effect on the new autogen based lighting. The latest PNW service pack should bring you up to date if you happen to be a couple SPs behind. Haven't tried the new FTXG light configurator yet myself, for what it's worth the textures for the new lights are in scenery\global\texture, the !ORBXLight*.bmp and !Neon_*.bmp ones, they could be swapped around or edited manually to change the look of the lights if a person so desired.

 

Jim

OK I am a little confused now that I look at my installation.

 

My versions txt file in the orbx directory shows SP8. When I look in the user documents folder I have  PNW USER GUIDE, SP5 USER GUIDE, SP6 USER GUIDE AND SP8 USER GUIDE. 

In my scripts folder I have FTXLIGHTS.EXE 9/8/2008, FTX_Lights_P3D_Day and FTX_Lights_P3D_Night both Dated 10/18/2008. When I run the FTXLights, it shows I have it set to #4, but the lights are huge and never changed. I would assume that the day and night exe's do not work anymore. The latest libs are140703

 

Anyway, I do not have a clue.

 

Bob

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Hmmm, I made this change but it didn't seem to work for me.  I noticed large patches or areas without trees that as they came closer the trees popped in.  Also I didn't see the night lighting extend any farther out than normal, which isn't very far.

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The Orbx/FTX night lights along streets etc. are in fact trees in the shape of a light.
 Sounds very festive.  Jolly 'Ol Orbx.

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OK I am a little confused now that I look at my installation.

 

My versions txt file in the orbx directory shows SP8. When I look in the user documents folder I have  PNW USER GUIDE, SP5 USER GUIDE, SP6 USER GUIDE AND SP8 USER GUIDE. 

In my scripts folder I have FTXLIGHTS.EXE 9/8/2008, FTX_Lights_P3D_Day and FTX_Lights_P3D_Night both Dated 10/18/2008. When I run the FTXLights, it shows I have it set to #4, but the lights are huge and never changed. I would assume that the day and night exe's do not work anymore. The latest libs are140703

 

Anyway, I do not have a clue.

 

Bob

 

It sounds to me like you should be up to date with PNW. This is the lights configurator you should be using:

 

http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/76904-orbx-ftxg-lights-configurator

 

FTXLights.exe dated 2008 is the old one that configured the old effects based lights. That should still configure some of the old style lights that were used in the default region airports though so don't delete it just yet. When you install the configurator linked above you'll have another one named "FTX GLOBAL Lights Configurator.exe" (but it'll put an icon on your desktop for it). I agree it's a little confusing, lol.

 

The day and night exe's should still toggle the airport lights. Now that the region as a whole has gone to the global style lights I'd think it'd be safe to switch to FTX Night mode and leave it there, there were usually only half a dozen or so of those effects based lights placed at each airport. It was the massive use of them in the autogen files that caused the performance hit.

 

Jim

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