Fix a searchlight pointing straight up

[Charon]

Is there anyway to have a searchlight just pointing straight up?

 

I'm trying to emulate this wild sau runway lighting.

 

 

 

[Sketch]

As far as I'm aware, you're not able to point the landing lights upwards, and the searchlights, well... search. 

 

This is a landing light, and as you can see it points forward, you can rotate its facing but not point the light upwards.

 

 

Here's a searchlight that's tracking an enemy plane. In this case, it is pointing upwards, but only because the light is tracking an enemy. Otherwise, the light would continue to search all around. This is the best you can do with the limitations of the mission editor.

 

 

 

Here's the logic behind the curtain to make all this happen.

 

 

 

And here's the mission file for you to examine and reverse engineer.

NightLight.zip

 

 

I also created a multiplayer Wilde Sau mission for Combat Box's Friday Night Flights event. I'm using similar logic to light up the runways and each objective has its own searchlights. You can read the mission briefing here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UUc-K-jLvOAyANzd1_paT7KVnjNEPN7IvG0mlVVJN8Q/edit?usp=sharing and you're free to see my logic and reverse engineer/borrow anything you want from the mission. 

Wilde_Sau_Sept_1943.zip

 

If you have questions let us know on the forums or ping me on Discord.

[Charon]

Thanks, that's what I suspected.

 

The best option for me may just be a janky-looking pillar of stacked 'lightmax' effect objects.

[357th_KW]

Crazy thought - what if you put the searchlight a little further out.  Put an AI aircraft over the airfield at VERY high altitude, flying directly down the runway at minimum flying speed?  The movement of the searchlight beam might not be apparent if it was tracking directly in line with the takeoff runway.

[Charon]

 

Not ideal, but here's what I wound up doing. It was functional enough.

[Sketch]

3 hours ago, 357th_KW said:

Crazy thought - what if you put the searchlight a little further out.  Put an AI aircraft over the airfield at VERY high altitude, flying directly down the runway at minimum flying speed?  The movement of the searchlight beam might not be apparent if it was tracking directly in line with the takeoff runway.

This is what I did in my mission example above.The searchlight has limited range. I think it's around 3k, maybe less. 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

9 hours ago, I./JG3_Charon said:

 

Not ideal, but here's what I wound up doing. It was functional enough.

Never noticed this "lightmax" effect before; was it added recently? I could use something like that for runway lighting.

 

Anyhow, you might also think about using a series of flares; e.g. 1 flare every 10 seconds for 1 minute long, fired from a position at the end of the runway. Different, yes, but a similar thing that the Germans *might* have done in such a case

[IckyATLAS]

On 8/29/2023 at 9:40 AM, Charon said:

Thanks, that's what I suspected.

 

The best option for me may just be a janky-looking pillar of stacked 'lightmax' effect objects.

What is a "Lightmax" effect object?

[Charon]

5 hours ago, IckyATLAS said:

What is a "Lightmax" effect object?

Just a bright point light-source.

 

But as Juri_JS pointed out when I posted this in suggestions, this is already possible:

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/85491-searchlight-beam-effect/?do=findComment&comment=1282504

 

[IckyATLAS]

On 9/28/2023 at 3:31 AM, Charon said:

Just a bright point light-source.

 

But as Juri_JS pointed out when I posted this in suggestions, this is already possible:

 

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/85491-searchlight-beam-effect/?do=findComment&comment=1282504

 

Excellent thanks pointing to this. Gee we discover something new every time with this Editor. It is just an incredible tool.