[WIP][1.0.5] Surface Nav Lights

[Why485]

This started as an extension of my Surface Lights mod, but it's starting to grow into its own thing.

I've never been too happy with the nav light mods that are out there, so I started working on my own.

The big difference between these and all others is that the lights actually glow (using a custom billboard). This means that I can scale them with distance so that you can still see nav lights from afar like you should be able to. The current ones are just lights, which doesn't do you any good when you barely see the plane anyway.

There's still a bunch of functionality left to add like blinking and bunch of usability stuff, but I'm really happy that the core of it is working great.

Here's a video of it in action.

http://gfycat.com/ScaryClearBobwhite

Here's a fancy Imgur album, but you'll need to look at the album on Imgur to be able to really see it.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

Today I fixed some bugs related to the external camera and got the limited angles working correctly.

I've added values so that nav lights (and in the future, strobes) can have limited angles. I'm surprised that no flight sims seem to model this, but depending on the angle of the plane, there are certain lights you shouldn't see.

For example, from the front you should see only the red and green, but no rear white. If they are flying right to left, you should see red. If they are flying left to right, you should see green. If they are head on, you should see both colors.

Here's a video

http://gfycat.com/ElatedIllegalKestrel

It's a bit hard to see in a small webm due to compression. It's much more visible ingame and in screenshots.

Edited November 15, 2015 by Why485

[hieywiey]

Bob Fitch is going to go crazy over this.

[Senshi]

This is awesome, even for spaceplanes! No more accidentally smacking into things at hyper velocity in night time orbits .

[problemecium]

WHOA!
At first I was like "what was wrong with the old Navigation Lights mod?" but then I read the part about the custom bloom effect and looked at the pictures. That IS different! I love it!
I'd put these all over the Kidonia for those night docking operations if I hadn't already launched it xP (also it's supposed to be an all-stock mission, but still).

[Kartoffelkuchen]

That's pretty cool! You can even use it for spacecrafts!
[IMG]http://cdn.rsvlts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/%E2%80%9CDragon-starting-its-journey-home.%E2%80%9D-Swanny-This-image-of-the-SpaceX-Dragon-was-taken-from-the-International-Space-Station-just-after-it-was-released-by-the-robotic-arm-on-May-18-2014.--630x630.jpg[/IMG]

[Azimech]

Only a few hours ago I thought of this, and it's already there! Awesome!

[BigNose]

All I can say is: Wow. I will post this over in my Aviation Lights thread, more people need to know about this! :D

EDIT: Made a shoutout to this mod in my thread! ([url=http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/16925-1-0-5-Aviation-Lights-v3-8-%2816NOV15%29?p=2298731&viewfull=1#post2298731]here[/url]) Great work Why485! Edited November 16, 2015 by BigNose

[Why485]

I added a bunch of usability features to the nav lights. You can now toggle whether or not the lights are visible from below, as well as if they should have a limited viewing angle. If they do, then you can set by how much.

Click the image for a gfy video.
[url=http://gfycat.com/GrizzledForsakenBudgie][img]http://i.imgur.com/9Z1OakA.png[/img][/url]

The basics of strobes are now in place. There's some bugs I've found related to strobes + persistence, and I've also found some weird bugs that happen with more than one craft in the scene that I need to track down. I'm not sure if switching between craft is what causes the billboards to break or if it's the simple fact that there's more than one. It's not completely consistent when they break.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/yZmpLpO.gif[/img]

[sashan]

Wow, awesome. Short question - does it work in 1.0.4? I'm holding up my update untill I'm sure all the mods in both installs would work.

[Why485]

[quote name='sashan']Wow, awesome. Short question - does it work in 1.0.4? I'm holding up my update untill I'm sure all the mods in both installs would work.[/QUOTE]

I don't know what happens if you try to run a mod built with the 1.0.5 dlls in an earlier version. I want to say it probably would, but I honestly don't know.

[COLOR="silver"][SIZE=1]- - - Updated - - -[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[quote name='Kartoffelkuchen']That's pretty cool! You can even use it for spacecrafts!
[url]http://cdn.rsvlts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/%E2%80%9CDragon-starting-its-journey-home.%E2%80%9D-Swanny-This-image-of-the-SpaceX-Dragon-was-taken-from-the-International-Space-Station-just-after-it-was-released-by-the-robotic-arm-on-May-18-2014.--630x630.jpg[/url][/QUOTE]

I think they look really cool on space ships. In fact if you put a single white light on ships and set it to be visible from below, your ship will appear as a white dot from a distance. It works really well and I love the way it looks.

Here's a ship with a white light on it. (It's on the other side of the capsule)
[img]http://i.imgur.com/FiEOmwF.jpg[/img]

Here it is from a distance. You can still see it as a white dot.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/0NWmLXC.jpg[/img]

I'm looking forward to seeing what this looks like when you put it on stations.

[curtquarquesso]

Wow. I really like this. Great job. Can't wait for a release. Are you throwing these into the existing pack, or breaking them off into their own pack? I don't see any reason to make another pack out of them.

[Trann]

Very nice feature set on these. I'll definitely be "upgrading" when it's released. It's been a fun ride, BigNose :)

[viperwolf]

[quote name='BigNose']All I can say is: Wow. I will post this over in my Aviation Lights thread, more people need to know about this! :D

EDIT: Made a shoutout to this mod in my thread! ([url=http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/16925-1-0-5-Aviation-Lights-v3-8-%2816NOV15%29?p=2298731&viewfull=1#post2298731]here[/url]) Great work Why485![/QUOTE]

That was a humble post that did not get recognized. Bignose Thanks for AL and have used your lights sense first release. These from Why485 will be a nice addition aswell

[evileye.x]

Cool stuff, waiting for download :)

[JeffreyCor]

Really looking forward to when you put up a download for this! I already use surface light for giving some markers but this will work even better!

 

[drtedastro]

H'mm, 

No download yet.?.?

Hope this continues.  Looks like good work.

Cheers.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Also looking forward to this, and hoping for a status update...  

[Vespene]

Was this particular mod ever continued?

[wreckreation]

Bump.  

Hope Why485 has found the time to keep working on this.

[Val]

Alternative here: