Clarification of lighting for DMUs, etc.

I am currently trying to get the lights for the Class 118 sets to work properly, and I would appreciate any advice or help?

1. I know that Headlight (?) determines whether a light is off, dim or bright. Am I right to assume that an actual headlight needs an entry for both dim and bright?
2. Are the lights for a 2 or more car set all operated from the driving car? In other words is the entry for the rear lights to the trailing car in the ENG file of the driving car?
3. If not the latter presumably the rear light controls are entered in the WAG or ENG file of the trailing car?

I have reviewed the MSTS Tech Doc and the reference in Richter's work, but I am still not clear! Any advice and/or help would be more than welcome!

Alec

OK - you can all relax as I seem to have resolved the lights. I can confirm that the rear lights need to be defined in the trailing car and the front lights in the driving car. Locating them in the right location is to some extent trial and error but of course Ian Macmillan's MSTS Measuring Tool is an excellent utility to be used with Shape Viewer.
Alec

Hi Alec,
Lights (4) to (7) have been introduced by the Bin patch.  There is quite a good explanation in the manual.

Cheers,
Ged

Ged
Thanks for that. I will look out and read the manual.
Alec

Remember that built in tail lamps on DMUs were not introduced until the mid 70s.
Before that a traditional oil lamp was used.

Feel free to use the lamp and lighting section from my LMS brakevans

This is all good stuff, and perhaps could be turned into an HFL part?
However I also have an additional question that perhaps someone may be able to help.
 "When setting the lights in the AI version of the ENG file presumable it's necessary to add in a line confirming the time of day and hence defining when the lights are on?"
Alec

Listed below are the basic details for lighting, and rather than post a link I have copied the details from a Steam4me reference:-

Lighting settings in MSTS
Setting requirements
The first thing you must specify is when you want the light or lights in question to come on.  This is done by setting a number of flags to define the requirements for the lights concerned to light – if no requirements are listed, the light will always be on.
Possible Requirements
Type
            ( 0 )   the light is actually a 2-polygon square, the appearance of which is controlled by a combination of parameters in Conditions and States
            ( 1 )   the so-called "sphere of Light" - the beam thrown by the loco and works only on player locomotives (not AI)
Conditions (
            Headlight (0)  (ignore headlight control status)
            Headlight (1) (the headlight control is at “Off”)
            Headlight (2)  (the headlight control is at “Dim”)
            Headlight (3)  (the headlight control is at “Bright”)
            ===============================================================
            Unit (0) (ignore unit status)
            Unit (1) (the unit is in the train but isn’t at the front or back)
            Unit (2) (the unit is the frontmost unit of the train)
            Unit (3) (the unit is the rearmost unit of the train)
            ===============================================================
            Penalty (0) (ignore penalty status)
            Penalty (1) (the train has not “stopped due to a penalty brake application”)
            Penalty (2) (penalty) (the train has “stopped due to a penalty brake application”
                        (useful for specifying an emergency warning light)
            ===============================================================
            Control (0) (ignore control status)
            Control (1) (the player is not in control of the unit - i.e. it is a helper locomotive, AI locomotive or wagon)
            Control (2) (the player is in control of the unit)
            ===============================================================
            Service (0) (ignore service status)
            Service (1) (the unit is not in service e.g. a failed train lying in a siding)
            Service (2) (the unit is in service)
            ===============================================================
            TimeOfDay (0) (ignore time of day)
            TimeOfDay (1) (only come on if it’s daytime)
            TimeOfDay (2) (only come on if it’s night)
            ===============================================================
            Weather (0) (ignore weather)
            Weather (1) (only come on if it’s fine)
            Weather (2) (only come on if it’s raining)
            Weather (3) (only come on if it’s snowing)
            ===============================================================
Hang on, you say, you've left out Coupling()
So I have, but then so did Kuju when they left out the code in the Sim to make it work!
FadeIn
            ( nn )  nn = time in seconds from fully off to fully on
FadeOut
            ( nn )  nn = time in seconds from fully on to fully off
States
            ( zz )  nn = number of states (each state represents a different light setting,
             flash on/off, flash different colours, etc
State
            Define each state: there must be the same number of definitions as zz above
            Duration ( nn )              nn - duration of multi-state light in seconds - leave at zero for single state
            LightColour ( ffrrggbb )   transparency, red, green, blue (in hex)
            Position ( xx yy zz )         of light from origin of model
            Transition ( 0 )
            Radius ( nn )                 nn = length of beam thrown [type ( 1 ) only]
            Radius ( nn )                 nn = radius of light [type ( 0 ) only]
            Angle ( nn )                   nn = width of beam in degrees [type ( 1 ) only]
            Azimuth ( xx yy zz )        in degrees
            Elevation ( xx yy zz )       in degrees

Eventually this will be made into n HFL part.

Alec

Hi Alec,
An added complication is that Unit (4) and Unit (5) have been introduced by the Bin patch, for use when cab switching!!

Cheers,
Ged

Ged

Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate those in the potential HFL part.

Thanks for the heads up.

Alec