XPlane2Blender v4.0.0-beta.2

XPlane2Blender v4.0.0-beta.2

As always, remember that this is a beta, so make back ups!

We're Going Back To Saying 'Root Objects'

• #544 - it appears the "Exportable Collection/Object" naming scheme was confusing. We're going back to 2.79 phrasing "Root Collection/Object" in the UI, error messages, bug reports, feature requests, e-mails, everything. If I make a mistake please correct me quickly!

Old Name	New Name
Exportable Roots	Roots
Exportable Collection	Root Collection
Non-Exportable Collection	Organizing Collection
Exportable Object	Root Object
Non-Exportable Object	Object

Automatic Lights

Our bright and shiny new fun feature is here! Automatic Lights (also called WYSIWYG lights) replaces Named and Param lights. It fills out parameters and aims directional lights for you in the most efficient way possible! No more doing math by hand, no more reading the lights.txt file, no more being scared to experiment! The UI guides you and prevents mistakes! Automatic lights are the new XPlane2Blender default light. Download this example to see many different uses of this feature!

Feature Controls

We've tried to make this as intuitive as possible, but just in case you're not sure what fills in what parameter, see this table:

Blender Property Used	PARAM NAME
Light's color picker	R, G, B
XPlane2Blender's Index property	INDEX
XPlane2Blender's Light Size property	SIZE
Spot Light's Rotation (in any mode)	DX, DY, DZ
"Omni" if light is a POINT else Spot Shape > Size	WIDTH, DIR_MAG
XPlane2Blender's Flash Frequency property	FREQ
XPlane2Blender's Phase Offset property	PHASE

Any other parameter found in lights.txt can't be changed in Blender.

Limitations

• Some very very old lights are not compatible.
• This is currently an opt-in feature only. An updater for old named and param lights would be difficult and limited and likely won't happen.
• A dataref search window style feature feature is planned, but currently to get a list of lights and their parameters you'll need to click
  "Create lights.txt Summary" and look at the internal text block "lights.txt Summary
• The lights.txt included is the same content as X-Plane's lights.txt, with slightly different formatting. Your .obj will be completely correct in X-Plane, but X-Plane's old and currently shipping lights.txt is not compatible with XPlane2Blender. This will hopefully be corrected soon.

Please send me pictures and stories of what you're trying now that the light system is more easy! I can't wait to see more sparkling lights across the skies and airports of X-Plane!