markdigby07
Club Supporter
After a few posts on this forum asking how to do floodlights i thought ill do a quick tutorial on how i do them.
Theres proberly other ways of adding floodlights to stadiums, but this is how i did it when creating Dolphins Stadium.
First you need a tag-xx-3.loc file (xx = stadium id and 3 = night), these files are found in zdata__01.big.
Also you need the stadium model file for the stadium your adding lights to.
Example: m716__xx_3.o (xx = stadium id and 3 = night).
I used a program called FIFA 08 Lightworker to get the basic postion of the lights.
First open FIFA 08 Lightworker, then File, Open Stadium "o" file.
select your stadium file (m716__xx_3.o). In the top left corner of FIFA 08 Lightworker there is a box which allows you to select which parts of the stadium you want to display. Display the parts of the stadium that include the floodlights 3d model.
Next click File, Open Log file, and load your tag-xx-3.loc file. If it cant open your tag-xx-3.loc file try using another one from zdata__01.big.
Once opened Click AtmosGlow in the Light type selection area. Then using the individual light selction box, select the first light and move it into position using the position light keys. Switch between the different views to aid positioning. Make a note of the X,Y,Z coordinates in the box below the individual lights position box. You need to select another light to refresh the coordinate box otherwise the original cooradinates will be
noted.
X = Left/Right in top veiw
Y = Towards you/ away from you in top veiw (Up/Down in front and side veiw)
Z = Up/Down in top veiw
This can be done for all the lights in the stadium, or what i do is make a note of the coodinates for one floodlight then opening the tag-xx-3.loc file using notepad I manually add and position the lights based on the coordinates of the other lights, treating the stadium as a graph where one set of coordinates are individually changed from positve to negative numbers like below.
Note the repetitive coordinates in the tag file (X = 4997.422000) this is because these lights share a X coordinate position (there all on the right side of the stadium, looking from top view).
If you edit the tag file using notpad make sure where it says
AtmosGlowA XX Position, the number (XX) is equal to the number of lines below.
The advantages of manually editing the tag-xx-3.loc are that you can easily position lights in straight lines and you can add and remove lights.
Obviously the tag-xx-3.loc file needs to be imported to the zdata__xx.big files with the other stadium files. Go play a game in the stadium at night.
Thats the basic principle of creating Floodlights. There are other light types in the file that work on the same coordinate principle such as camera flash etc.
You can do the same with the day and overcast versions of the tag-xx-3.loc file (tag-xx-0.loc and tag-xx-1.loc) if you like (not much point with Day though).
If i remember correctly some of the other stadium files such as sle-xx-0.loc can interfere with the floodlights working properly, i dont know exactly what sle-xx-0.loc files do but if you create your own stadium u dont need them.
It was harder to explain than i thought, so i hope people understand.
Just remember that the lights are positioned using coordinates where 0 is the centre of the model file (m716__xx_3.o).
Theres proberly other ways of adding floodlights to stadiums, but this is how i did it when creating Dolphins Stadium.
First you need a tag-xx-3.loc file (xx = stadium id and 3 = night), these files are found in zdata__01.big.
Also you need the stadium model file for the stadium your adding lights to.
Example: m716__xx_3.o (xx = stadium id and 3 = night).
I used a program called FIFA 08 Lightworker to get the basic postion of the lights.
First open FIFA 08 Lightworker, then File, Open Stadium "o" file.
select your stadium file (m716__xx_3.o). In the top left corner of FIFA 08 Lightworker there is a box which allows you to select which parts of the stadium you want to display. Display the parts of the stadium that include the floodlights 3d model.
Next click File, Open Log file, and load your tag-xx-3.loc file. If it cant open your tag-xx-3.loc file try using another one from zdata__01.big.
Once opened Click AtmosGlow in the Light type selection area. Then using the individual light selction box, select the first light and move it into position using the position light keys. Switch between the different views to aid positioning. Make a note of the X,Y,Z coordinates in the box below the individual lights position box. You need to select another light to refresh the coordinate box otherwise the original cooradinates will be
noted.
X = Left/Right in top veiw
Y = Towards you/ away from you in top veiw (Up/Down in front and side veiw)
Z = Up/Down in top veiw
This can be done for all the lights in the stadium, or what i do is make a note of the coodinates for one floodlight then opening the tag-xx-3.loc file using notepad I manually add and position the lights based on the coordinates of the other lights, treating the stadium as a graph where one set of coordinates are individually changed from positve to negative numbers like below.
Note the repetitive coordinates in the tag file (X = 4997.422000) this is because these lights share a X coordinate position (there all on the right side of the stadium, looking from top view).
If you edit the tag file using notpad make sure where it says
AtmosGlowA XX Position, the number (XX) is equal to the number of lines below.
The advantages of manually editing the tag-xx-3.loc are that you can easily position lights in straight lines and you can add and remove lights.
Obviously the tag-xx-3.loc file needs to be imported to the zdata__xx.big files with the other stadium files. Go play a game in the stadium at night.
Thats the basic principle of creating Floodlights. There are other light types in the file that work on the same coordinate principle such as camera flash etc.
You can do the same with the day and overcast versions of the tag-xx-3.loc file (tag-xx-0.loc and tag-xx-1.loc) if you like (not much point with Day though).
If i remember correctly some of the other stadium files such as sle-xx-0.loc can interfere with the floodlights working properly, i dont know exactly what sle-xx-0.loc files do but if you create your own stadium u dont need them.
It was harder to explain than i thought, so i hope people understand.
Just remember that the lights are positioned using coordinates where 0 is the centre of the model file (m716__xx_3.o).
if you could tell what i made wrong it would be nice, but thanks anyway for the tutorial.
please help