investigating Searchlights don't seem to work. Please help.

[Rockrend]

Hi all,

I recently purchased the WWII Assets pack and for the life of me, I just can't get the searchlights to....well...search.  They turn on and turn off with the triggers I've set but they will not search or track.  I'm using DCS stable V2.5.6.55960 and I've attached the .miz file I used to test.

 

I'd really appreciate any help with this.  Thanks in advance.

bbbbbb.miz

[Northstar98]

If a group is within ~3.5 nmi they work fine, though they do take a while to track a target.

 

And you now don't have to use the trigger zones to get them to turn off, aircraft wondering into their engagement zone will automatically turn them on and they'll start looking in the approximate direction.

 

I didn't notice much of a difference when pairing them up with a Kommandogerät 40 or the Freya but here are 3 mission files, all essentially identical, but testing whether or not having a fire-control director or a RADAR made any difference in late-dusk conditions.

 

EDIT: You're on stable, while these are on the OB, it shouldn't make too much of a difference in terms of compatibility but this might explain the discrepancies.

 

Searchlight Test (w. Kdo).miz Searchlight Test (w. RADAR).miz Searchlight Test.miz

Edited December 20, 2020 by Northstar98

[Rockrend]

6 hours ago, Northstar98 said:

If a group is within ~3.5 nmi they work fine, though they do take a while to track a target.

 

And you now don't have to use the trigger zones to get them to turn off, aircraft wondering into their engagement zone will automatically turn them on and they'll start looking in the approximate direction.

 

I didn't notice much of a difference when pairing them up with a Kommandogerät 40 or the Freya but here are 3 mission files, all essentially identical, but testing whether or not having a fire-control director or a RADAR made any difference in late-dusk conditions.

 

EDIT: You're on stable, while these are on the OB, it shouldn't make too much of a difference in terms of compatibility but this might explain the discrepancies.

 

Thanks very much for the reply.  It definitely looks as though things have changed in the current OB, as the lights will not come on without triggers in stable.   Unfortunately your example missions don't work in stable but I suspect that when I get an update (hopefully soon), all things will work. 

 

Thanks again for the work you did to assist me.

Edited December 20, 2020 by Rockrend

[Northstar98]

Ahh, fair enough.

 

This latest OB seems to be pretty stable, apart from a few issues with the AIM-120 and AIM-54, so I'd expect a new stable build by the end of the month (fingers crossed for Wednesday).

[JimBo*]

On 12/20/2020 at 10:45 AM, Northstar98 said:

If a group is within ~3.5 nmi they work fine, though they do take a while to track a target.

 

And you now don't have to use the trigger zones to get them to turn off, aircraft wondering into their engagement zone will automatically turn them on and they'll start looking in the approximate direction.

 

I didn't notice much of a difference when pairing them up with a Kommandogerät 40 or the Freya but here are 3 mission files, all essentially identical, but testing whether or not having a fire-control director or a RADAR made any difference in late-dusk conditions.

 

EDIT: You're on stable, while these are on the OB, it shouldn't make too much of a difference in terms of compatibility but this might explain the discrepancies.

 

Searchlight Test (w. Kdo).miz 8.85 kB · 3 downloads Searchlight Test (w. RADAR).miz 9.01 kB · 3 downloads Searchlight Test.miz 8.76 kB · 3 downloads

 

don't seem to work on normandy map

test-mission.miz

[Northstar98]

Hmm, it might be map specific, I don't have the Normandy map, but I'll see if I can download it on free trial and test it out.

[NineLine]

Thanks guys, I will check issues on Normandy, let me know if you see them anywhere else.

[NineLine]

14 hours ago, Porkie said:

don't seem to work on normandy map

test-mission.miz 8.52 kB · 1 download

For yours, add generators next to your search lights. They are required, and need to be in the same group and close to the light.

[twistking]

On 12/28/2020 at 1:11 AM, NineLine said:

For yours, add generators next to your search lights. They are required, and need to be in the same group and close to the light.

it took my quite some time to figure out that the generators need to be close to the lights. it would help visualize this if the generators had a little "area of influence" cicle around them in the editor. this would make it clear that those have to be in range to work.

[NineLine]

14 minutes ago, twistking said:

it took my quite some time to figure out that the generators need to be close to the lights. it would help visualize this if the generators had a little "area of influence" cicle around them in the editor. this would make it clear that those have to be in range to work.

Agreed

[MikeRomeoSierra1974]

I fell foul of this myself and took a long time to get it to work but now that I know about the generators needing to be very close it works like it should. What is the maximum altitude of the lights and is the Flakscheinwerfer and the Maschinensatz 33 the only units you need for a functional searchlight or are there others that work in conjunction such as the KDO and Freya stations?

[stuart666]

I think it was Small Wurzburg in reality that could couple up to searchlights. We dont have that unfortunately.