SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

I've always wondered if effects such as an afterburner (or heat shimmer, for that matter) would work more realistically in the [SMOKESYSTEM] section of the aircraft .CFG file as opposed to putting them in the [LIGHTS] section. Not so realistic to have the afterburners fire up as soon as you turn on your aircraft lights...but I haven't tested anything out yet. Will post back once I have. Just wanted to get you thinking.... Wink

EDIT: Yeah, there are .XML gauges that have your A/B's kick in with the last part of your throttle limit but .XML still scares me. I'm afraid of gauges, too. Laughing

Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:50 pm Post subject:

Have to say, I dont like the idea of using any effects in the lights section, there is nothing worse while making a movie, then turning on the lights, and having a rain spray effect, or, as you say, the re-heat kick in.... I seem to remember somone saying a little while ago, that you are limited to the amount of effects you can place in the gauges, or lights section.... maybe I dreamt it.

Mel.

Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2007 11:03 pm Post subject:

Well, there is a limit to how many lights you can have. Anything over 19 and you're just plain out of luck. We start running into limitations with too many effects in the [SMOKESYSTEM] too....once you hit the 'I' key all your [SMOKESYSTEM] fx will kick in..so you end up needing to be selective with what you want most for each aircraft. Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Fri Oct 05, 2007 5:11 am Post subject:

Let's put it this way.

AFTERBURNERS....You want them in the lights cfg, with a gauge/xml. If you put them in the smoke section, THEY WILL NOT WORK. You cannot use a gauge/xml to do it if it is in the smoke section. But, on the other hand, if you "just put them" in the lights section, without a gauge/xml, then they are on whenever you turn your lights on. I found out how to correct that problem a couple years ago. So NONE of the a/b's comes on when I hit my lights key.

HEAT SHIMMER... Same thing. You cannot put a smoke fx. into the lights system. But, you can build a Heat Shimmer to work in the light fx. If you know what your doing.

And yes, you are limited in the lights section to 19 (0-1 Cool

.(0-eighteen)

RD

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 3:52 pm Post subject:

Hiya Mel. I can imagine it gets goofy with multiple _FX files in either the [LIGHTS] section OR the [SMOKESYSTEM] section of the aircraft .CFG file, especially when wanting only a certain specific effect for any given movie scene. Wasn't sure if you knew this but by opening up the .CFG file and adding two forward-slash marks to the beginning of any line or entry nullifies that smoke effect or light effect. This is an easier way of managing multiple, often not-wanted effects without too much trouble. You'll see with my example that with minimum effort before any flight loads that I can simply choose what effect to feature , for either when the 'lights' come on or when the 'I' key is pressed for your favourite 'Smokesystem' effect.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 3:56 pm Post subject:

Thats a neat idea Hark, I guess what your saying is, you have multiple smokesystems, but each system is turned on and off by the //.

So, in your cfg, all others are turned off, and only thw Napalm and Rocket effects work.

I like it Wink

Mel.

Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 5:08 pm Post subject:

Exactly, you can tell FS to ignore whatever lines in the [LIGHTS] section or the [SMOKESYSTEM] section with those hash marks without deleting or having to add in the text lines again when you want a certain light effect or smokesystem effect. In other words you can load up that .CFG file with the stuff you want, and pick and choose what will show up in FS with those simple hash marks. Hey, I didn't put two and two together for this fairly easy method for smokesystem stuff until a few weeks back, even though I was already using this method to tweak and place lights as I stumbled around the development side of things. Rolling Eyes

EDIT: That napalm and rocket effects entry is one effect....the rockets shoot out from the aircraft and the napalm part is just the fireball that occurs wherever the rockets hit terrain. There were rocket smoke trails to the effect too, but it I think it was a FS2002 effect packet and the smoke part was funny looking in FS2004 so I pulled that part out of the EFFECTS .CFG file. If I wasn't so busy banging my head off of a ledge in gmax I would play with effects creation all day, and may in the future.

EDIT; Oops, I've referred to other peoples work without giving credit, I believe the rocket effects pack was by Bruce Fitzgerald...thanks Bruce.