SurClaro Flight Simulator Resources

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 10:02 am Post subject: FSX Heat or Smoke Effects

Does anyone know if there are any heat shimmer or smoke effects for fsx?? Why didn't microsoft do this. It would have added to the realism greatly and would have saved someone working their knackers off trying to perfect it.

The work that has been done by the simmers out there has been unbelievable and long may it continue.

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:41 am Post subject:

I'll have a look around this morning, you never know. There are lots of smoke smoke effects around, but heat shimmer isn't so common is it?

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:16 pm Post subject:

Most of what I found with a cursory search were smoke and shimmer FX that were tied to a variation of Rob Berendgret's .XML afterburner gauge, so it gets very goofy trying to isolate just the heat shimmer & smoke with .XML editing, and it is a more involved install than some FS effects.

You said FSX, eh? Hmmm, I don't even really know if simpler FS9 FX will work in FSX, I think they may if it's a straight forward effect, someone please jump in and correct me if i'm wrong on this one.
You can try this one.....but to be honest I'm trying to remember if FSDome was one of those FS sites to stay away from for fear of corrupted 'virusy' downloads. I grabbed the file but have not opened it yet, not sure if I'll bother, but here it is if you want to have a look...it seems to be just the effects, without all the .XML stuff.

http://www.fsdome.com/showpage.php?url=http://www.fsdome.com/tools_2.htm

It is an FS9 file. Second from the last file on the page, don't mind the stupid popups.

EDIT: If you want, copy and paste that file name into Google to see that the file is available at Flightsim.com....and a few other places.

Why not post back if you do try this effect, and let us know if it's worth the time. If you're really pleased with the results, a screenshot of your new heat shimmer would be great. Have fun looking around and playing with FX, and I'll keep an eye out for alternative FX files of this nature. Best of luck.

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 1:37 pm Post subject:

Uhh...I guess we all should be having a look around the download pages here at good old SurClaro, before we get all 'searchy' all over the web. Found this one on page one of our 'FS2004 effects' download page.

ees_v3.zip

Can't vouch for the file, but it's probably another one worth a try. Also see one of 'Nicks' files, that adds the desired effect to AI aircraft. (In the same d'load pages. Smile

)

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 3:23 pm Post subject:

tmansteve ....If you had only just glanced down the page a little, you would have spotted this thread Heat Shimmy http://forums.surclaro.com/ftopic11934.html read it all, and in it, I have submitted a link for what your looking for.....

Mel.

Posted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 4:50 pm Post subject:

Is it confirmed that FS9 effects work in FSX?
And that is an effect that also throws in afterburner effects with the mix, via Rob Berendgret's .XML gauge setup...it's just a derivative with heat shimmer added. I was under the impression tman was looking for a stand-alone heat shimmer with some exhaust smoke effect.
Well, he's got some 'sperimentin' to do to see what works, and what he likes. Cool

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 5:07 am Post subject:

It is confirmed 100% that any effect that is usable in FS9 will also work in FSX.

Proof: My Nukem effect for FS9 works without modification in FSX.

RD

Posted: Sun Oct 26, 2008 1:33 pm Post subject:

Thanks you guys for all your help. I did use the FS9 effects in the old sim and found that Nicks smoke effects were great. Had a bit of trouble with the ees smoke.

I have downloaded the new ees_v3 and will be trying it out as well as Nicks. If I have any success with them, I will post photos and hopefully a list of settings but that will be a while yet. The only big problem I had was the time consuming adjustments to get the shimmer in position with the engines.

Once again, thanks for all your investigations.

Steve

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:10 am Post subject:

One thing that really bugs me in all this. Why didn't Microsoft think about this and create the smoke and heat for us. It's not as though the simulation is free!!!!

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:14 am Post subject:

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:55 pm Post subject:

If the ACES team at Microsoft did all the neat 'extra' stuff for us, what the heck would Add-on Developers do? Waddya mean grab a life??!! Laughing

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 6:49 pm Post subject:

I think that all the addon developers do a cracking job. But there are some things that would have been nice if placed in the sim. I am now working on smoke placements for aircraft based on Nick's Smoke and EES_v3.2

Hope to have some data to share at some point but going to enjoy a flight or two.