Editing Effects

[Alfashark]

Hi all, Just playing around with some smoke effects on various display aircraft tonight...

One idea i had was to swap the usual fx_smoke_w.fx with the tip spray effect from the recent Grumman Ag-Cat (fx_catspray_tips.fx) to achieve the "curled up at the tips" look from the slipstream and propwash.
So far no good, the effects are there, but sitting right on the wingtips just as they were on the Ag-Cat

[smokesystem]
smoke.0=-2.36,0.0,-1.87,fx_catspray_tips

Thats from the original aircraft .cfg, with the tipspray effect added (so no, its not using the placement map from the 'Cat)

I've opened the .fx file in wordpad, but havent got a clue as to what or where i should be changing anything in the coding to bring these effects in to at least the wing-roots.
Any ideas?

[Charl]

QUOTE (Alfashark @ May 13 2008, 09:41 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi all, Just playing around with some smoke effects on various display aircraft tonight...
...I've opened the .fx file in wordpad, but havent got a clue as to what or where i should be changing anything in the coding to bring these effects in to at least the wing-roots.
Any ideas?

[SMOKESYSTEM]
//reference datum,longitudinal,lateral
smoke.0=0.00, -15.00, -7.60, fx_106_spray
is same height as a/c centre, 15 ft back from centre, 7.6ft left

[Alfashark]

Thanks Charl, I'd already figured that part out...

[smokesystem]
smoke.0=-2.36,0.0,-1.87,fx_catspray_tips

So, it would seem logical that these effects would be 2.36ft below, right on the a/c centre and 1.87ft left...

But, they're not

The effect is occurring right at the very tips of the wings on the model that I'm playing around with.

I'll post a few screenshots after work, if that'll help

[Charl]

Might it not rely on an XML-coded gauge operating through the [Lights] section?
Just a random thought...

[Alfashark]

Not so far as i can see....

I'll throw the .fx script as im seeing it in wordpad into a PM for you.

[Charl]

Something not right there - see, if there are two smoke trails there would have to be two smoke entries.
Otherwise it would be a single effect with two symmetrical trails, and if you moved it off centre you'd see it immediately.
I think what you are seeing in the sim is not what you've saved.
Check you have the right .config file and the right aircraft!

[Alfashark]

Hmmm yep, just checked the unmodified .cfg from the Ag-Cat and the tip-spray effect has only one entry... all of the other spray effects have two entries - one for each nozzle on the left and right wings


[smokesystem]
smoke.0=0.00, 0.00, 0.00, fx_catspray_tips
smoke.1=0.00, 0.00, -17.00, fx_catspray_1
smoke.2=0.00, 0.00, -14.00, fx_catspray_1
smoke.3=0.00, 0.00, -11.00, fx_catspray_2
smoke.4=0.00, 0.00, -8.00, fx_catspray_2
smoke.5=0.00, 0.00, -5.00, fx_catspray_3
smoke.6=0.00, 0.00, -2.00, fx_catspray_3
smoke.7=0.00, 0.00, 2.00, fx_catspray_3
smoke.8=0.00, 0.00, 5.00, fx_catspray_3
smoke.9=0.00, 0.00, 8.00, fx_catspray_2
smoke.10=0.00, 0.00, 11.00, fx_catspray_2
smoke.11=0.00, 0.00, 14.00, fx_catspray_1
smoke.12=0.00, 0.00, 17.00, fx_catspray_1

So i take it then, that the tip-spray effect was effectively written to be the specific distance apart (eg: the span of the Cat's wings) and cant be modified?

[Charl]

I guess...
So, how did you solve the problem?

[Alfashark]

QUOTE (Charl @ May 16 2008, 08:06 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I guess...
So, how did you solve the problem?

Well, as I had come to think - the positioning of the actual effects was relative to the "emitter" (this is the point that shows up in the aircaft .cfg in the [smoke] section)
Opening the effect file up in Notepad opens up a whole new can of worms...

there is a section there devoted to each particular "particle" (smoke or spray trail generated by the effect).
In this case there are two (left and right wingtip), each one has a set of offsets :
X offset
Y offset
Z offset
Corresponding to left, right, fore, aft and vertical as I'm sure you all would have guessed

by bringing the X offset from its stock -4.xx,-5.xx and 4.xx,5.xx down to -0.10,-0.10 and 0.10, 0.10 for the left and right positioning I got the slightly broken smoke-ring trail

[Charl]

(Drumroll...) And the screenshot was the YAK18T in Soviets are Invading?
Well done!

[Alfashark]

You got it! Thanks Charl

Serious cases of brain-fade this week... 2 weeks into a company-wide conversion to SAP as a back-office ordering and database setup
To give you an idea how much brain-fade, I entered two 13 digit long order numbers as the offsets when I was playing around with the effects lastnight...