Hello All,
1st post here but let me first say that I greatly appreciate what you guys are doing for IL2. Your efforts have given a new life to the sim.
Not sure if supposed to post a "request" here. Anyway, moderator please remove if inappropriate.
I was looking for a graphic mod that :
1. would add light smoke puffs when weapons are fired.
2. when engines are pushed to the max (100% & above with WEP) a light grey-ish trail of smoke would come off the exhaust pipes
Do these mods exist or is one of you exploring feasibility? Would love to try myself but totally clueless unfortunately.
Thx
Hongweibing
Moved to Mods Discussion.
Cheers,
Mag's
The higher mixture visual effect is exactly what I was talking about. It looks great and I've done it for screenies but, as pointed out, engine is not as efficient anymore. Got me in trouble quite a few times for the sake of a nice screenshot!
Should be a way to achieve that effect without going into manual mixture settings , no?
If the puffs of smoke & firing weapons mean tweaking weapons in any other way than graphic-wise, then I'll be the first to forget about the idea.
Cheers,
Hongweibing
I think this is a great idea for a mod. Slipery did something similar with his stack fires during the start sequence. I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to add something to the stacks, smoke-wise, at 100% throttle and above? There is a hook for the smoke there, at least on planes with the ability to go over 100% mixture, and all planes have smoke coming from the stacks during starts. This would be really interesting. The little puffs coming from the gun barrels would probably be harder to do I would think.
Most likely, nobody else would see this unless they had the same mod installed.
Not to dampen anyone's enthusiasm, but is there actual evidence suggesting that exhaust smoke is produced at 100%+ throttle from any of the aviation engines represented in the game? It seems to me, given that in internal combustion engines black exhaust smoke is the product of incompletely burned fuel, that this would be a strange thing for engines running at wide open throttle (highest intake airflow) to produce if the mixture is properly adjusted.
I'm sure it can be done, but I wonder if it should be.
Exactly, Bimmer. Just because it looks cool and can be done, doesn't mean it should.
Yes, there is lots of evidence to support this. Not only first hand accounts from several pilots who flew in WWII, but go to an air show sometime, and watch the war birds closely. You'll see plenty of evidence. And they aren't coming anywhere close to high throttle settings!
Reality aside, I honestly believe that this, assuming it could be done, would force most folks to start flying more realistically. It should come on gradually at about 95%, and get blacker above 100%. This might keep folks from flying around with their throttles bent forward all day. People could begin to fly more realistically, as if their lives depended on that virtual engine of theirs! LOL :wink:
This is getting interesting!
Allied pilots were apparently trained to recognize which Luftwaffe airplanes were using boost systems such as high-altitude GM-1 injection, and its low-alt equivalent, the MW 50.
How could they tell? The grey-ish trails left behind while boost was engaged.
Bee, we have the same ref. Closterman made one the very first sighting of a flying Do 335 in combat. His report to the IO clearly mentioned the two trails of grey smoke while the Do 335 engaged boosts at low alt. All Typhoons were left standing on the spot, looking silly. The Do 335's performances were so great that Closterman was actually looking for signs of jet propulsion on the 335!
Upon his report, Intelligence concluded the grey trails of smoke could only mean that the Do 335 was equipped with the MW 50 system.
Similarly, Adolf Galland also said that a number of Luftwaffe pilots would sometimes use this particular visual trick by diving and engaging boost, letting the adversary believe the 109 was mortally hit with an engine smoking.
I can do a check for all LW planes in IL2 equipped with these systems but what about Allied boost systems?... I have no idea. Anyone?
Cheers
Hong
Having been to quite a few airshows, I can't say that I recall seeing any discernible smoke behind any of the planes, certainly nothing that would be visible over any distance. That said, if you have noticed smoke at low throttle levels, remember that these are highly tuned engines that often are designed to run at the high end of their rev range. Race car engines are like this (or they were before computerized engine controls) - at lower speeds they often spit, cough, smoke, foul plugs, etc., but at full tilt boogie they are smooth as silk, burning their fuel-air mixture more completely due to ignition and valve timing being tuned for those conditions. The kind of inefficiency in combustion required for dark black exhaust smoke is quite significant, and certainly not something I would expect to see from a well-tuned engine running in its optimal range.
As to boost systems that actually inject something into the cylinders, that's a different story. Methanol-water injection is used to to compensate for low-octane fuel being used in high-compression engines, in order to prevent premature detonation. It certainly makes sense that this would produce some sort of change in the exhaust, likely a sort of combustion byproduct particulate-laden steam, as the water picks up bits of carbon from the piston top.
