[Jaypack44]

Hi all, I was just going over some guncam footage, and I was wondering if it would be possible to get trails that look like the ones in these screenshots, as that is what most smoketrails seem too look like; broken and irregular instead of the continuous ones we have now. would it be possible to make textures to match these?

viewtopic.php?t=10961&highlight=forgotten+theater+theatre

[HolyGrail]

Irregular and broken tracer smoketrail ?
Enjoy :lol:

[Jaypack44]

Ok, granted that some tracers do look like that, which is fine for the spiral tracers on the german a/c, but I was thinking more long the lines of the first clip (it's pretty short) in this video, to replace the current straight tracer trails: (it's kinda hard to see because it's so short, but I think it looks more like the screens.

[elephant]

Your squigly tracer look is just an illusion made by a vibrating old camera...in Real Life a human eye is seeing tracers flying straight...

[Jaypack44]

I'm not talking about the squiggly lines... I'm talking about the broken, irregular smoke trails like in the screenshots instead of the unbroken straight lines we have now. As for the camera shaking, I don't know if I believe that entirely, but that's not what I'm asking about. It's hard to tell because of the smoke from the aircraft, but it looks like the tracer smoke trails are broken up, and not just straight lines like we have in-game. *the clip at about 20 seconds in is also a good example of what I'm talking about: the smoke trails seem to dissipate quickly, leaving the broken, wispy effect seen in the screens.

[HolyGrail]

What about 3D smoketrail ?
I did that a while ago for myself but it was just irregular and broken smoketrail
so we never bothered with it anymore and would have to do all
configurations all over again if that would be an interesting mod :lol:
It have no impact on any weapon or damage files , so it's just plain simple
pure visual effect :lol:

Sincerely,
HolyGrail & Potenz effects co.

[Jaypack44]

That would be AMAZING! right now the smoke for the tracers is horribly obviously 2d, especially when you get a long burst going. If you guys over at the effects co. would look into that, that would make my day! (well, that and some new midair explosions)

btw, would it be possible to see some screens of this "broken and irregular 3D smoketrail?"

[HolyGrail]

Hi Jaypack44 :lol:

we still have so much other things to do but whenever there will be a little time left , will get right back to it , which needs to be done again from the very beginning :?
I remeber , it was not such a piece of cake to make that happen , 3D smoketrail following the bullet was somewhat shorter that expected , game engine have somewhat difficulty to keep up with 3D smoketrail closely following the bullet.
We're really not sure if that would be good to go , will have to be tested again and trying to make a better configuration to see if there is still even some room left for improvement .
I am sorry , I never thought of taking screenshot , it was just quick test and then we gave up on it .
I'll try to get you screenshot as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
HolyGrail & Potenz effects co.

[HolyGrail]

Ok, here you go , there is a lot of issues with it , plus it's only possible in 3D with white smoketrail for planes like Machi that are using white smoketrail and there is still some small balls effect at the beginning of the smoketrail leaving the guns .
It's not much practical thing to do due to game engine limits .
Gray smoketrails don't even have 3D support .
This example is from Machi gun blast , clearly you can see 3D smoketrail :lol:

Alpha Stage

[RichardH]

I'm not talking about the squiggly lines... I'm talking about the broken, irregular smoke trails like in the screenshots instead of the unbroken straight lines we have now. As for the camera shaking, I don't know if I believe that entirely, but that's not what I'm asking about. It's hard to tell because of the smoke from the aircraft, but it looks like the tracer smoke trails are broken up, and not just straight lines like we have in-game. *the clip at about 20 seconds in is also a good example of what I'm talking about: the smoke trails seem to dissipate quickly, leaving the broken, wispy effect seen in the screens.

Of course the camera is going to vibrate! Its mounted in an already vibrating wing (they're not stiff you know) and the guns are firing as well (and they are usually mounted not too far away from the camera..

I've fired a .50 Cal BMG from a moving vehicle and the tracers do not look squiggly at all. (although there wasn't any smoketrails tho.)

I think we can dismiss all this squiggly tracer bullshit, but as far as the irregular smoketrails are concerned, im with you.

[Eexhaton]

The squigly part comes from wind, camera shake and airframe vibrations, making it seem squigly while it is not.

But overall, i think that a squigly smoketrail looks somewhat better and less artificial then fully straight ones.

However, i do find the 2D ones looking better atm then the white 3D one.
:lol:

[GeneralPsycho]

if you have a squigly traser mod, you can also shorten the smoke's life span

by: go to your mods folder, find the folder the mod(Gray curving smoketrail)

click on it, then effects, then SMOKES, you see the EFF file, open it and you can change time

here is mine

[ClassInfo]
ClassName TSmokeTrailParams
[General]
MatName ..\Materials\WhiteSmokeTrail.mat
Color0 0.5 0.5 0.5 1.0
Color1 0.7 0.7 0.7 1.0
nParticles 16
FinishTime -1.0
// MaxR 0
//PhiN 10.0
//PsiN 10.0
LiveTime .6
TranspTransitionTime 0.0f
// EmitVelocity 0.0 0.0
// EmitFrq 7.0
// EmitFrq 2.0

SegmentLen 100
MaxObjectVelocity 600

Wind 0.0
Size 0.2 1.2
// GasResist 1.0
// VertAccel 0.0
Rnd 0.25
// EmitTheta 0.0 0.0

livetime is what gives the life span in seconds

so .6 means it lasts about .6(0,6) seconds before it dissapears :wink:

[GhostFiles]

Working on them now. Version 1 (Volumetric Wispy Smooth) is almost done.

Version 2 will be fatter.

Version 3 will have the squiggles.

GF

http://theghostfiles.org/FBMods.html

[HolyGrail]

Hi Jaypack44

Here is almost final product with Bullet White 3D Smoketrail visual effect example without touching any weapon class files :




Sincerely,
HolyGrail & Potenz effects co.

[rossmum]

Looking good, though the tracers themselves look a bit golfball-ish... perhaps shrink and lengthen them if possible, so they look more like lances than balls?