[stuka_40]

Thanks Stuka, I love that the cities and landscapes look wonderful, you have improved much look whole of IL2, you should adjust your mods to 4.101.

Thank you too, because i don't have 4.10m's class files i still run 4.09m.

[ton414]

If for you it may be useful. I can send you classfiles 4.10.1.

[fabianfred]

This seems to work OK with my HSFX 5.0 and SAS Mod act. 3.0 installs.... Thanks.

[slipper]

Stuka

I was wondering if it may be possible to make a scaled up version of your chimney smokes, for use as general smoke objects please? I was thinking they could be used for burning towns/cities, fuel tanks, harbours etc.

At the moment we have nothing that replicates them realistically, most of the smoke in game has the appearance of a large 'swirling ball'.

I realise there may be an fps issue, but one or two smoke objects would add greatly to the immersion, along with your previously released chimney smokes.

Thanks for a great mod

regards

slipper

[stuka_40]

Stuka

I was wondering if it may be possible to make a scaled up version of your chimney smokes, for use as general smoke objects please? I was thinking they could be used for burning towns/cities, fuel tanks, harbours etc.

At the moment we have nothing that replicates them realistically, most of the smoke in game has the appearance of a large 'swirling ball'.

I realise there may be an fps issue, but one or two smoke objects would add greatly to the immersion, along with your previously released chimney smokes.

Thanks for a great mod

regards

slipper

Hi slipper!
You can try making them yourself by playing with games default smoke.eff (those that you can place as objects) files Parameters and ADJUST them as you wish, by the way, there are many effect packs with permanent fire and smoke effects here or at SAS.
My effect pack http://allaircraftsimulations.com/forum/...18&t=30533 for 4.09m has permanent fire, smoke and bombs craters that remains during whole missions.
In a smoke.eff file if you increase the size or the amount of particles to much and place some of such smokes in your mission your FPS will decrease drastically.

[slipper]

Stuka

Thanks for the reply mate. Yeah I should have said, I am running DBW 1.6 so as yet there are no effects packages as such, I have installed your smoke effects which work fine.

I have tried playing about with the .eff files in your mod, but any attempt to make them bigger results in them losing their shape, and becoming big balls of smoke which do not look realistic at all. I was hoping to get a similar effect to your smoke mod but scaled up by 5 or 10 times and with a long column of smoke, I have played about with a few of the settings but with no success, I was hoping you might have more of an idea of what to do to get the desired effect?

Thanks again mate

Slipper.

Ps do you have any plans to update your fx mod to 4.101 mate? Used it all the time in 4.09m and really miss it in 4.101

Thanks again

[stuka_40]

Stuka

Thanks for the reply mate. Yeah I should have said, I am running DBW 1.6 so as yet there are no effects packages as such, I have installed your smoke effects which work fine.

I have tried playing about with the .eff files in your mod, but any attempt to make them bigger results in them losing their shape, and becoming big balls of smoke which do not look realistic at all. I was hoping to get a similar effect to your smoke mod but scaled up by 5 or 10 times and with a long column of smoke, I have played about with a few of the settings but with no success, I was hoping you might have more of an idea of what to do to get the desired effect?

Thanks again mate

Slipper.

Ps do you have any plans to update your fx mod to 4.101 mate? Used it all the time in 4.09m and really miss it in 4.101

Thanks again

Hi!
You get nowhere by manipulating .eff files in my pack because the effects (smokes and fire) of each object (grouped as wood, rock and fuel) are set by functions in Explosions.class file these functions are depended and related to any 3D objects Msh file's size and height, (maybe you can ask someone, java and class file expert who can write new functions that can handle it, i don't know!?) same functions are defined in other Class files too , and I don't know how they exactly work.
By the way the game engine can't handle so many fire and big smokes effects at the same time, you will lose the effects depending on camera angle and the effects will flicker and...
In the case of idea, well I can give some tips and explanations on the various parameters in . eff files if you want! so you can manipulate those default smoke and fire effects that you put and use like an object in FMB.

[slipper]

Stuka

well I can give some tips and explanations on the various parameters in . eff files if you want! so you can manipulate those default smoke and fire effects that you put and use like an object in FMB.

Yes please i wouldn't mind a few tips on what to adjust. Where do i find the .eff files for the default smoke and fire stuka? As they are default objects i do not have any files in the mods directory to alter?

Thanks again for any help

regards

slipper

[stuka_40]

OK, here is a little tips and description about .eff files and its parameters.

The effects that you can use as stationary objects in game and you will find then as you know in FMB in stationary objects are:

Smoke1:Effect Effects/Smokes/SmokeShipMedium.eff
Smoke2:Effect Effects/Smokes/SmokeShipEnormous.eff
Smoke3:Effect Effects/Smokes/SmokeBoiling.eff
Smoke4:Effect Effects/Smokes/SmokeBoilingBig.eff
Smoke5:Effect Effects/Smokes/SmokeBlack_plane.eff
Smoke6:Effect Effects/Smokes/SmokeBlackToWhite.eff
Smoke7:Effect Effects/Smokes/SmokeWhite.eff
Smoke8:Effect Effects/Smokes/FireBoiling.eff
Smoke9:Effect Effects/Smokes/FireBoilingBig.eff
Smoke10:Effect Effects/Smokes/SmokeFire_plane.eff
Smoke11:Effect Effects/Smokes/SmokeFireSmall.eff
Smoke12:Effect 3DO/Effects/Fireworks/FlareWhite.eff
Smoke13:Effect 3DO/Effects/Fireworks/FlareRed.eff
Smoke14:Effect 3DO/Effects/Fireworks/FlareGreen.eff
Smoke15:Effect 3DO/Effects/Fireworks/FlareWhiteWide.eff

You can use sfs extractor to extract these effects files, the smoke effects 1,2, 5, are used by game in ships and airplanes too so if you change those they will change for every conditions that game uses them.for SmokeShipMedium.eff, SmokeShipEnormous.eff you have to change SmokeShipTiny.eff, because SmokeShipTiny.eff is the base effect files for these two effect files.
The effects below you can change freely!
smoke number 3, 4, 6, 7 (8, 9,11 are stationary fire effects)
smoke number 12, 13, 14, 15 are stationary light effects and use as navigation lights too.

This is an example of an effect file from the game.(SmokeWhite.eff) in ..\Effects\Smokes
[ClassInfo]
ClassName TSmokeSpiralParams--> the .class file that smoke engine use to generate smoke you can use TParticlesSystemParams also and test the differences

[General]
MatName ..\Materials\WhiteSmoke.mat--> the .mat (material) file name and the patch, in .mat file you will find which .tga file the effect uses.
Color0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0--> the initiation color values for particles as RGB (red, blue, green alpha channel or transparency) 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 means 255 255 255 (white color)and full visibility for the texture, the transparency value can vary between 0.0 and 1.0, ( 0.0 means invisible texture and 1.0 means full visibility) sometimes you can have other values like
0.20 0.50 0.63 to convert these value you do like this 0.20x255=51and 0.50x255=127,5 and 0.63x255=160.65 it means (51 127or128 160 or161 in RGB values).

Color1 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0-->the final color values for particles as RGB see above description.
nParticles 128 -->Number of particles can vary between 1 and ... don't tried the final value (smoke or fire particels).

FinishTime -1.0 --> the finish time of effect also how long the effect will last (-1.0 means it never stops but not allway it must be defined in class file).

MaxR 10 --> maximum radius of how wide the particles will spread .
PhiN 4.0 --> particles rotation speed vertically ( 0.0 means no rotations values can vary between 0 and upwards, don't know the final limit!).
PsiN 4.0--> particles rotation speed sideways ( 0.0 means no rotations values can vary between 0 and upwards, don't know the final limit!).
LiveTime 35.0--> particles lifetime in s (seconds).
EmitVelocity 3.0 5.0 --> particles emit velocity in m/s, initiation and final values.( you can use negative values too! like 10.0 -10.0 that will cause some particles travel first upwards and at the same time some particles will travel downwards! you can use -10.0 10.0 everything will be vice versa, first downwards then upwards).

EmitFrq 2.0--> the emit frequency of particles. (how often the particles will be emitted).

Wind 1.0 --> the wind effect, will make the particles move to a certain direction like when wind or when breeze blows.

Size 5.0 20.0 --> the initial and the final size of particles in m (meters).
GasResist 0.2 --> gas resistance indicate the compression of the particles, the higher the number the more compression of particles.

VertAccel 0.3 --> vertical acceleration speed of the particles in m/s, how fast particles will travel upwards if you use negative numbers the particles will go downwards.
Rnd 0.0 -->Range random, don't know what it refers to.

EmitTheta 0.0 30.0--> the initial and the final emit angles of particles in degrees,if you draw a trigonometric circle so you will have 0 degrees upwards 90 degrees to the left side, 180 downwards and 270 degrees to the right side.

Remember that:
* To manipulate all these parameters which are in connection to each other, is very time consuming, after every change you must restart the game load the effect (.TRK file) and check the results.
* You must be very patient, you will do many mistakes but it will cause you to learn how it all works together.
* You must do a mod file for example if you want to change SmokeWhite.eff you have to make a copy after you have extracted it with sfs extractor and place it in for example here:
C:\Program\Ubisoft\IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\MODS\my_effects\Effects\smokes
* You have to do a test mission, just put the smoke that you want to change, put one or two static cameras and make a recording .TRK file for 10-15 seconds and save it)open the your smoke file with notepad, do your changes and save it, for example if you want to change nParticles 128 you can do it like this nParticles 200 //128 now your new value is 200 and you have the old value saved in case you need it, you can continue doing like this nParticles 300//200//128 only the first value(300) will be used by game engine the values after // will ignored. restart the game an see the difference.
* Changing two or three parameters at the same time is very different to control and understand differences!

THX and Good luck stuka_40 8) :wink:

[slipper]

Thanks mate, a very comprehensive post. I will have to get looking with the sfs extractor, and see what i come up with.

Thanks a million for your patience and help stuka, really appreciated.

regards

slipper

[Plantoid 1]

stuka_40:

It's been over a year for this thread but I've just now caught up to it. I've read your post about the .eff files and how to change the various values and what they do.

I see the line "Wind 1.0 --> the wind effect, will make the particles move to a certain direction like when wind or when breeze blows." and understand it's what makes those large smokes blow realistically

Now, my question: Would there be some way to make, through FMB, the direction of the smokes go in a specified direction? Currently it seems the smoke randomly drifts from NE through SE to SW and back. What I'm looking to get as a result is smoke coming from a user-defined direction so that the wind direction and the smoke direction coordinate. One could use the smoke as a windsock if there was smoke in the area. And, since wind is configurable from mission to mission, it wouldn't do to define the smoke as coming from one direction through the .eff file.

Oh, I'm using this in Il2 v4.10.1 DBW Build 1.71

Thanks for any help

Bob

[stuka_40]

In answer to "Plantoid 1"
Hi!
As I know the wind variable, in .Eff files are not the same wind that you can configure in the FMB! when you enable the wind variable in a .eff file the particles will always move in a predefined direction by the game engine!
In .eff files, to adjust the particles movement in a certain direction, you have to play with "EmitVelocity ", "EmitTheta" , "VertAccel" and "GasResist" so that they interact with each other as you wanted it! it requires lot of job and testing, because if you change one variable you have to change the others too depending your wish and desire, and each change requires one restart of the game to visualize the result!

[Plantoid 1]

stuka_40:

Thank you for your prompt reply.

So, the answer is: the game engine prohibits being able to make smoke blow in a certain direction through FMB - I have to change those parameters you mentioned in your post.

Okay, I think I understand.

Bob

[jg1234]

Hi Folks,

I understand this topic has not been posted to in a while.

I am using version 4.12 with the VP Modpack and can'g seem to get this to work.

I noticed that my ini files contain a smoke 16 and smoke 17 entry - perhaps that is part of the problem?

Any advice is appreciated. - jg1234

[stuka_40]

Hi Folks,

I understand this topic has not been posted to in a while.

I am using version 4.12 with the VP Modpack and can'g seem to get this to work.

I noticed that my ini files contain a smoke 16 and smoke 17 entry - perhaps that is part of the problem?

Any advice is appreciated. - jg1234

Hi!
This mod contains modified class files (for example: 0A150CC2748D3A92 and others ) so if these class files are also modified in the other mod/mods or pack which you use, it will not work! unless you inactivate that particular mod or mod pack that collide with my mod!
If you do exactly everything that are explained on read me file under "Installation" it will work even for you.