[Dowly]

Hey guys and gals!

I have a small problem I could need some help solving. After seeing the PAT smoke mod, I started trying to get those nice contrails for the bullets just like you see in old guncamera films. Anyways, I have the contrails on the weapons that use the thin spiral contrail in the stock IL2, I'm left with the problem of finding the right file for the machineguns that use the straight thin line as a contrail.

I found a file in the same folder from where I found the spiral contrail's .eff file, but it didnt change the straight smokes. :x So, if anyone know what the file is called and where it is located, I could use some help.

Oh and if anyone has the know-how to explain all the parameters that are used in particle stuff (Size=, EmitFrq=, VerticalAccl= etc. etc.) I would appreciate it. I know what some of them do, but there's few I have no idea of their role.

Thanks in advance!

[The_Psy]

My guess is

Size= Size of particle (not only one, the complete box)

EmitFrq= Frequency emission (how many times or how much of it)

VerticalAccl= Vertical Acceleration (speed of the particle)

[Zephyr]

Probably you will use particle system, not spiral particle (I was not able to put spiral particle effects to have any good visual effect with fast moving objects).
These lines from particle effect conf. file corresponds to:
size - has two parameters: first describes the size of the particle at the moment of emission, and second describes the size at the end of its life
emitfrq is responsible for frequency of particles emission
verticalaccl - describes acceleration of particles, vertical acceleration - for example you have to put here -9.81 to make particles falling like balls in earth's gravity field. For short living gas particles (like from bullets) you can leave it 0.
You have to be careful with setting emitfrq and livetime - their product is equal to the max number of all particles displayed with one effect from one object at particular moment (if particles emitter lives long enough) - but Il2 has maximum number of particles available for every effect. From my experience i can write that the emitfrq multiplied by the livetime should be less than about 400.

[Dowly]

Thanks for replying! :wink: Tho, I already knew what those 3 do, I just gave them as an example.

Here's the one's I'd need more info of:
FinishTime (somekind of timer? Time runs out and it stops emitting particles?)
MaxR
PhiN
PsiN
EmitVelocity (How fast the particle goes?)
Wind
GasResist
Rnd
EmitTheta

[Zephyr]

I can't describe all, because some of them are still a puzzle to solve for me.
FinnishTime - as you wrote, keep -1 to make emission active forever
PhiN and PsiN - probably they describe rotation of particles
EmitVelocity - minimum and maximum speed of emitted particles
Wind - put 1000 and check effects - wind is a random speed which moves particles (all in the same direction) - wind direction changes very often, every few seconds
GasResist - how much gas decelerate particles
Rnd - something about randomness of particle emission - I don't know exact effect
EmitTheta - minimum and maximum angle of the emission

[Guest]

Excuse my ignorance but would this mod (if it is one) enable us to have smoke trails on planes like the Spitfire and Hurricane (early models) which have the red lines? I find these red lines unrealistic and would personally love to have a smoke-trail effect.

Thanks and excuse me if I'm wrong

[Dowly]

@Zephyr

Thanks, mate! That helped alot! 8)

Excuse my ignorance but would this mod (if it is one) enable us to have smoke trails on planes like the Spitfire and Hurricane (early models) which have the red lines? I find these red lines unrealistic and would personally love to have a smoke-trail effect.

Thanks and excuse me if I'm wrong

You mean while the plane is flying undamaged? If so, yes, it would be possible. Either by making the enginestart smoke effect last forever and make it very transparent (not very good method ). Another one that would work is what the PAT smoke mod is all about; moving the wingtip smoke to appropriate position, making the smoke transparent and you could then enable/disable the smoke as needed with the 'T' key.

[Guest]

Woops :!: I made a big error in my post.

I meant to say if it would change the tracer from the usual red lines to having smoke tails like on 109's.

Sorry, my fault entirely!

[Dowly]

Woops :!: I made a big error in my post.

I meant to say if it would change the tracer from the usual red lines to having smoke tails like on 109's.

Sorry, my fault entirely!

No worries. :wink:

As for your question, I dont know. :?