FX file parameters

[microlight]

Hey, you knowledgeable guys out there!

I've started editing .fx files, and I'm trying to rotate a smoke effect through 90 degrees, so that smoke vectors downwards, rather than backwards - anybody know which parameter in the .fx file controls this?

Also, is it possible to change sprite types in .fx files? Effects controlled by the 'lights' section in aircraft.cfg can be sprite type 21 (e.g. wingtip contrails), but if you try to use sprite type 19 (e.g. powered engine smoke effects) in the 'lights' section instead, you tend to get a bright white glow rather than the effect hoped for.

I've built a GMAX Thunderbird 2 (remember the Gerry Anderson 1960s puppet show?) and want to use the vertical smoke effect contolled by the 'L' key for the VTOL thrusters. The main rear engines are linked to the engine N1 % figure through the 'smokesystem' function and are fired automatically rearwards.

Thanks!

[inbetween]

Greetings,

I think you will need sprite type 19 for this effect, with
activation through the "smokesystem"...

In the library here is Dynamic Jet Smoke (civil jets)
that has examples of vectored effects...this smoke
rushes to the rear of the AC, using values entered
in the "particle velocity" section of the "emitter".

The "Y" direction (minus) is downward... but gravity
and drag must be addressed as well..

JR

[microlight]

Thanks, JR. I agree, it could be done via the smokesystem, but that's now directed at the rear horizontal engines. I understand that the linkage to the smokesystem is such that all of the smoke effects work at the same time. This would mean that the rear engine smoke would work OK as it does now, but the VTOL thrusters would also be working all the time too.

I don't think this is in the spirit of what is seen in the TV show, and is why I was trying to think of a method of controlling them through the 'lights' function, as it would be switchable with the 'L' key. Maybe I can't do it this way, and will have to think of something else.

Any ideas?

[microlight]

Hey, JR, I think I just realised how to do it. You noted in your reply on afterburners that there is a time function in the .fx files, so what I'm planning to do is to time the VTOL thruster effect for 10 seconds or something similar, and then time the horizontal effect to come in around the same time as the first one cuts out.

I think.