Smoke system for AI aircraft

[Ivan]

OK i have some tupolevs, which need to make smoke while flying around.
In the current config they have the black exhaust smoke linked to the normal smoke system (on/off with I)
but i want it to be on all the time (yes, that is realistic, look at the Airliners.net photo's)
How do i have to edit the Aircraft.cfg file to do that?

[emh8]

Hey Ivan,

Sorry it took so long for someone to respond!

I just spent a considerable amount of time messing with the system for my 727, to no avail.

You might try posting under "fs2002" or "fs2004," depending on what you are using.

Erik

[Mr. Bones]

by my knowledge it's not possible so add all those features to AI traffic. once i wanted to add a tanker plane with a boom...but the boom wouldn't come down.

if you want a real answer, ask Rollerball (Roger)...he's the specialist when it comes to AI!  ;)

[RollerBall]

[quote]if you want a real answer, ask Rollerball (Roger)...he's the specialist when it comes to AI!

[emh8]

I knew I was right.......................

[HolgerS]

Hi all:

not sure how this topic ended up at the top of the list again but I hadn't seen it before.

There is a workaround for getting smoke effects to show up, though it does have some side effects - always read the fine print ;-)

As Roger pointed out, the only smoke/TD effects that get used by AI (aside from the auto-contrails) are the ones triggered on touchdown. While I was trying to get nice touchdown effects for my AI choppers project I ended up with settings where an effect would get triggered but never stop again. In other words, the chopper would keep on smoking or sparking while at the airport and after taking off again. So, it looks a bit silly on the ground, depending on the effect used but it allows AI to fly around with smoke/water/spark effects on.

It's been six months since I found this out so I'd have to look into the specific effects settings again (and I haven't tried this in FS9 yet either). I'll do this if anyone is interested in the details. Let me know.

Cheers, Holger  

[JBaymore]

Another thought here.......

If you created a new gauge for an aircraft that was to be used for AI that would generate the equivalent of an "I" keypress whenever the airspeed read over say....O knots........ and then put the smoke in the aircraft.cfg file....  would that work?

best,

..................john

[RollerBall]

There is actually already a gauge called SHOP_FX by Jan Rosenberg, aka "JR" and "I.Candymaker" that does exactly that but based on N1 value

It works great with aircraft flown manually (eg 737) but when I tried it with a 737 AI the effect didn't appear

I've emailed the authors and if I get a reply I'll let you know.

So near but still so far......

This effect is really good as you can see here



But obviously AI don't behave in the sim like 'real' aircraft. I tried changing the effect to work on altitude rather than N1 power as I thought that this might be more relevant (te pic is taken from my test - so it works for ordinary planes). But it still didn't work for the same plane flying as an AI

[JBaymore]

Rollerball,

Well....... glad to know that I was thinkingin the right direction........ even if it doesn't work  ;).

Oh well.

best,

.....................john

[RollerBall]

Have heard from the author folks and it's bad news I'm afraid.

Even if as with the default 737 the aircraft has a panel installed, when it flies as an AI, the system never bothers to look for a panel. This means that any effect that relies on a panel gauge cannot work for AI. This explains why the smoke effect works for a flyable aircraft but not for the same aircarft when it is used as an AI.

The good news is that for fans of the effect (1) there is also one for turboprops and (2) both work in FS9

Don't think we're gonna have any luck here.. unless Holger can do anything with the settings he mentioned earlier.

Roger

[JBaymore]

Holger,

YES .... please see if you can figure out what you did to get that.  Thanks.  :D

best,

..................john

[HolgerS]

Hi all:

okay then, I'll dig into the effects settings - please give me a couple of days. Meanwhile, here are two screenshots from my 'archives' to prove that cool effects work with AI choppers or aircraft. The second one is an example of a permanent smoke+spark effect triggered by the first landing ;-)

Cheers, Holger

[JBaymore]

Holger,

Thanks...... no rush.  Whenever you get to it.

I'm not a chopper pilot.... so maybe this is "old hat" to you.  But the realism of the water spray in the first shot is sweet.  The fine mist and all.  Is that a stock effects file..... or was that an add on or something you wrote?

If an add on....... where'd you get it?

Thanks.

best,

..................john

[HolgerS]

Howdy:

finally got around to going back to my effects files and do some more trials. So here's what I know about how to make AI aircraft emit smoke or water effects:

Technically, it's quite simple. In each aircraft.cfg the default effects settings look something like this:

[EFFECTS]
wake=fx_wake
water=fx_spray
dirt=fx_tchdrt
concrete=fx_sparks
touchdown=fx_tchdwn_s, 1

I tried many different combinations and it seems that for AI the two important settings are "concrete" and "touchdown" (whereas the first three keys don't seem to have any effect at all). Both trigger an effect at touchdown, with the difference that the "touchdown" key seems to require those kinds of effects that only run once, such as the standard 'rubber on tarmac' effect. If one chooses an effect that does not have a scripted ending it will stay on, even with the "1" flag (i.e., run once) set.

The tricky part is to find out which effect works well in general (some smoke effects completely envelop the aircraft when parked) and for which aircraft. Since smoke and exhaust effects are usually placed with the coordinate parameters in the [smokesystem] section they are often coded as a single trail. That works well on something like the single-engine Hawk 51 or even the Tomcat but will look strange on a 707 or 747. It often pays to hunt in your effects folder for aircraft-specific effects. For example, the white 'smoke' of the AI Dash-7 came with the original aircraft and seems to work fine (that image is an example of the engine-off effect visuals).

It is quite likely that, with a bit of help from the Effects SDK documents, one should be able to program aircraft-specific (e.g., 4-engine) exhaust effects for various AI.

Again, these effects will only get triggered on completion of the first flight. You don't have to be at that particular airport but it works only for AI in the active zone around your aircraft. Also, any reloading (with time change) will reset the AI and you'll lose the active effects.

I haven't tried these effects in FS9 yet but it looks like the effects engine hasn't changed.

A final note: other than the funny ground effects during parking you'll have to keep in mind that effects are frame rate eaters; if you have many AI with effects running you better have a fast rig - I don't ;-(  


For the three examples in the images, here are the two parameters in each aircraft.cfg file:

Hawk51 (by KARI VIRTANEN and MIKKO MALINIEMI)
concrete=fx_dustcloud_s, 1
touchdown=fx_smoke_rx

F-14b Tomcat VF-154 CFG GMax (by Jeff Dobbing)
concrete=fx_sparks
touchdown=fx_smoke_w_DH

De Havilland Dash 7-100 (by Milton Shupe)
concrete=fx_tchdwn, 1
touchdown=D7rfxa

So, anyone who's interested, dive into your effects folder and go wild; you can trigger water effects on land, sparks in the water, or fireworks and bombs. It's quite fun to experiment with this...

Cheers, Holger

[HolgerS]

Hi John:

almost forgot about your question regarding the amphibian effects.

The picture is of one of my AI choppers and I don't know whether it's possible to re-create the combination of wake and splash in a flyable aircraft but here's what I use for most of my floatplanes:

[EFFECTS]
wake=fx_wake_m
water=fx_waterland
waterspeed=fx_waterland
dirt=fx_tchdrt
concrete=fx_sparks
touchdown=fx_tchdwn_s, 1

The fx_waterland file is by Bob Tremblay; search for his name in the file library here or elsewhere and you should find a few packages that include the effects file.

Give these settings a try but remember to keep a copy of your original .cfg file in case you don't like the results.

Cheers, Holger