Simviation Forums

Well I just happened to do an IFR and I realized when I got to my assigned altitude and took a look around, my contrails looked like puffs of smoke in white elongated rectangles. Any suggestions on how to fix this? I tried switching aircraft but that didn't help, nor did a restart of the simulator.

no chance you could post up a pic of what it looks like is there????

There are two files in the effects folder of FS that are responsible for contrails they are fx_contrail_l.fx and fx_contrail_s.fx .
You added something that changed these files. You can find them on the original install cd's Sorry I do not know for sure which cab file you need.
Just make sure you unzip them in a folder outside of FS then just cut and paste and overwrite. 8-)
If you can not find them send me a PM with your email address and I will send you a copy of mine. I must warn you mine are altered but look more realistic. 8-)

Hi jr birdman.

As Gary says, there are two .fx files that control the contrail effects. However, as the effect is showing (as cubes) then these files are likely to be still there.

In the 'effects' folder is a subfolder called 'texture' - in this folder there are two .bmp files (fx_1.bmp and fx_smoke.bmp) used by the contrail .fx files to render the visuals correctly. If you're seeing cubes then you should check that the .bmp files are still there. If not, you can retrieve them from your original discs.

If you download my AutoEnvironment pack from the downloads section, it includes replacement 3D contrails that look much better then the 2D defaults.

If you download my AutoEnvironment pack from the downloads section, it includes replacement 3D contrails that look much better then the 2D defaults.

Highly recommended!!  This has become an essential FS9 addon for me.

REX has some nice free contrails. And yes they do work in FS9.