SF2V ShipSmoke too thick - ways to change

[stingray77]

In my SF2V I found the ship's exhaust smoke too dark/intense/thick. (It even shone through mist and clouds - especially visible when approaching the aircraft carrier in heavy weather, when the plume of smoke can be seen long before the carrier itself...)

 

I learnt that the detail for this is the line "ExhaustEmitterName=ShipSmoke" in the ships' "DATA.INI"

Deleting the "ShipSmoke" makes the smoke go away (meeting my personal preference a lot more).

 

Two questions about this:

 

1) the aircrafts' exhaust smoke is absolutely great (and far less thick) - if THAT could be "exported" to be used as the ships' smoke, too, it would look awesome, I guess.

But I think this is a totally different source of data (like flowing vertically and things like that). Any idea how to make use of that one, anyhow?

 

2) I already found several ships emitting that thick smoke in the Mods-folder, that I could change easily.

By means of an extraction tool I found some more in the CAT-files within the "basic" folder - and I just learnt, that applying a change on them needs the FULL folder (like "Tanker" or "CV-63") - including the changed DATA.INI! - to be put into the Mods-folder... (Will try that soon.)

But Eric (eburger68) told me of some TYPES.INI to change the "Russian Freighter" which should be somewhere in the terrains... Can somebody direct me to where I might find that one? Checked the ObjectsXXX.CAT-folders and the Terrains.CAT already without success.

 

Thanks for your ideas.

 

Oliver

[Wrench]

Change the emmitter size ...

 

Every ship has a statement in their data ini:

 

[Engine]

SystemType=ENGINE

MaxExtentPosition= 10.22,-11.37, 5.64

MinExtentPosition=-10.22,-51.33,-3.74

ExhaustEmitterName=ShipSmoke

ExhaustPosition=0.00,-32.86,24.81

ExhaustEmitterSize=1.0 <---

 

like everything else, very adjustable. Smaller number, smaller smoke size

 

wrench

kevin stein

[stingray77]

Thanks for your hint - something new to learn...

 

But doesn't this only cut down the size of the plume? I would like to reduce its intensity - like "make it lighter"...

 

Any idea where to find that Russian freighter?

[Wrench]

If the "Russian Freighter" is the one I'm thinking of, from OTC, it's not usable as a GroundObject CargoSHip. It's designed as a static ship for being 'in port'. The reason: several years ago (2006), I converted it to a usable GroundObject, and found the lod is reversed to the world (meaning: it's front to back, and sails stern first!! the cowards!! or, maybe by sailing backwards, they're trying to convice folks they're leaving???? Sail casually???) Screenie below.

 

As to creating a 'lighter, less dense smoke', I haven't done a lot of work with effects, but I'd venture a guess you'd need to create a new one, call it 'ShipSmoke2', and and possibly import or edit an existing smoke tga, or create a new one, that suits the purpose

 

wrench

kevin stein

[stingray77]

Thanks for your info, Kevin.

 

Guess creating a new smoke would go (far) beyond my skills (at least for now)....

 

And having the Russian Freighter statically is fully okay for me. How/where (in what file/s) can I find it, then? I would just want to check, whether it emits smoke too, and try to "delete" it, then......

 

Funny screenie - the ship sails behind its wake; must be due to that incredible speed of 50 kts!

 

Oliver

Edited October 14, 2009 by stingray77

[+331Killerbee]

In Your "Effects" Folder, You should have a File named "ShipSmokeEffect or ShipSmoke". Open it. In these Lines below, Make these Changes and see if You get a better Result.

 

 

Entry in existing Effect .Ini:

 

EmissionVolume=0.500000,0.500000,0.500000

 

Change to this:

 

EmissionVolume=0.200000,0.200000,0.200000

 

 

See how it changes from there and tweak it to Your likeing.

 

 

331KillerBee

[stingray77]

Cool hint!

 

I'll try that... (And it sounds very reasonable...... )

[stingray77]

Hum, I have ShipSmoke and ShipSmokeEffect both under my Effects in the Mods-folder.

Changing the Volume-values down to .5 (or even .00005 for that matter) did not change anything - that's very strange, as I thought this sounded like a very sensible solution...

Why doesn't changing that have any effect???

[stingray77]

Of course I meant: "changing the volume down to .2..." - not .5!

 

But I still have to try out changing the ExhausEmitterSize.....