Experiencing bizzare issues in SF2 series aircraft & effects - Requesting help

[SkyStrike 15]

Dear All,

 

Sorry to bother you again but i'm expriencing bizzare problems with regard to the afterburner effects, shadows & cockpits of certain SF2 aircraft; namely the MF F-14A & F-14B, the Eagle superpack (afterburner effects), the Gripen (cockpit) as well as the F-2A & J-10 (shadows)

 

the afterburners quite literally light up the night and gives a glaring white contrast all over the plane and the ground...

 

The Gripen displays a double cockpit & both the J-10 & F-2A don't produce shadows....

 

I have not tampered with any of the .ini's & these aircraft were downloaded from the SF2 aircraft section. i'm posting the screenshots below tis message.;

 

Please could someone help me out?

 

Thanks in advance

 

[+Dave 2,322]

Shadows are disabled with the J-10 and the F-2A because they produce an error. Gripen suffers the problem ad the F-35. Need to be updated for the newer patches. The AB effects are part of the effects that happen if you are using third party environment mods.

[+Brain32 265]

Cure for afterburner, you have to change in respective .ini

 

Like this:

 

[EmitterType001]

Name=EagleAfterburnerEmitter

EmissionType=ORIENTED_EMITTER

UpdateType=NON_MOVING

MaxVisibleDistance=8000.000000

EmissionRate=0.000800

EmissionVolume=0.010000,0.010000,0.010000

EmissionVelocityTableType=CONSTANT

EmissionVelocity=0.000000,-120.000000,0.000000

HasLightSource=TRUE

LightColor=0.405,0.396,0.342

LightRange=5.0 <-------This used to be 200 which was fine for old series(no bloom and stuff), but TK's planes in SF2 have value of 5 and it works perfectly

[SkyStrike 15]

Cure for afterburner, you have to change in respective .ini

 

Like this:

 

[EmitterType001]

Name=EagleAfterburnerEmitter

EmissionType=ORIENTED_EMITTER

UpdateType=NON_MOVING

MaxVisibleDistance=8000.000000

EmissionRate=0.000800

EmissionVolume=0.010000,0.010000,0.010000

EmissionVelocityTableType=CONSTANT

EmissionVelocity=0.000000,-120.000000,0.000000

HasLightSource=TRUE

LightColor=0.405,0.396,0.342

LightRange=5.0 <-------This used to be 200 which was fine for old series(no bloom and stuff), but TK's planes in SF2 have value of 5 and it works perfectly

 

Thanks Brain32.. it worked...[:)]

[+Dave 2,322]

Good find Brain, I didnt know that.

[+Brain32 265]

Good find Brain, I didnt know that.

 

Yeah neither did I but flying at night over virtual Iraq tends to rise such questions

[SkyStrike 15]

Hi Brain,

 

One more minor issue: I'm experiencing a similar issue with landing lights in the game please could you help? (screenshot attached)

 

Thanks.. Much appreciated

[+Brain32 265]

Hi Brain,

 

One more minor issue: I'm experiencing a similar issue with landing lights in the game please could you help? (screenshot attached)

 

Thanks.. Much appreciated

 

Heh, not sure as I land without it so I didn't notice. However a quick glance at the data.ini of the F-15E for example shows this:

 

[upperLandingLight]

SystemType=LIGHT

Position=-0.015,3.198,-0.920

LightSrcOffset=2.6046,49.0560,3.50

Color=0.66,0.66,0.6

Brightness=0.10

LightSrcRange=150

LightRange=45.0 <----- Try reducing this value until you are happy with results

CanFlash=FALSE

IsLandingLight=TRUE

[SkyStrike 15]

Thanks... I'll try it out & get back to you...

Edited August 13, 2010 by Tomcat_ace

[mikeymead 17]

Ok, for the Gripen double cockpit issue.

 

I think it has something to do with both Lods for the airframe and the cockpit showing up and the cockpit position being out of sync with the airframes pilot position.

 

In the cockpit ini change the CockpitSeat entries to:-

 

[CockpitSeat001]

ModelName=Cockpit

Position=0.0000,4.40,0.6

ViewAngles=0.0,0.0,0.0

MaxYaw=178

MinYaw=-178

MaxPitch=90

MinPitchFront=-50

MinPitchRear=-35

LightRange=1.5

LightInnerConeAngle=50

LightOuterConeAngle=60

LightAngles=0.0,-30.0,0.0

DiffuseLightFactor=0.5

NightLightOn=0.25

NightLightColor=0.25,0.88,0.25

Gunsight=GunsightFront

 

Hopefully that should sort it.

[FastCargo 412]

Okay folks, this 'double cockpit' issue keeps coming up, so here's some info to help you solve your own problems.

 

For folks who are having problems with cockpits not being in the proper position, the default is to match the entry in the data.ini:

 

[Pilot]

SystemType=PILOT_COCKPIT

PilotModelName=WW2Pilot

Position=0.00,2.86,0.97

 

with the position in the cockpit.ini:

 

[CockpitSeat001]

ModelName=Meteor_Pit

Offset=0.0,0.0,0.0

Position=0.00,2.86,0.97

 

That should in theory make your eye point from the cockpit match what the eyepoint of the pilot model, which of course should allow you to see what the pilot sees.

 

However, TK has reduced the NearClipDistance parameter in the FLIGHTENGINE.INI in the latest patch, causing some odd issues with external aircraft parts showing that shouldn't.

 

Lets talk a little about how all these parameters relate to each other.

 

All Component entries in an aircraft's data.ini have this parameter:

 

ShowFromCockpit=TRUE

 

This is exactly what it sounds like...the mesh name and any SystemName in the Component entry will be visible from the cockpit view.

 

In the FLIGHTENGINE.INI file there will be a parameter called NearClipDistance. This parameter is in meters, and tells the that within the cockpit view, anything with the distance is not to be drawn except for the cockpit LOD. Also, under normal conditions, the cockpit LOD will overdraw everything in the cockpit view (aircraft, weapon and pilot LODs).

 

One more parameter that is sometimes relevant is the OpenCockpit parameter located in the cockpit.ini file. If this is set to TRUE, the NearClipDistance parameter will NOT be applied to that aircraft and the cockpit LOD will no longer overdraw everything. Anything with ShowFromCockpit=TRUE in the data.ini will be drawn and visible from the cockpit...even stuff that could be inside the cockpit. I use this to advantage in the F-111s, allowing you to have a WSO sitting next to you.

 

However, all the models I have built have anticipated such a development.

 

Note in the this OUT file:

 

- WindscreenFrame [264 polys, 792 verts (decal)] '07 - Default'

-- WindscreenGlass [32 polys, 96 verts (decal)] '19 - Default'

- CanopyFrame [679 polys, 2037 verts (decal)] '07 - Default', AnimationID: 4

-- CanopyGlass [318 polys, 954 verts (decal)] '19 - Default'

- Cockpit [152 polys, 456 verts (decal)] '07 - Default'

-- GunSight [12 polys, 36 verts (decal)] '19 - Default'

 

Note that the WindscreenFrame, CanopyFrame, and Cockpit are separate meshes, all the meshes normally closest to the pilot...and the ones that usually cause the visual issues.

 

So, for this aircraft, I've put the following in the data.ini:

 

Component[009]=HidePart1

 

then

 

[HidePart1]

ModelNodeName=Cockpit

ParentComponentName=Fuselage

ShowFromCockpit=FALSE

DamageRating=DESTROYED

HasAeroCoefficients=FALSE

SystemName[001]=Pilot

 

Note what happens...basically I've told the sim that in cockpit view, I don't want to see the Cockpit mesh (plus any submeshes) in the external model. You can do this for every mesh that you don't want to see from the cockpit view. This is the preferred method I use, to preserve the actual view from the cockpit as much as possible while avoiding clipping problems.

 

Give that a shot for any model that you are having issues with. You may have to do some searching in the model's OUT file to determine what to hide.

 

FC

[SFP1Ace 33]

One more parameter that is sometimes relevant is the OpenCockpit parameter located in the cockpit.ini file. If this is set to TRUE, the NearClipDistance parameter will NOT be applied to that aircraft and the cockpit LOD will no longer overdraw everything. Anything with ShowFromCockpit=TRUE in the data.ini will be drawn and visible from the cockpit...even stuff that could be inside the cockpit. I use this to advantage in the F-111s, allowing you to have a WSO sitting next to you.

 

Are there any reasons not to set OpenCockpit=TRUE? I mean it gives this nice, cool selfshading and all. I 've just flown A-7A in SF2:V with A&G war expansion and haven't noticed any bugs. Perhaps the answer for this question is just right above in the quotation, but I'm tired now and exhausted from the heat and my english cogniton part of the brain is definitely switched off hence I can't make much sense of it, lol.

 

Sorry for the OT and thanks!

[FastCargo 412]

Besides parts of the external aircraft mesh showing through the cockpit mesh, during inclement conditions, you might appear to have 'fog' inside your cockpit. That's about the only disadvantage I have seen for setups where the parameter is properly applied.

 

FC

[FastCargo 412]

One additional note. If your aircraft CGPosition parameter (located in the data.ini) is anything other than 0,0,0, the method I described above will not quite work. The cockpit position will be offset by the numbers in the CGPosition parameter.

 

The way to prevent this from happening is inserting this line into the data.ini just below the CGPostion parameter (located in the [AircraftData] section):

 

CockpitCGOffset=TRUE

 

What this does is remove the offset CGPosition and the position you set the cockpit at will be its true position reference the LOD model's zero point.

 

In simple terms, if you always set this parameter as TRUE, the cockpit will always be put at the position you set in the cockpit.ini file. I find having this line in all my models doesn't affect anything for aircraft whose CGPosition is 0,0,0 , while fixing those aircraft who's CGPosition is something other than that.

 

FC

[SFP1Ace 33]

Thanks FC! I've just tested open cockpit in inclement weather and true, when passing through a cloud layer it does get a little fogy inside, but IMHO it's a minor issue I can live with, and the eye candy is worth it :)