Exhaust smoke

[amariani 4,903]

Hi all, happy Thanksgiving!

I just noticed that none of my WW2 mods show exhaust smoke, did I forget to do something?

[+guuruu 5,910]

Maybe csmoke.tga is corrupted ?

 

Effects.rar

[Mike Dora 171]

Actually I’ve long considered exhaust smoke effects in WW2 sims to be a framerate-destroying, wholly inaccurate irrelevance, created by people seemingly unfamiliar with the real aeroplanes. Just look at any picture of an airborne Hurricane/Spitfire/Mosquito/Lancaster (is my RAF background showing here?) and observe the complete _absence_ of any smoke.

Further, in relation to WW1 types, in my spare time in summer I volunteer as groundcrew at Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York State. Apart from an occasional brief burst of white smoke at startup as excess fuel is burnt off, none of our WW1 types trail any visible plumes of smoke either.

For me then, these “exhaust smoke” effects as every bit as unrealistic as the “sun flare” effects also often offered by popular flightsims. Wherever possible therefore I always eliminate “exhaust smoke” from my WW1 & WW2 sims. Improves both realism and framerates.

Now if one is talking about the “skidmarks in the sky” of Vietnam-era J79-powered Phantoms etc, then those are definitely realistic! In my own service I recall spotting types like Vulcans & Hercules from their smoke trails long before the actual ac was visible.

Cheers

 

Mike

[Wrench 9,876]

indeed, "CleanExhaustEmitter" would be the correct one; it's the one I've used for the last 12+ years.

[Heck 496]

I've always felt the same as Mike Dora, and I'm grateful that you shared your real world experience, Mike. Shutting off WW2 exhausts makes the sim world a better place, at least for me.

Mike, you volunteer at Old Rhinebeck? A New York treasure, and one of my favorite places of all time. Been visiting there since I was in my teens. What a dedicated group of individuals we have there. If anyone visits New York State, it should be one of the places you schedule on your visit. Just remember to bring some cash, because the gift shop and food stands only accept cash. Great place.

[Gatling20 753]

One way to tone down the look of the exhaust for piston-engine aircraft is to modify the relevant TGA file.

From ParticleSystem.INI, CleanExhaustEmitter uses a TGA file called Smoketrail.TGA. 

If you extract this file, then reduce it's opacity to (say) 10% or 20%, and then save and copy it to your Flight folder, it will significantly reduce to look of the exhaust.

 

Alternatively, if you want a more complete solution for piston-engine aircraft, you can edit your ParticleSystem.INI file in the Flight folder.

Under [EmitterType003]
Name=CleanExhaustEmitter

edit the TextureMaterial line as follows:

TextureMaterial=SmokeTrailMaterial  <--- delete this reference, so it reads TextureMaterial=

 

 

 

[+dtmdragon 2,704]

I have often wondered about this myself and like wrench u have always gone for the clean exhaust emitter. But from what is being said here I think I will change to no exhaust emitter now especially with the frame rate bonus. Anyone have any thoughts or pictures to the contrary?

Edited November 24, 2018 by dtmdragon

[Gatling20 753]

The stock ThirdWire WW2-era piston-engine aircraft (P-51D and the Spitfires) don't use any exhaust emitter.

In the [Engine] section of the Data.INI, the line is left blank:

ExhaustEmitterName=
 

[+dtmdragon 2,704]

I have removed the clean exhaust emitter from all my WWII aircraft in my WWII Europe and Pacific installs (it took a few days!) and the results for frame rates are amazing! I can now have multiple entire squadrons of fighters attacking multiple entire squadrons of bombers (think USAAF daylight bombing of Germany) without any major drop in frame rate! No lagging, stutters or game slow down at all. Previously this kind of major air battle would cause an annoying slowdown in frame rate when engaging mass bombing formations up close. Now I have no problem at all even with tracers, flack bursts, burning aircraft and contrails filling the sky. This is game changing for me!  :-)

Edited November 29, 2018 by dtmdragon

[Wrench 9,876]

that's excellent!

looks like it's time for me to get to work -- oh the pain of 4 WW2 installs!!