a la Keith Ferris

[Squiffy]

Check out this screenie. It's done with my beta version and a contrail edit. Downloading the update tonight.

[Squiffy]

So... any comments on the contrails? I see what might be contarils in the ETO versions but they have an AvH tag instead of "location=" in the xdp. Are these even activated? What about the contrail folders and apparently ai contrail planes? I haven't seen one contrail before I did this. Am I in for a surprise when I download this tonight? My mod does give a frame hit so beware. I'm going to try and reduce it.

By the way, Keith Ferris is the famous aviation artist who did the B-17 mural at the Air and Space museum in Washington DC.

[SLIP STREAM]

squiffy chech your pm and e-mail

[Pat Pattle]

Looks great Squiffy, will try them out. :)

[ronnybengt]

looks great from here....
R

[Nonato]

Squiffy

I'm always worried about FPS impact, but willing to try those out:applause::jump:

Nonato

[Squiffy]

Guys, it looks like there are several possibilities out there and SlipStream has been working on this. I will wait till I get the new ETO installed and see what happens after that. It looks like there is code in the effects file for it already. Hang in there. I'll be in touch with Slip.

[O-1Driver]

Squiffy,

There is a new contrail effect in the O-1 Driver section of the effects XML. There are also several new AI aircraft to create contrail effects up high in missions. there is also a B-25 and B-17 with contrail effect added.


The new contrail is an improvement over what I had seen and gives a much longer "tail" and hang time. It also looks much more visible when viewed from 20,000 ft below it. The main objective with this new contrail was to provide highly visible eye candy from a great distance.

Feel free to alter, modify or change this one as well if will help you.
O-1

[O-1Driver]

Squiffy,

Look at the aircraft folders contrails_AF and Contrails_AB. These are specially designed with altitude restrictions on them in MB. they cannot be placed in missions below I believe 25,000 ft. The objective was not to have aircraft sprouting contrails at low altitudes.

The best effect is to place the AF and AB together and watch the AF (fighters) weave around the bomber formations creating the nice high trails.

These were designed for long range viewing and to have long lasting tails. You can probably come up with one that looks better for player application but the problem is they would stay on at all times even at low altitude. that is why we used them as AI only and restricted them to a min of 25,000 ft.
O-1

[SLIP STREAM]

thanks for the heads up on the trails stevei'll see what they can do

[Squiffy]

Wow! O-1 that's amazing! I thought I remembered seeign something like this earlier. Are they invisible ai aircraft then. or just spawn limited at altitude? The altitude issue was important. I am tweaking them to come out only at cruise speed and go off at steep dive speeds like a destroyed bomber. I'll check them again but I wasn't sure how many types there were. I am thinking eye candy for interceptors and bombing missions, up high. The bomber_contrail effect is a two plane structure and I think it will render faster than the old cloud puff stream that was done a couple years ago. Cool stuff anyway. I knew there was somthign to that code! How does the AvH part work in the xdp effect code?

[SLIP STREAM]

squiffy i've been working on them for a couple hours no go on flyables i tried to link the effect to speed also nope.their on at max altitude and stay on to ground zero no matter what speed.:banghead:was hopeing O-1 had cracked it for the flyables. any other way
O-1 ?

[O-1Driver]

Hey Guy's,

We have never been able to crack the code on lights or contrails to enable them to be turned on and off other than with speed ranges. We decided to go the AI route because of that. We can all keep working on it and hope for the best.
.................................................. ...........................................
One thing I would love to see done is to create a cockpit view that would enable the player pilot to see smoke and flames in his cockpit when damage reaches 85 to 90%. I have a new fx_cockpit_fire effect that looks good on external views for the Spitfires and Hurricanes but it is not visible from inside view.

As you know reflected light is viewable by the player in cockpit view as we were able to light panels. There must be a way to see the smoke.

Can you imagine the immersion factor in combat of having smoke in your cockpit and obscuring your view of instruments and outside!!

There are so many new things that I would like to see done and if we keep working on it I think we can accomplish most of them.

O-1

[Squiffy]

Rock on O-1, ground dust is a pain when taxiing, you will some up with something I'm sure.

here's an idea, how about a pylon or a weapon that can be loaded onto an aircraft, like a smoke cannister, and will emit contails at altitudes? any promise here? We need to know if such a thing can be done for weapons. Bombs have an arming altitude right? Maybe this will work? Then maybe a long slow decay to emit the contrail. I never had luck with weapons when I worked on the v-1.

[Squiffy]

Also, I edited the texture down to a 128 pixel sheet. This will effect all of the trsmoke_4 effects. But it still looks pretty good. I'll look at O-1s and see how they work.

[Squiffy]

Any luck slipstream? I'll try more tonight. Maybe just very fast and program in the specifics in MB. Or maybe change cruise speeds and altitudes if possible.

[SLIP STREAM]

arg! no i did set up contrails to come on just below cruise speed at low alt then start the plane at its max altitude.the turn on speed was lowered just like its max speed is reduced.so i've been mulling over the aircraft config file for a possible alt.trigger. :isadizzy:

[Squiffy]

Config? As in flight model? I wonder if we can link it to a control surface or unused command like wingfold or tailhook or something. Still, to make them altitude sensitive, maybe we can link it to the mixture control. That is the best altitude link I have seen in game. How can we do that? Sound, power, and engine cutoff effect all happen there if mixture is out of range. Some how it's checkign mixture against altitude. Not sure how.

[SLIP STREAM]

thats the idea! i've watched this problem be adressed for four years. i don't think any one has tried to install a trigger into the config file,useing the scaler that the mixture,rpm,speed, uses.instead of trying to link to something at alt.everything is being scaled down we need a turn on.unfortunatley im at the boundries of what i know how to do with that idea.someone that knows how to program write would have to take over.the manual turn on useing a keystroke is a good idea if an auto trigger can't be done.man this is as bad as haveing that bad song stuck in your head.i should be finishing the packs,but this is nagging. :banghead::banghead::banghead::isadizzy:

[Squiffy]

Any clues about how to link scalars in the config? I''m also digging into sound editing for weapons. It's not a simple on off for the PD Spit browning. There seems to be a loop zone and then a decay zone after the trigger is released.