Wing Tip Vapor Trails look bad

[mcbob]

My wing tip vapor trails always look like square cut pieces of ribbon. They are usually white not colored like this one. This is the ETO _P51dinhao P51B 353FS 1944. I have seen screen shots that have natural looking trails. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

[MajorMagee]

One other annoying thing I've see with this issue when it happens is that it can look perfectly fine from outside the cockpit, but be rendered incorrectly when looking from the inside out.



For my installs the effect called out in the aircraft xdp file is fx_N_gtrail

In the all in one effects file we worked up last year that leads to:

<fx_N_gtrail ClassName="GroupEffect" Effect0="N_track_contrail_s"/>

and then to

<N_track_contrail_s ClassName="TrackEffect" FlatTrack="0" Lifetime="0" InitialDelay="0" ParticleLifetime="0.15" FadeInTime="0.02" FadeOutTime="0.12" PosX="0" PosY="0" PosZ="0" CountSegments="5" SegmentLength="2" Width="0.25" WidthGrow="1.2" InitialAlpha="0.00" InitialColor="250 250 255" Alpha="0.55" Color="250 250 255" FinalAlpha="0.00" FinalColor="250 250 255" BlendMode="QuadSprite" Texture="tr_condenstrail_basis3.dds" ZBias=".03"/>

and that uses tr_condenstrail_basis3.dds as a QuadSprite

The dds file format is DXT5 (interpolated alpha layer).

Other combinations of BlendMode, and DDS file formats can lead to the problem you're observing.

[mcbob]

[QUOTE=MajorMagee;1182357]One other annoying thing I've see with this issue when it happens is that it can look perfectly fine from outside the cockpit, but be rendered incorrectly when looking from the inside out.


Yes, this is what I'm seeing. Does this mean it's still fixable?

I tried the <fx_N_gtrail ClassName="GroupEffect" Effect0="N_track_contrail_s"/> and that didn't change anything.

I downloaded the all in one effects file but I don't see the tr_condenstrail_basis3.dds file and I don't seem to have it, so I didn't install any of that package.

[Daiwilletti]

hi mcbob, as you surmise the problem may be as simple as a missing fxtexture. You just need to check whether the dds texture specified in the effects.xml is available (should be in the Effects/fxtextures folder). If not, rattle around in another install and copy the texture over.

[Snaker]

Not sure where I found this solution but here is what I did:

RENAME tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds to tr_condenstrail_basis3.dds in the effects folder


Then add this into the [HighAltSprite] section of the texturemagic.ini


tr_condenstrail_basis3.dds= 2500|-1500
Then replace this into the effects xml:
<fx_N_gtrail ClassName="GroupEffect" Effect0="N_track_contrail_s"/>
<N_track_contrail_s ClassName="TrackEffect" FlatTrack="0" Lifetime="0" InitialDelay="0" ParticleLifetime="0.15" FadeInTime="0.02" FadeOutTime="0.12" PosX="0" PosY="0" PosZ="0" CountSegments="5" SegmentLength="2" Width="0.25" WidthGrow="1.2" InitialAlpha="0.00" InitialColor="250 250 255" Alpha="0.55" Color="250 250 255" FinalAlpha="0.00" FinalColor="250 250 255" BlendMode="QuadSprite" Texture="tr_condenstrail_basis3.dds" ZBias=".03"/>

Hope that helps.

[Capt. Winters]

Hi Snaker,

thanks mate, that fixed the issue for me.

regards Rob.

[mcbob]

Thanks Snaker, that seems to have fixed mine as well.

[Daiwilletti]

Not sure where I found this solution but here is what I did:

RENAME tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds to tr_condenstrail_basis3.dds in the effects folder

Hope that helps.

Hi Snaker, did you retain a copy of tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds? Just out of interest. Also, does a Find/Replace in the effects.xml show any entries for tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds? I only ask because I am not at my CFS3 computer.

[mcbob]

Hi Snaker, did you retain a copy of tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds? Just out of interest. Also, does a Find/Replace in the effects.xml show any entries for tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds? I only ask because I am not at my CFS3 computer.

I had that same question, so I left the condenstrail_basis2.dds file and just added the condenstrail_basis3.dds. I just checked my effects.xml and it does show an entry for condenstrail_basis2.dds.

[Snaker]

Hi Snaker, did you retain a copy of tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds? Just out of interest. Also, does a Find/Replace in the effects.xml show any entries for tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds? I only ask because I am not at my CFS3 computer.

Hi Daiwiletti -

I have both tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds and tr_condenstrail_basis3.dds in my effects folder. I left the tr_condenstrail_basis2.dds file in the folder in case it was needed for the effects.xml. I searched the effect xml and see that it is not called for anywhere so I suppose one could delete it and if you needed it at some point you could just rename

tr_condenstrail_basis3.dds back to the original.

This fix has something to do with the alpha layers/values for the contrails that need to be changed when using Ankors mod.

I can't take credit for this fix but I am glad it helped others!

[MajorMagee]

You're welcome...

[Daiwilletti]

Thanks, Snaker. I will keep a copy of the basis2.dds just for completeness.