Firepower B-17f XDP Corrections

[Daiwilletti]

Have just been testing effects specified under the "System" section of the Firepower B-17f. I noticed that Effect="fire" is used for some lines.

<Threshold Level="100" Effect="Fire" Parameter="fx_engfire_m" Location="emitter_damage_nose"/>

In stock aircraft, the same effect (fx_engfire_m) is described as Effect="Library".

After some testing (repeated shooting up of said B-17f with a FW190_a8), I concluded that changing the xdp entries from "Fire" to "library" resulted in the effects working.

Hence it occurs to me there may be a number of aircraft out there without the "full spectrum" of functioning effects?

So a question for the aircraft modelling experts - what do they think? Does it matter what the Effect="" line says?

Certainly seems to be the case for the B-17f

Happy flying,

[rocketred]

all lines inquestion , edited to libary from fire .....fp - b17 verison ....


tks if i got this right

[gecko]

I'm not sure why you got the results you did, that should not change whether it works or not. If you have an effect with Effect="Library" in the line, then it is simply an effect called from the effects.xml and "emitter_damage_nose" specifies the location on the model where it will appear. If the line instead has Effect="Fire" in it, then all of the above remains true with the addition that as long as the effect is active, it will slowly cause damage to nearby parts of the plane. So I use Effect="Fire" for any fire effect and it works great. Effect="Break" will cause that system to become completely inoperable, and in the case of things like wings and engines, it will fall off the aircraft. There is also an Effect="Explode" option used in some xdps; I'm not certain exactly what this does. It may cause damage, but I've not been able to confirm this.

Here is an example of how I set up the engine damage on my B-17 - it is only the first engine, but it's enough for you to get the general idea of how it works:

<System ID="engine_one" Name="Engine One">
<Threshold Level="75" Effect="Library" Parameter="fx_oilleak_s" Location="emitter_damage_engine_0"/>
<Threshold Level="80" Effect="Fire" Parameter="fx_oilleak_m" Location="emitter_damage_engine_0"/>
<Threshold Level="85" Effect="Fire" Parameter="fx_engfire_s" Location="emitter_damage_engine_0"/>
<Threshold Level="90" Effect="Fire" Parameter="fx_engfire_m" Location="emitter_damage_engine_0"/>
<Threshold Level="95" Effect="Fire" Parameter="fx_engfire_l" Location="emitter_damage_engine_0"/>
<Threshold Level="100" Effect="Library" Parameter="fx_airexpl_m" Location="emitter_damage_engine_0"/>
<Threshold Level="100" Effect="Fire" Parameter="fx_engfire_l" Location="emitter_damage_engine_0"/>
</System>

The result of setting it up this way is that a fire can break out any time after the engine is 80% damaged. Once fx_oilleak_m is triggered, the damage percentage slowly begins to increase, even if it is no longer being hit. Once damage reaches 85%, the engine will catch fire as it triggers fx_engfire_s and so on until the fire has turned the engine into a seething mass of flames which will continue to cause damage to the wing. The rate of damage seems to accelerate with each successive "Fire" effect.

[Daiwilletti]

@ gecko, thanks very much for the detailed explanation, I am much more enlightened about the various parameters

It is strange that so far I only have seen engine fire effects on the b-17f once I made the tweaks - I will go back to the original FP xdp and do a bit more testing. Hopefully it was all a bit of an abberation.

Will report back tomorrow.

D

[Pat Pattle]

Fascinating stuff chaps

[gosd]

@ gecko, thanks very much for the detailed explanation, I am much more enlightened about the various parameters

It is strange that so far I only have seen engine fire effects on the b-17f once I made the tweaks - I will go back to the original FP xdp and do a bit more testing. Hopefully it was all a bit of an abberation.

Will report back tomorrow.

D

Following this post with interest should the .xdp left as they are or should they be corrected?

[Daiwilletti]

OK my bad - the original xdp, using the "fire" parameter seems fine. I think what happened was I didn't test the original xdp enough before trying the changes to "library".

This time I put the FW190 into unlimited weapons mode, and really hosed the B17 down - man, they take a lot of punishment. But this time, unlike the first time, there was plenty of fire using the original xdp. The first time, there were only large fuel leaks showing from both wings.

But at least by making this post I learned some interesting stuff - thanks, Gecko!

Interesting that using "library" still worked fine - the stock aircraft I looked at use "library for the engfire effects?

Happy flying

[Daiwilletti]

Reading Gecko's post again, makes me wonder if I shouldn't upgrade the effects for stock aircraft by using the "fire" and "explode" options more liberally....