FS9 Smoke System Glitch?

[TARPSBird]

I was trying to add a water drop take-off effect to a FS9 seaplane using a gauge and .fx file from Milton Shupe's FSX Grumman Mallard recently updated by the LDR team. Water trails off the bottom of the hull as the plane lifts off the water, then stops. Looks great in FSX and you can add it to other planes. Works fine in FS9 too, EXCEPT that in the [smokesystem] section of the .cfg file I can only adjust the position of the .fx file forward/aft and left/right, not up/down. So the water spray comes off the hull too high up. Is this a FS9 limitation? Is there a gauge that can allow me to add this effect in the correct position using the [lights] section of the .cfg file?

[vonernsk]

TARPSbird,

Hi. I have never adjusted a water effect, but have done it for smoke effects many times.

Once I appreciated that whilst adjusting lights on a/c is done in the order: Length; Width; Height, the order for adjusting smoke effects is:
Height; Length; Width.

There should be no reason why you cannot adjust the water effect up or down.

Hope this helps.

Mal

[TARPSBird]

Mal, thanks for your comment. It took me some trial and error yesterday but I finally figured out the difference in the positioning from lights to smoke system. I've tried to adjust the height value of the effects from extremes of 20 ft above ref point to 20 ft below and it makes no difference, the effects still show half-way up the plane's hull (zero above/below) instead of along the bottom where I want them. Very strange. And no mention in the FS9 SDK about any vertical limitation in the [smokesystem] section.

[Milton Shupe]

Mal, thanks for your comment. It took me some trial and error yesterday but I finally figured out the difference in the positioning from lights to smoke system. I've tried to adjust the height value of the effects from extremes of 20 ft above ref point to 20 ft below and it makes no difference, the effects still show half-way up the plane's hull (zero above/below) instead of along the bottom where I want them. Very strange. And no mention in the FS9 SDK about any vertical limitation in the [smokesystem] section.

Use the effects from the Lights section.

Use the x,y,z coordinates (fore/aft, left/right, up/down) as you would for the lights.

The Mallard in FS9 works fine using the lights section. The gauge activates the LOGO lights. Below is the Mallard Lights/smoke entries.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From the readme.cfg in the Effects folder:

COULD NOT USE SMOKE SYSTEM AS THE Z COORDINATE (UP,DOWN) FOR LOCATING EFFECT DOES NOT WORK..
Added 2 lights to the light section as shown -

[LIGHTS]
light.5=9, -3.35, -2.72, -5.25, SP2112_MALLARD_TRANSOM_DROP //LOGO
light.6=9, -3.35, 2.72, -5.25, SP2112_MALLARD_TRANSOM_DROP //LOGO

[Tom Clayton]

I've seen the vertical limitation in the smoke system too - I think it's a bug in the base code. You would need to edit the effect to customize it to fit the plane. The *.fx files are just like cfg's, you can edit them in Notepad. Look for and play with the offset values.

[Milton Shupe]

I've seen the vertical limitation in the smoke system too - I think it's a bug in the base code. You would need to edit the effect to customize it to fit the plane. The *.fx files are just like cfg's, you can edit them in Notepad. Look for and play with the offset values.

Tom,

He is using the Mallard gauge that uses the lights section Logo lights to activate the water mist effect.

Therefore, the effect must be used in the lights section using the x,y,z coordinates as you should in the lights section.

[Tom Clayton]

That makes sense - that section doesn't have the limitation. Sorry if I added any extra confusion.

[TARPSBird]

Use the effects from the Lights section.
Use the x,y,z coordinates (fore/aft, left/right, up/down) as you would for the lights.
The Mallard in FS9 works fine using the lights section. The gauge activates the LOGO lights. Below is the Mallard Lights/smoke entries.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
From the readme.cfg in the Effects folder:

COULD NOT USE SMOKE SYSTEM AS THE Z COORDINATE (UP,DOWN) FOR LOCATING EFFECT DOES NOT WORK..
Added 2 lights to the light section as shown -

[LIGHTS]
light.5=9, -3.35, -2.72, -5.25, SP2112_MALLARD_TRANSOM_DROP //LOGO
light.6=9, -3.35, 2.72, -5.25, SP2112_MALLARD_TRANSOM_DROP //LOGO

Milton, I don't have your original FS9 Mallard. I was using the Mallard_Logic.xml gauge from the LDR FSX Mallard CAB file. Do I need a FS9 gauge? I'm not getting the water drop on takeoff using the [lights] section with line entries like you showed above. If I hit the "L" key the water drop works but not automatically.

[Milton Shupe]

Milton, I don't have your original FS9 Mallard. I was using the Mallard_Logic.xml gauge from the LDR FSX Mallard CAB file. Do I need a FS9 gauge? I'm not getting the water drop on takeoff using the [lights] section with line entries like you showed above. If I hit the "L" key the water drop works but not automatically.

Did you copy the gauge "MALLARD_LOGIC" to the aircraft panel folder you are using and change the below statement to reflect that.
Did you put the activating gauge statement "MALLARD_LOGIC" in your panel.cfg?

gauge49=ST_Mallard!MALLARD_LOGIC, 0,0,1,1

[TARPSBird]

Did you copy the gauge "MALLARD_LOGIC" to the aircraft panel folder you are using and change the below statement to reflect that.
Did you put the activating gauge statement "MALLARD_LOGIC" in your panel.cfg?

gauge49=ST_Mallard!MALLARD_LOGIC, 0,0,1,1

Milton, yes I did and I changed the number sequence appropriately but... when I add the FSX Mallard_Logic gauge to the panel.cfg it shows up as this:

gaugeXX=Mallard_gauges!Mallard_Logic, 0,0,1,1

The location portion of the gauge name is not the same as yours. Could you post or PM me the original FS9 Mallard gauge CAB file? Your Mallard port-over from last year is no longer in the SOH files, at least I can't find it.

[Milton Shupe]

Milton, yes I did and I changed the number sequence appropriately but... when I add the FSX Mallard_Logic gauge to the panel.cfg it shows up as this:

gaugeXX=Mallard_gauges!Mallard_Logic, 0,0,1,1

The location portion of the gauge name is not the same as yours. Could you post or PM me the original FS9 Mallard gauge CAB file? Your Mallard port-over from last year is no longer in the SOH files, at least I can't find it.

If you have a folder inside the panel folder for gauges, change "Mallard_gauges" to be the name of that folder.

Otherwise, remove "Mallard_gauges!" from the statement and put the gauge in the panel folder along side the panel.cfg.

I cannot give you the new panel stuff as it is not compatible with that early version you have. I removed that old version for a reason. I did not want more textures being done for that version.

On a side note:
If manecas ever finishes the textures I will release the Mallard Classic version.
If not done by the end of February, I will release the package without the textures.

The Business class Mallard and the Turboprop version ... not sure when or if the textures will ever get done.
If they are not done by end of March, I will release what I have without the textures.

The Mallard is my last full package project. Future projects will be just the model, basic panel, and flight model with the mapped template textures.

[TARPSBird]

If you have a folder inside the panel folder for gauges, change "Mallard_gauges" to be the name of that folder.

Otherwise, remove "Mallard_gauges!" from the statement and put the gauge in the panel folder along side the panel.cfg.

I cannot give you the new panel stuff as it is not compatible with that early version you have. I removed that old version for a reason. I did not want more textures being done for that version.

Milton, I was trying to use the transom water drop effect with Shessi's updated H8K2 Emily. In this pic (see attached) the effect works fine when I put it in the [lights] section per your instruction and hit the "L" key but it still doesn't work with the Mallard_Logic .xml gauge from the LDR updated Mallard. Not even after I copied the gauge directly into the panel folder and adjusted the name to remove the location portion. I guess I'm sh*t outta luck for making this effect automatic on takeoff in FS9. It looks good in FSX.

[Milton Shupe]

You have me running around in circles Sir, and I still have not recovered from the RTW race lack of sleep.

The LDR native FSX aircraft has a different gauge and effects setup (although named the same) from the FS9 Mallard because there are other effects that are part of that product and sim.

The FS9 gauge and effect was built specifically for our Mallard in FS9. It has about 10 lines of code versus the FSX gauge with 150+ lines of code.

You did not mention which sim and aircraft you were applying this to (or I missed it in my haze), so I surely confused the situation. I had also forgotten that the effect is programmed differently by necessity for each of the sims.

So, to use this effect in FS9, you must have the FS9 gauge and aircraft.cfg setup and the panel.cfg setup correctly.
Also, per the instructions for the effect in FS9, the coordinates of the effect are controlled in the effect itself with offsets, not the cfg.

Roman's work is is awesome; these are his comments referring to use of this effect:

In Aircraft.cfg -

COULD NOT USE SMOKE SYSTEM AS THE Z COORDINATE (UP,DOWN) FOR LOCATING EFFECT DOES NOT WORK..
Added 2 lights to the light section as shown -

[LIGHTS]
light.5=9, -3.35, -2.72, -5.25, SP2112_MALLARD_TRANSOM_DROP //LOGO
light.6=9, -3.35, 2.72, -5.25, SP2112_MALLARD_TRANSOM_DROP //LOGO

In Panel.cfg -

Added logic gauge to [Vcockpit01] -
gauge49=ST_Mallard!MALLARD_LOGIC, 0,0,1,1

NOTE - Only 1 example of the gauge must be used and it must be in the VC entry.

With that said, the FS9 gauge and effect will be available after I release the Mallards.

Permission to use the effect and gauge of course is between you and Roman Stoviak (Spokes2112).

[TARPSBird]

Milton, thank you for your help and I take the blame (and apologize) for not making clear what plane and what gauge I was using.

[spokes2112]

and I still have not recovered from the RTW race lack of sleep.

That Sir.... Is an understatement.

[Milton Shupe]

Milton, thank you for your help and I take the blame (and apologize) for not making clear what plane and what gauge I was using.

No need to apologize ... it was my confusion in the fog. :-)

We'll get through this, I assure you.

[TARPSBird]

Thanks again Milton and Roman for your help with setting up the water drop effect. Works fine now with Roman's FS9 gauge.