Visual Gun Effects

[skylane]

Hello!

I´m sure this has been discussed before, but I lost the thread:
Sometimes during a mission, if you look at the aircraft from "outside", you see the visual effects of firing guns (smoke and cartridges), even if you are not firing the guns anymore. This effect stays on until the end of the mission.
I´d like to know why this is happening and what can be done about it.

Thanks for any ideas!

skylane

[The B24 Guy]

Hi Skylane,

That is a result of the gun taking damage. It may be fixable by adjusting the DP file.
Might be something to work on when winter sets in.


Regards,
B24Guy

[skylane]

Hmm, but it also happens, when I didn´t get hit. Is there something in the DPs of some planes that causes gun damage when you fire them?

[bearcat241]

While most dp's for CFS2 fighters have reasonably realistic damage parameters for all systems, the hidden, most often overlooked poison in aerial engagements is the close proximity fireball/air explosion produced when you light up a bogey at close range with a solid burst to the fuel cells and other systems which call up air or fatal explosions as the final effect. In these situations, depending on the sophistication of the dp's system effects, fatal damage to these explosive systems call up the the files fx_airexpl_l.fx, or fx_fatal_explosion_l.fx or fx_fire_ball_l.fx as the final effects of a destroyed part. In stock form these FX files are mild in the collateral damage they cause to your systems as the attacker. However, in non-stock addon forms (ala Nanni, Nibbio and others), the built-in parameters of these files have hitpoint, magnitude and damage radii that are twice the power of stock forms.

The hitpoints and magnitude factors are distributed throughout your plane if you're within the blast radius. So, in explosive, close up engagements, they cause more collateral damage to your plane, especially the guns which generally have weak lifepoints. In the hard-code of the sim, this gun damage is wired to show the visual effects you're seeing. So even though you never take a direct hit in an engagement, if you're using upgraded addons of the aforementioned FX's, you may often see this effect as a result of the close encounters. One clue to the onset of this type damage is in the white, scrolling damage cues on your screen as you light up an enemy. When you see a message - in red - that reads, "Your plane was damaged by an explosion", you may as well expect to experience something odd from the weaker systems in your model's airframe.

Two ways to offset this penalty: simply strengthen the lifepoints in your guns to an unrealistic variable or completely remove all damage parameters for the guns, which is a little more complicated because of the way the systems and damage boxes are connected. Either way, you'll need to use Dped to do the job right, unless you're a qualified expert at editing dp's by hand.

[Discus]

Thanks Bearcat for this info. I didn´t know.

Cheers, Discus

[skylane]

Bearcat, thanks for the explanation!
I´ll try and see if I can do something with DPedit.

[bearcat241]

Anytime fellas...hope that helps.

[skylane]

Unfortunately DPed doesen´t work anymore on my new computer. Is there a way to hand edit the DP to avoid the gun damage?

[bearcat241]

What version are you using and why doesn't it work?

[skylane]

Fingertrouble, sorry. It does work after all.
And I found the lifepoints, increased the number, and the problem on my Hurricane is solved!

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction!