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[Gurner]

It's no bother, Istvan - your input is valuable 

Just tested the phantom and I can confirm no strange smoke issues with afterburner, at least with phantom E.  Looks perfect.

I wish there was a guide, but if there is I'm unfortunately not aware of it.  We'd have to ask the original authors of Plutonium, I suppose.  I use trial and error, which would take forever if I didn't have an SSD.  Without testing I can tell you that my best guess is that the .eff files you're looking for are 3do/effects/fireworks/tank_burn and tank_sparks.

By the way, this is what I'm working on at the moment - does anyone have any constructive feedback?

[.50calBMG]

looks awsome! the straight angles in the smoke might need to be ironed out, but thats because its a wip probably. umm... transparency, or lack of it, looks good. ship smoke always looks thick and opaque in the documentaries. maybe have the expansion of the smoke be slower, at least closer to the ship, and maybe have the smoke drift a bit higher. looks amazing now though.

[CWMV]

Smokes too thick. Even watching oil/fuel trucks burn there is a sense that its still smoke, just really really thick. What you have there looks solid!
Its hard to match the ethereal nature of real life smoke in IL2 I know, but that stuff is just a little bit over the top.
This looks much like the Cinema effects smoke soccorista(sp?) had for movie makers. The thick aircraft crash smoke, or something like it, would be more appropriate.

[Dakpilot]

I have to agree with CWMV on that, the smoke looks too thick, if that is from damage it would be very hard to target that ship again as well 

In general although the smoke from burning towns/trees now looks fantastic and better than anything before, i still think it is a bit heavy, same with the actual fires

Sometimes less is more

Thanks again for your outstanding works on effects

Cheers Dakpilot

[Gurner]

Thanks for your comments 

There are a number of difficulties, and there is always a trade-off with these effects.

The aircraft crash smoke for example actually uses two smoke effects on top of each other, which would make my work here much easier, but unfortunately I only have one effect to play with in this case.

The problem I have with the burning buildings is that if you bomb one house the smoke is too thin, but if there are six buildings next to each other that get destroyed it is too thick.  So the challenge is to find the right compromise between the two.  Unfortunately I cannot tell the game to vary the smoke according to the number of buildings destroyed in close proximity to each other.

I will certainly try thinning the smoke out, but IRL it was generally pretty thick:


Don't worry, Dak - this smoke is from sinking ships.  There is no need to target the ship again, it's already game over for them!   

[slipper]

Gurner

I agree with CWMV and Dakpilot mate, looks far to thick for me, needs to be more transparent. Also i suppose it is not easy to achieve, but the smoke needs to thin out more gradually, which would also result in a longer smoke plume.

Just my thoughts

great work though

regards

slipper

[Railer]

Hi Gurner
I wanted to thank you for your imput. My config was almost exactly like yours. I have had IL@ since the day it came out. The rig is from 2005 +/-.
My system AMD 3700 with Radeon X800XT with 2 gigs of ram. The frame rate is ok, it is something in the flakbust that freezes the screen and the top have turns black. It never did that before with the effects in DBW 1.71. I will be getting a new rig in the near future. Every time I think of getting one a new chipset or graphics card comes out. With the new gear that is out there is know way to go wrong. I will be spending about 2K for all the parts.
Thank you again for all of your efforts on all fronts they are appreciated.
Railer

[CWMV]

I think a lot of what were seeing in those photos are shadows and flat, 2d effect from being printed in such a medium.
Thick is one thing, and ya tanker fires make righteously thick smoke, but its still smoke, it isn't a solid.

[Gurner]

Thanks Railer    Reading your post makes me think your issue is related to something in your game rather than your system, although it is pretty outdated.  Still, if you get a new system you'll re-install the game anyway, so hopefully that'll cure your problem.

2k is a helluva lot of money!  You'll have the latest greatest components and presumably liquid cooling for that! And I thought my rig was pretty good...  I guess you'll be getting an SSD with a price tag like that?  It revolutionised my computing experience, and i've only got a 20gb one set up for caching...

Today's smoke looks like this.  It is improved by thinning I think, although you don't really notice the animated smoke effect as much.  Of course, you don't notice it at all in a screenshot... 
 

[CWMV]

Very nice!

[Ass Eagle]

Well after reading this entire thread, I must say.... fricken awesome! Bravo!

[SAS~Bombsaway]

I think you should include both if you release this. I like the the thicker smoke and others may as well but I can understand the want for something as realalistic as possible.