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[btasm]

Kind of a wish list thing, but would it be possible in the future to include the signal flare as an animated object in TGA, DOF and JTW as it is in WAW? It's a nice effect and, I think, compatible to all eras. Thanks.

[Captain Dawson]

This would be pretty cool. Do you mean signal flares for aircraft, ground units, or ships?

[btasm]

The stand alone signal flare which appears as an animated object now in CUP WAW. Can be placed anywhere on a map. I believe it was an element of the Realistic Lighting Mod.

[SAS~Monty27]

Yes it is but isn't it too early for DoF/TGA and too late for JTW?  I guess not really.  Providing there are no specific classfile conflicts I think it could be added to all modules.  Will take a look this weekend... 

[btasm]

That's great. Haven't done extensive research, but flare guns at least existed well before WWI and various forms of flares are used even today. So i think it makes sense.

[jpten]

 Actually, the WW1 front lines were alive with flares and signal rockets. In addition to illumination at night, combinations of flare colors could signal, 'raiders in my trench', 'enemy massing for attack, send reinforcements' or more commonly, 'fire protective barrage'.  Trench sentries reports of  flares and possible reasons for them were collected as battlefield intelligence.  I read once of a night patrol by the British that triggered the Germans to send up a Red/White/Red series of flares that brought down a 5 minute shelling of the front. 

[SAS~Monty27]

Jim is right of course.  It makes sense to have them available in all eras and theatres.  They will all be set up for the next expansion (BATEP12) and written into all my campaigns too. 

[EHood]

Looking forward to that! As it happens, I recently discovered that a library in the near distance has available, via the interlibrary loan system, a copy the first edition of Arch Whitehouse's The Zeppelin Fighters (Doubleday, 1966). I'm about a chapter from finishing the book, which would be a marvelous source for anyone interested in building Zeppelin missions, day or night-time, in DOF. It seems as if signal flares played a part in almost every battle, fired from aircraft, Zeppelins, airfields, ships, etc.

Further on the subject of flares, and at the risk of straying OT, about a month ago I read another rarity, an early edition of Ian Cameron's Wings of the Morning: The British Fleet Air Arm in World War II (Morrow, 1963), in which we learn that the first Pathfinders were Albacore pilots using flares to mark Axis shipping in the Mediterranean, and during ground attack missions against Afrika Korps convoys and armored formations in North Africa. I was delighted to discover that the Albacores in WAW can be loaded with flares, and that these behave just as they should in, for example, the desert around Tobruk. Much as I dislike flying night-time missions, I am very tempted to try one as a pilot in a formation of Albacores marking and/or dive-bombing Rommel's tanks.

 

[Dimlee]

Flares are nice to have. But will they impact FPS?

[Zoran395]

Still on flares, maybe for Monty or campaign/mission writers:
Has anybody done a single flare shot from the ground already?
EDIT: Yes it has been tried.
It is the "start your engines" signal on Soviet VVS airfields.

[btasm]

Flares are nice to have. But will they impact FPS?

Good point. I find the signal flare to be a great effect and it's good to know that flares will be incorporated in BAT DOF, TGA and JTW. Unfortunately for my install at least, I have now come to the realization that the flare is a frame rate killer. After the signal flare became available in BAT WAW, I initially placed signal flares in missions only later to discover by trial and error that placing just one flare in a mission - anywhere on a mission map - resulted immediately in a dramatic drop in FPS. The flare need not be active, just present. In fact, it caused frame rates to drop by half or more, a problem which progressively worsened as the mission continued. Remove the flares, exit Il-2, return to the mission . . . and the FPS jumped back to its usual and wonderfully high level in BAT.

I don't understand why this single object causes such an effect, but for me, it does. When I employed signal flares in DBW, this wasn't an issue. I'm wondering if I am alone in this regard and whether there is some trick to avoid this issue.

[SAS~Monty27]

Flares are nice to have. But will they impact FPS?

Good point. I find the signal flare to be a great effect and it's good to know that flares will be incorporated in BAT DOF, TGA and JTW. Unfortunately for my install at least, I have now come to the realization that the flare is a frame rate killer. After the signal flare became available in BAT WAW, I initially placed signal flares in missions only later to discover by trial and error that placing just one flare in a mission - anywhere on a mission map - resulted immediately in a dramatic drop in FPS. The flare need not be active, just present. In fact, it caused frame rates to drop by half or more, a problem which progressively worsened as the mission continued. Remove the flares, exit Il-2, return to the mission . . . and the FPS jumped back to its usual and wonderfully high level in BAT.

I don't understand why this single object causes such an effect, but for me, it does. When I employed signal flares in DBW, this wasn't an issue. I'm wondering if I am alone in this regard and whether there is some trick to avoid this issue.

Well mate, you are alone insofar as you installed some flares yourself.  I have no idea of what classfiles, 3do or tga's you used.  I sourced the signal flare mod from here:

Realistic Airfield Lighting and Smokes sputnikshock and santobr
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,3718.0.html
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,23695.0.html

These have been intregrated into B.A.T. for no FPS loss that I can detect, although it ain't compulsory to put them into missions...