When creating damage smoke effects for aircraft in motion, be aware of the following.
If one or more of the parameters GasResist, VertAccel and Wind differ, there could result an odd divergence between smoke trails. Even more so if the plane is pulling G.
My philosophy here is that all smokes emitted from anywhere on the plane will very quickly decelerate by essentially the same degree, and will be subject to wind and buoyancy in equal measure. That's because the frictional drag of the surrounding medium (air) will impose itself rather forcefully upon the similar-density gases/smoke being put into the slipstream. To this end, I:
1) Make ALL values for GasResist equal to 0.3. This causes the particles to slow down quickly, more like they do in real life. This has the signal benefit of much better revealing the speed of the plane. Such small values as 0.03, or 0.01 (gasp!), cause the particles to take quite a while to slow down, making the plane look like it's barely crawling along if you watch the smoke ever so slowly trailing close behind.
2) Make ALL values for VertAccel equal to zero. Smoke trails will generally remain constrained in the slip stream. And you avoid having to do any wasteful calculations on an upward or downward movement here.
3) Make ALL values for Wind equal to zero. Wind does not operate differentially on adjacent or superimposed smoke trails. And again, best to reduce the calculations required to move them.
I myself currently make all "SPD" effects based on particles, and "TSPD" effects based on trails. The latter I make less opaque, and so act as a smoother, subtler background for the more distinct particles. Furthermore, I make the TSPD effects last longer, so as to provide a more gradual fading out of the whole smoke trail.
If using particles for both the SPD and TSPD siblings, I would suggest a similar design scheme. Make one of the effect's particles subtler (less opacity), perhaps larger, and lasting longer. Furthermore, supplying a different EmitFreq will cause the particles to stagger, perhaps offering more variation in appearance. And of course, altering other parameters such as EmitVelocity will further this aim.
A last very simple-to-execute change I might suggest. Damage to an oil cooler will be more likely to create a pale bluish smoke, and hardly ever a near black one. For OilBlackMediumSPD and TSPD, I find this color scheme to look nice when the texture is a basic near white (e.g., for WhiteSmoke.mat as commonly instituted):
Color0 0.6 0.66 0.76 0.1
Color1 0.6 0.66 0.76 0.0
Moreover, it's often the case that oil cooler damage is the first to occur (regarding the engine), and this initial lighter smoke is aesthetically a more 'logical' precursor to the harsher damage and concomitantly darker smokes to follow.
Cheers!
Glenn
Author
Topic: New Damage Smoke & Fire v5.3 (Read 4005 times)
