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[benitomuso]

PAL Tracers and SmokeTrails MOD - v1.1, Updated Oct 28th, 2010
For patch 4.10m this version was superseeded by the v1.3. This one will work but will not take into account the wind, a new feature in 4.10

  Since the very early time I started to play IL-2, I was completely astonished by the size of the stock tracers used for the game. They are terribly big. Much more than any real tracer is seen in normal conditions in reality. They are basically 6m long, which is huge. There are many MODs around which changed the textures of the Tracers to make them less neon kind, but basically none attacked the real problem, the 3D object. Some time ago I edited the tracers objects, and I reduced them drastically, to be 1:5 in length of the original ones.

Originals (stock ones):
 

Edited (MOD ones):
 

  Another very uncomfortable thing were the SmokeTrails, which were usually my main concern. The problem that they caused to the fps counter when you are in high flak or very intense aereal fight is basically unbearable. ¿Does this look logical?:

 

  The answer is NO, it doesn't happen in reality, just take a look at any of the videos available in YouTube or ask your grandparents.

  So I decided to make something more real and at the same time more fps friendly:

 

  How I did it?: I divided the 3 different effects used for smoketrails into 3 different levels of them (9 total instead of the original 3), I reduced drastically the visibility distance and I edited the Gun class to trigger the smoketrails in a differential way depending if they are:

  -For your own plane (the more detailed ones because they are part of the immersion of the game).
  -Other planes (you don't need that the game engine waste precious time in making detailed trails as above).
  -Ground forces (they only emit a trail time to time and the mildest one).

  Another thing that i added: now it is altitude dependant. Water condensation is not the same for any altitude. Here are 3 different levels (mainly seen for your own plane).

  -From 0m to 300m.
  -From 300m to 1000m.
  -From 1000m onwards.

  Try them and let me know what do you think.

  News in v1.1:
                          all the effects were edited and adjusted to give a more random visual. The difussion of the smokes is more natural, and they present a kind of intermitent behaviour similar to Philip.ed ones but from my point of view and mantaining the concept of the different levels of smoketrail effects. Mainly I consider these edited ones more "speed respectful" considering what we can see in film footage of WWII.


Download PAL Tracers and SmokeTrails MOD v1.1, from here

Download PAL Tracers and SmokeTrails MOD v1.0, from here

  Regards,
                             Pablo

[5./JG54_s0crazty]

well benitomuso with that mod you also accomplice more FPS in a battlefield,Just try it in Japanese carrier attack with 11 ships and 20 planes and i have more fps than usual so now i can start my new project !Thanks for that it looks very good !

[Docholiday]

Great improuvement !

Just "attacked" a Norway Fjord with some german M-Boats and one Destroyer with some CC-Mosquitos.  Now such a mission is flyabel without these terribel FPS-drops !
I hope it will be included in the next UP!


Thank You Benitomuso 

Doc

[philip.ed]

This sounds awesome mate and I know that in time this will be so significant.

Regarding the players tracer as seen in cockpit, this is unchanged? i ask as I have been, slowly, working on tweaking my intermittent tracer mod and I've been looking to play with the tecture for it to make it look better. For a few months now I have been playing with a different texture but I have never gotten around to releasing it (mainly because I don't think it's good enough yet) with this released, it may make me pull my finger out and work harder

[benitomuso]

  I know that here is a lot of possible debate regarding Tracers. As some previous Eexhaton comments, you usually see them longer. Just take a look at these two examples:

Full Auto .22 Tracers

Thompson Submachine Gun Tracers

  Do you see the difference between both of them? Do you think the tracers are different in size? No, they are the same, the huge difference is ambient light, and f stop and ISO sensibility of the camera. When the environment is dark, the camera is set for high sensibility to light, so if you suddenly make appear in front of it a very shining object, it creates a huge print in the camera. Somebody could say: our eyes do the same, but it is only partially true, because we don't adjust ISO setting of our eyes, so this difference is much higher in video and film than in real life.

  We have to take into account this effect. Reproducing what a camera with its technical limitations captured, doesn't mean reproducing reality.

  Cheers,
                      Pablo

[santobr]

Wow! Awesome mod!
Thank you benitomuso!

Could you, please, take a look at this kind of tracers? (mainly 3:40)
Japanese kamikaze pilots
I mean in the shape of rounded rectangles and not in the form of meteorites as the original IL-2.
I think they should be equal in both the front and back regardless of size or color, IMHO.

EDIT:
Your first video shows better what I mean...

Great mod!
Thank you very much.

santobr.

[benitomuso]

Santobr,

            your one is a great compliation of different tracers footage. And as you said, the "comet" or meteorite type of the IL-2 is exagerated.

  The thing that is clear in your video is what we usually say: flak doesn't produce smoketrails at ground level when is shuted. Only the tracer is visible. My MOD adds less than 1 of every 5 smoketrails to the ground bullets, and very thin, just to give a better impression if they pass close to your plane.

  A great example can be seen in this last video with the tracers at night. They look much longer than the ones of the day scenes, but they are exactly the same, filmming conditions are different, just that.

  Regards,
                        Pablo

[santobr]

Hi benitomuso.

Sorry for my English.
There is nothing about your soberb smokes, they are perfect.
This is what I mean:

The first is the IL-2 tracer and the second is a realistic tracer.

santobr.

[SAS~Malone]

Pablo, i tested this out just now, and it's absolutely fantastic.
i was busy with a mission involving a harbour attack, and was having real problems with fps loss, now with this mod it plays super-smooth! simply superb, mate! 

[philip.ed]

Pablo, is there a way to just have the aspect of this mod that changes the tracers so I can use my own set of textures? I don't mind if there isn't, but there's a load of texture files in here: some of which are being used by the mod, some of which aren't

[PO_MAK_249RIP]

Lubly Jubly!! Havent checked yet but does it reduce the awful grey lines from AAA/Flak as well ??

[SAS~Malone]

yes! and with it, a dramatic increase in fps, at least in my case...