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Effects Placement in Aircraft (Read 207 times)

May 10^th, 2004 at 3:53pm

USAF_WxMan Offline
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AFOD the Original Vintage
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Posts: 9

Hi All,

Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place but I can't seem to find any documentation in the FS2004 SDK as to how to go about placing effects like startup engine smoke into the aircraft geometry. I've fiddled around with numbers in a test fx file I've made, and have had little positive results. Has anyone figured this out?

Your guidance is greatly appreciated!

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Reply #1 - May 10^th, 2004 at 4:11pm

Sterk Offline
Colonel

Posts: 316

AFAIR-you place effects in aircraft.cfg file where you set effect emmiter coordinates relatively to
aircraft center of gravity,something like this:

[SMOKESYSTEM]
smoke.0= -4.92, -33.456, -87.284, fx_contrail_l
smoke.1= -4.92, -33.456, 87.284, fx_contrail_l

where fx_contrail_l is effect file name without extension.
all effects files should be placed in FS "effects" folder.

&&&&

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Reply #2 - May 12^th, 2004 at 1:20pm

USAF_WxMan Offline
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AFOD the Original Vintage
Aircraft Site

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Posts: 9

Thanks for your help. I've seen the docs on SMOKE SYSTEM effects and your post and hoped that they would shed some light on other effects such as engine start etc. but no such luck.

The EFFECTS folder in the aircraft.cfg file holds data defining various effects such as the engine start smoke, touchdown stuff and so on. There appears to be no way to specify a location on an aircaft where you want the startup smoke to emit from.

For example, I'm making an airplane that has exhaust pipes running the entire length of the fuselage. Unless there is a default aircraft that has a similar configuration that you can "borrow" the fx file from, you're out of luck.

I'm beginning to think that the emitter locations for these effects are placed in the geometry when the aircraft is made, most likely in 3Ds MAX.

Anyone have any ideas on this?

Looks like it's time to break out the old hex editor to examine the default MDL files to see if there is any indication of this. Thought these "dark arts" went out with the intoduction of FS2002/2004 and the expanded SDK's. Guess not. (sigh)

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Reply #3 - May 12^th, 2004 at 6:37pm

Sterk Offline
Colonel

Posts: 316

Mmm,I've just checked it now,cause it got interesting for
me too...
I took the default Kingair .cfg...and there is no effect
like engine start up smoke there...but
When I tested my first aircraft model in the sim I noted
that engines of my model emit smoke on start up,although I havnt applied this effect to my plane...

I suppose sim places engine start up smoke by default on
all aircraft regarding it's engine coordinates...

Or may be I'm wrong?May be more expierenced simmers
and designers here can help us with it?

As for other type of effects,like engine smoke trail for example-cfg file is the only place where you specify
emmiter coordinates,as far as I know there is no way
to specify effect placement in 3d design programm...
But what you do need design programm for is measuring
exact coordinates for effect emmiter placement.
Then you just put measured coordinates in to apropriate section of cfg file...

&&&&

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Reply #4 - May 13^th, 2004 at 12:10am

SilverFox441 Offline
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Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

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Engine start smoke is applied in the location of piston engines. Engine location is defined in the .air file.

Steve (Silver Fox) Daly

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Reply #5 - May 13^th, 2004 at 4:41am

Sterk Offline
Colonel

Posts: 316

In cfg file too...

&&&&

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Reply #6 - May 13^th, 2004 at 7:01am

RIC_BARKER Offline
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"Shazzam"

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There is a way around this.

If you open the "x.fx" file iteself, you will see an [OFFSET] parameter in the emitter section. You can use these to offset your smoke effect in any direction (my guess is you'll want to offset in in the Z-axis).

Ric B.

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Reply #7 - May 13^th, 2004 at 7:09am

RIC_BARKER Offline
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"Shazzam"

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Ooops, just to add to that above, to have your own "custom" effect, add this line in the [EFFECTS] section of your aircraft cfg.

From the iFDG A320 Aircraft cfg:

[effects]
wake = fx_wake
water = fx_spray
dirt = fx_tchdrt
concrete = fx_sparks
touchdown = iFDG_A320_touchdown, 1
startup = iFDG_A320_startup

These are the startup effects I did for the iFDG A320 series:

From the effects file:

Library Effect]
Lifetime=5
Version=2.00
Radius=-1
Priority=0

[Properties]
Cockpit=1
VirtualCockpit=1
Spot=1
Tower=1
Map=1

[Emitter.0]
Lifetime=0.20, 1.10
Delay=0.00, 0.00
Bounce=0.00
No Interpolate=1
Rate=8.00, 10.00
X Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Emitter Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
X Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Y Particle Velocity=0.00, 0.00
Z Particle Velocity=-80.00, -80.00
X Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Y Rotation=0.00, 0.00
Z Rotation=0.00, 0.00
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=3.00, 3.00
Pitch=0.00, 0.00
Bank=0.00, 0.00
Heading=0.00, 0.00

[Particle.0]
Lifetime=4.50, 12.32
Type=19
X Scale=1.00, 3.00
Y Scale=1.00, 3.00
Z Scale=0.00, 0.00
X Scale Rate=0.50, 0.60
Y Scale Rate=0.50, 0.60
Z Scale Rate=0.00, 0.00
Drag=0.00, 0.00
Color Rate=0.10, 0.10
X Offset=0.00, 0.00
Y Offset=0.00, 0.00
Z Offset=0.00, 0.00
Fade In=0.10, 0.10
Fade Out=0.02, 0.92
Rotation=-20.00, 20.00
Shade=1
Face=1, 1, 1

[ParticleAttributes.0]
Blend Mode=1
Texture=fx_1.bmp
Bounce=0.00
Color Start=204, 204, 204, 200
Color End=204, 204, 204, 180
Jitter Distance=0.02
Jitter Time=2.00
TempK=10.00
TempRate=-0.15
uv1=0.00, 0.50
uv2=0.50, 1.00
X Scale Goal=2.00
Y Scale Goal=15.00
Z Scale Goal=0.00
Extrude Length=0.00
Extrude Pitch Max=0.00
Extrude Heading Max=0.00

I have enboldened the relevant "offset" values that you can use to shift the emmiter around in space. I suspect from how you have desribed your aircraft, that you will require a large negative Z-axis offset.

Hope some of that helps, and feel free to use the effects file above if you want.

Ric B.

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Reply #8 - May 13^th, 2004 at 11:23am

USAF_WxMan Offline
Lieutenant Colonel
AFOD the Original Vintage
Aircraft Site

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Posts: 9

Thank you all for the overwhelming response! Obviously there's a lot of talent out there!

I will try all of the suggestions offered here and will report my results.

The object of my obsession is "Miss Poly" a high wing monoplane that was built by students at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo in California in the 1930's. I like the old classics and the really "rare" birds.

Miss Poly is a one of a kind. This project is my first after a nearly 4 years vacation from flight sim development. I'm learning how to use the new tools and am enjoying Microsoft's new attitiude towards providing documentation.

My site is http://www.airfieldofdreams.com
contact me via email from my site if you'd like to download the beta for test.

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