Quote:Please further explain why I "can't crash airliners into buildings because the sim resets itself after every crash." Does that mean I go back to Square One when I crash? Hell, I'm lucky to even get to Square One. As a simmer, I really suck...
Here is how the crash system works.... Microsoft did not design the simulator for crashing, especially buildings because of 911.
The visual of a building crash (or any other) is dependant on 7 things:
1. The term:
visual_damage=1 appears under EVERY version [fltsim.0], [fltsim.1], etc... section of the aircraft.cfg file for the plane you are flying.
2. Detect Crash Damage is enabled in the simulator in the REALITY SETTINGS
3. The actual 3D model file of the aircraft. If the model does not have breakage designed into the model (.mdl) itself, it will not break apart on the screen... but you should still see the fire and brimstone (if my crashFX are installed) and if you crash the aircraft based on the next 2 items:
4. The contact points are correctly programmed by the aircraft maker.
5. The way you crash the aircraft
6. Your video card/processor abilities
7. How high the EFFECTS slider is set in the simulator
You will probably not see anything in a direct nose hit of the ground, building or whatever. Nose strikes or solid fuselage strikes usually stop the simulation immediately. The visual is very dependant on #4 above and how the programmer designed the contact points and how much force causes catastrophic damage.
Wing scrapes usually net the best show and the longer the aircraft can remain in forward motion without catastrophically striking a contact point, the longer the crash visual will remain on the screen.
Most aircraft designers do not take the time to correctly program in scrape points and the real PSI-FPS of the aircraft because of the time involved in creating those points correctly. As an alternate example, my "Space Shuttle Landing Challenge" includes the contact points needed to allow the shuttle to be soft crash-landed or water ditched and ride out the bad landing.
So there you have it... Any aircraft can be edited to allow for better visual crashes but how much you see on the screen depends on allot of factors
I hope this answers the questions about crashing and visual FX