Where there's Smoke there's Fire....well sort of.

[WWGeezer]

A couple questions on the fire and smoke effects ( and I apologize ahead of time if this has already been asked).

 

Are folks able to get all the smoke and fire effects to work?  I can get City Fire and Land Fire to work but not House Smoke, Village Fire or City Fire Small.

Also I recollect early tests of BOS having huge smokey fires over all of stalingrad, can't find that either.

 

Unfortunately the model for Land Fire has some elements that eliminate it from being used like I used to in ROF.  One of our favorite mission builder tricks was to put a fire in the smoke stack of the factory so it would put smoke on the horizon and make it easier to find the factory target.  You just set the elevation of the fire effect above the ground until it was just right.  Than if the factory is destroyed you snuff the fire out.  On complicated factories with multiple buildings it was a way without subtitles to tell bomber escorts that the target had been destroyed.  A nice immersion touch.  In this image, don't have it exactly right yet, would probably move it down the stack so not so much fire shows....

 

 

Unlike in ROF the Landfire comes with a ground plane modeling of the fire footprint that remains when you put the fire out leaving a strange object floating in space.  See markings in yellow.  If House smoke worked I could use that, maybe it would work, but so far can't see it.

 

Also are folks still putting vehicles inside the building and tying events to the vehicle being destroyed.  I think this was a reaction to some of the factory objects being very difficult to put in a "destroyed" state.  You can see in the damage image below , smoke in the main part of the factory, because I had a vehicle in that location.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[JimTM]

WWGeezer,

 

Here are some excerpts from the upcoming (work-in-progress) manual:

 

Make Chimneys Smoke

 

Do the following:

1. Choose effect object "house_smoke" and place it over the chimney on a building.

2. In the effect properties, click "Create Linked Entity".

3. Create an effect command and link it to the house_smoke object.

4. Trigger the effect command from another MCU in your mission.

 

Make Areas Smoke Due to Damage

 

Do the following:

1. Choose the effect object "villagesmoke", "city_firesmall", or "city_fire" and place two copies close to each other over the damaged area.

    Note: city_fire is the only effect mentioned here that shows the flames that produce the smoke.
              However, the smoke disappears after 16 seconds if you do not follow this procedure.

2. In the effect properties, click "Create Linked Entity".

3. Create an effect sustainer (see below) and link it to the effect object.

4. Trigger the effect sustainer from another MCU in your mission.

 

Effect Sustainer:   << Just an idea for a "plug-in" function. Not sure if it will be separate topic. >>

 

-----Timer Tick 12s---->----Effect Command 1-----Effect Object 1

          |

          ^

          |

          v

          | 

     Timer Tock 12s---->----Effect Command 2-----Effect Object 2

 

     Note how the Tick and Tock timer trigger each other every 12 seconds.

 

Create a Bonfire

 

Do the following:

1. Place a "landfire" effect object.

2. In the effect properties, click "Create Linked Entity".

3. Create an effect command and link it to the landfire effect object.

   • To start the fires, use an effect command with the Action Type set to "Start".

   • To stop the fires, use an effect command with the Action Type set to "Stop".

   When you stop the fire, you can see glowing embers.

4. Trigger the effect command from another MCU in your mission.

 

 

WWGeezer, you could try the delete trigger to get rid of the landfire when you put it out.

 

 

Jim

Edited July 19, 2015 by JimTM

[WWGeezer]

Thanks for the info Jim. But I did a test mission with all the fire and smoke effects side be side and triggered each one with an effects command but I could only get land fire and city fire to show up

[JimTM]

Could you post the mission please and I can have a look.

 

Jim

[WWGeezer]

Okay, let me clean it up a bit and send it your way. Should have time Monday night.

 

Thanks for the help

[No601_Swallow]

 

 

...Effect Sustainer:   << Just an idea for a "plug-in" function. Not sure if it will be separate topic. >>

 

-----Timer Tick 12s---->----Effect Command 1-----Effect Object 1

          |

          ^

          |

          v

          | 

     Timer Tock 12s---->----Effect Command 2-----Effect Object 2

 

     Note how the Tick and Tock timer trigger each other every 12 seconds.

 

Create a Bonfire

 

Do the following:

1. Place a "landfire" effect object.

2. In the effect properties, click "Create Linked Entity".

3. Create an effect command and link it to the landfire effect object.

   • To start the fires, use an effect command with the Action Type set to "Start".

   • To stop the fires, use an effect command with the Action Type set to "Stop".

   When you stop the fire, you can see glowing embers.

4. Trigger the effect command from another MCU in your mission...

 

 

Jim, if this is an indication of the quality of your Magnum Opus, then it should be invaluable. Hats off.

 

"Effect Sustainer" is a great name for the loopy layering/overlapping thingy-stuff that I've seen when trying to understand campaign missions! Great stuff!  

Edited July 20, 2015 by No601_Swallow

[JimTM]

Thanks Swallow.

 

I've been trying to pick out handy "plug-in" functionality from missions that I've seen, doc it, and save it as groups to go along with the doc. For example, BMax Counter (Bi-Directional Max Counter) counts up or down and triggers on max value. BOZ Counter (Bi-Directional One-Zero Counter) counts up or down and triggers when it changes to one or back to zero (e.g., first plane enters zone, last plane leaves zone). These are not my inventions though; I just doc'ed a version of them and gave 'em loopy names.

 

Jim

Edited July 20, 2015 by JimTM

[WWGeezer]

Here is the mission file with a test of all five fire and smoke effects.  There is a German Airstart pointed right at the factories, all the effects are placed right in front of them.  Best I can tell only the Land Fire and the City Fire are working

SmokeandFire.zip

Edited July 21, 2015 by WWGeezer

[JimTM]

Hi Geezer,

 

1. For  "villagesmoke", "city_firesmall", or "city_fire" you need to follow the procedure "Make Areas Smoke Due to Damage" above. In this procedure, you make a copy of each effect and place the copy right next to the original. You don't use a single effect command like with the other effects; you use the effect sustainer described in the procedure. The city_fire effect is not working correctly because you should see smoke along with the fire. If you do not follow the procedure mentioned, the smoke for city_fire disappears after 16 seconds.

 

2. Your house smoke effect is working but you can't see it in the angle of your picture. Put a Camera Operator translator near the effect and check it out using F12/F11. It's half way up the smoke stack.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Jim

[WWGeezer]

Excellent Jim. I should have read your original response more carefully. Regarding the symbols you use in your instruction, what do the lines after "timer tick 12 s" mean?

 

I

V

I

V

 

 

 

Thanks for the help!

[JimTM]

Hi Geezer,

 

The vertical line with the two arrows shows two target links on top of each other. One link goes from Tick to Tock and the other goes from Tock to Tick. So Tick waits 12 seconds and triggers Tock and Effect Command 1. Then, Tock waits 12 seconds and triggers Tick and Effect Command 2.

 

Jim

[Gambit21]

I'm having trouble following this, even with the guide.

Jim, could you please post a shot or a mission with this sustainer piped into a city_fire?

 

With this page up on one monitor, and the guide up as well with the editor open, I'm still confused on how this thing works.

In the meantime I'll look at your sunset mission as I know you fires along the runway in that one.

 

Thanks

[JimTM]

I'm having trouble following this, even with the guide.

Jim, could you please post a shot or a mission with this sustainer piped into a city_fire?

 

With this page up on one monitor, and the guide up as well with the editor open, I'm still confused on how this thing works.

In the meantime I'll look at your sunset mission as I know you fires along the runway in that one.

 

Thanks

 

Sorry, that really does need an example; I'll add one to the manual and also a mission to match. In the meantime, I've attached a mission to demo the city_fire effect. The effect starts 20 seconds after the mission starts, burns for one minute, and then stops. You'll notice that the fire starts briefly at the start of the mission and goes out two seconds later. The effect sustainer doc discusses that behaviour and how the initial fire is put out by the MCUs at the bottom of the sustainer (Begin, T1, and OUT D1).

 

JimTMTestCityFire.zip

 

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers!

 

Jim

Edited December 13, 2016 by JimTM

[Gambit21]

Thanks - so what if I just want it to burn permanently?

I imagine that will be self explanatory once I examine the timers...

[JimTM]

Thanks - so what if I just want it to burn permanently?

I imagine that will be self explanatory once I examine the timers...

 

As the manual says, if you do not need to stop the effects, you can delete "In Stop: 0s", D2, T3, and "Out Stop Effects".

 

And, if you do not use the city_fire effect, you can delete Begin, T1, "Out D1", and "Out A1". I missed "Out A1" in the manual.

Edited December 13, 2016 by JimTM

[Gambit21]

roger, thanks