Smoke pops up at relatively close range

[Sky_Wolf]

I started flying yesterday and one thing I noticed was that smoke pops up at relatively close range. I was flying over Stalingrad and as I looked around the destroyed city, smoke and associated fires would pop up into view. A bit of an immersion killer, but overall the game is great.

 

Anybody experience the same? Any troubleshooting tips?

 

I searched the forums and can find no evidence of a thread dealing with this issue. 

[=TBAS=Sshadow14]

3d objects and effects have a max range of 10km
but stalingrad effects i think were reduced as it was big performance hit for some pretty scenes :D

[Sky_Wolf]

So given that line of sight in an airplane is usually well over 10 km, "smoke pop up" is a chronic condition that can't be fixed. That's fine, I can live with that. 

[Jade_Monkey]

My guess is that on a user built mission you could at least make it pop up at 10 km if there are no restrictions inherent to the smoke effect.

 

The default stalingrad smoke might be limited to a smaller radius by design.

Edited May 7, 2017 by Jade_Monkey

[Finkeren]

The Stalingrad smoke is a special case and was introduced at a fairly early stage, where effects were far less optimized than they are now. I personally think they are one of the few really poorly implemented effects in the game (that and the pixelated bullet holes)

 

Some particle effects like contrails are visible at far greater distances.

[Sky_Wolf]

So Stalingrad environment smoke is different from freshly destroyed aircraft and ground unit smoke? I'll check this next time I fly. 

 

Seems like improving the Stalingrad environment smoke is a valid priority for the developers. 

[ShamrockOneFive]

Given all of the priorities and that so many of them are considered essential... a nice extra visual effect for Stalingrad is a little bit lower on the totem pole.

 

The worst part about the effect is it popping in and out, not because of distance, but I think because of either a render bug or some sort of animation issue. That definitely is a bit of an immersion hit and I do hope they fix it but there are other problems to solve. This is a nice to have.

[Finkeren]

Seems like improving the Stalingrad environment smoke is a valid priority for the developers.

Valid priority? Sure, but it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the list for most people I'd imagine.

 

It's only really relevant for a small part of one single map, it's not really breaking the game in any way other than immersiveness. There are so many other additions and small fixes that would do more to improve the game.