Smoke Effects

[simpit1]

Anyone who can help:

 

Tried to place some smoke effects in my mission (Rheinland) by using exactly the methode from the IL-2 BATTLE OF STALINGRAD
MISSION BUILDING GUIDE (see picture below; source: IL-2 BATTLE OF STALINGRAD MISSION BUILDING GUIDE, chapter 3.8, pg. 51).

 

I can do what I want, no smoke apaers in the processed mission.

 

See mission my files below.

Rheinland.zip

Edited April 5, 2020 by simpit1

[Sketch]

 

Hopefully the image is self explanatory... If not, post here again.

 

 

[simpit1]

Strange! Very complicate!

 

Nevertheless thanks Sketch!

 

I only need a routine to start a smoke effects that works during the whole missions (real city- and forest fires don´t disappaer after 2 minutes!).

 

Some source available to download the effect substainer?

[JimTM]

2 hours ago, simpit1 said:

Strange! Very complicate!

 

Nevertheless thanks Sketch!

 

I only need a routine to start a smoke effects that works during the whole missions (real city- and forest fires don´t disappaer after 2 minutes!).

 

Some source available to download the effect substainer?

 

The effect sustainer is a group in the zip file under "Sample Missions From the Manual" in the editor manual post. In the editor manual that is available in the post, see the following:

• Effect Sustainer (pg. 290)
  See the "Usage Notes" re. MCUs that you can delete in your case. Note that you can also delete "Out A1" if you are not using the city_fire effect.
• Access Saved Objects, MCUs, and Groups in the Object Library (pg. 30)

Edited April 6, 2020 by JimTM

[Habu]

I hope that one day, they change the way how smoke works.

[Gambit21]

1 minute ago, Habu said:

I hope that one day, they change the way how smoke works.

 

Me too.

I have smoke groups that I just paste in, but still it’s a bother. A placed smoke object should simply require an activation input - the end.

[Habu]

and works until we use the stop action.

[simpit1]

Hi JIm,

 

thanks. Now it´s principally working.

 

Citysmoke works, but after 10 seconds I have a delay. The smoke effect interrupts for 1 second and than restarts for 10 seconds and so again and again.

 

Cityfire works longer - estimated for 5 minutes - than interrupts for 1-2 seconds and than restarts.

 

Any solution available for this problem?

 

thanks again!

 

H.D.

On 4/6/2020 at 2:30 PM, JimTM said:

 

The effect sustainer is a group in the zip file under "Sample Missions From the Manual" in the editor manual post. In the editor manual that is available in the post, see the following:

• Effect Sustainer (pg. 290)
  See the "Usage Notes" re. MCUs that you can delete in your case. Note that you can also delete "Out A1" if you are not using the city_fire effect.
• Access Saved Objects, MCUs, and Groups in the Object Library (pg. 30)

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by simpit1

[Sketch]

Are you sure you have two citysmoke effects stacked on top of each other? (It sounds like you don't...)

 

 

 

My satire is probably lost in the text, but I was trying to be funny with the above image. ?

Edited April 8, 2020 by [TWB]Sketch

[Habu]

Sketch, even if you have two effects staked, there is an interuption. But it's more or less visible with the angle you look the smoke. That's why, i would like they rework that part on the way it works, with only one effect which wok when we give a start order, and stop with a stop order. It would be easier to manage.

[Sketch]

Oh I agree! Plus it'd be less overhead for us designers and less overhead for the mission (a single mcu vs the group Jim created). Having said that... Maybe someday we'll get the magic undo button, as I'd prefer that to be built first.

[simpit1]

12 hours ago, [TWB]Sketch said:

Are you sure you have two citysmoke effects stacked on top of each other? (It sounds like you don't...)

 

 

 

My satire is probably lost in the text, but I was trying to be funny with the above image. ?

 

 

 

OK! Will try it!! Thanks!!

Edited April 8, 2020 by simpit1

[JimTM]

12 hours ago, simpit1 said:

Hi JIm,

 

thanks. Now it´s principally working.

 

Citysmoke works, but after 10 seconds I have a delay. The smoke effect interrupts for 1 second and than restarts for 10 seconds and so again and again.

 

Cityfire works longer - estimated for 5 minutes - than interrupts for 1-2 seconds and than restarts.

 

Any solution available for this problem?

 

thanks again!

 

H.D.

 

 

There is no "Citysmoke" effect, but there is a villagesmoke effect.

 

I ran a simple test mission with city_fire, city_firesmall, and villagesmoke and I did not see any interruptions. Perhaps there may be interruptions with more complex missions due to other logic being run. The orange part of the fire in city_fire disappeared now and then, but white part of the fire stayed visible.

Edited April 8, 2020 by JimTM

[simpit1]

@ Jim:

 

Sorry, I didn´t mean "citysmoke" but "cityfire".

 

@ Sketch:

 

Sorry, I stacked to smokes on top of each other - but no better result: The interruption continues. The only result is that the smoke-effect is stronger (closer smoke!).

 

What do you think about this: I´ll try to stack to effects time-displaced on the top of each other?

 

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by simpit1

[Sketch]

 

[IckyATLAS]

I would love that all smokes go in the direction of the wind. This means, chimney, fire, ships, locomotives. Same for the waves at sea.

At the moment some do some don't. Ships and locos its ok, the rest is either vertical whatever, or has a direction depending of the effect orientation.

The bending of the smoke should be windspeed dependent.

These are not so complicated things to do, as it is done for ships and locos.

 

[jollyjack]

On 4/5/2020 at 2:46 PM, Sketch said:

 

Hopefully the image is self explanatory... If not, post here again.

 

 

 

Hi Sketch, intriguing, do you have a group file for it? Or some tester mission. I tried Jim's effect sustainer once, kept pumping the same effect alright,

but i am curious what's the difference if there's one ...

[Sketch]

There's no difference between the group I'm showing in the image, and Jim's effect substainer.

[Habu]

11 hours ago, jollyjack said:

 

Hi Sketch, intriguing, do you have a group file for it? Or some tester mission. I tried Jim's effect sustainer once, kept pumping the same effect alright,

but i am curious what's the difference if there's one ...

You can't have a perfect effect. Sometimes, you have the feeling it's ok, but if you change the view angle, you'll see the problem. I spend many hour trying to fixe that, and i though i find, but after playing my mission a few times, we change our fly path and can see the problem again. Until they change the way it works, i gave up and continue tu use like that, knowing that it's not perfect.

[IckyATLAS]

Many visual effects are simply suppressed when not seen in the viewport, and when looked back again they start as new, so there is no continuity. Example you look at a ship in motion that leaves a white wake trail in the water behind it. Then you turn your head and look in a different direction and after say five seconds you look back at the ship. The trail will have been interrupted and will start back again. Same for the smoke coming out from a chimney of a ship or from a fire effect. Maybe this is done to free resources when not seen by the player but it is clearly an immersion killer as it is a completely unnatural behavior. 

 

One thing I would appreciate in a future release is full rework of all these effects. Jason mentions that they try to go much into visual details to be as realistic and immersive as possible, so all these effects should be part of this strategy.  After all we do not see this problem with planes effects. When they are on fire or trailing smoke, it does not get interrupted. So it can be done, and should be the same for all.

[Habu]

i agree about the effect which stop when you don't look them.

[IRRE_Genius]

Hello, i don't know where i am wrong... ?

 

Only fire seem to work but not smoke.

 

I use thiseffects:

- city_fire

- city_firesmall

- villagesmoke

 

[WWSitttingDuck]

curious, what effects of this type do not need a sustainer?

 

might be possible to make a duplicate of city_firesmall effect, rename it, and edit the settings to match those effects that stay "smoking" all the time.  This would be of no help for SP mission builders, but may be usefull for MP mission builders.

 

[JimTM]

5 hours ago, -IRRE-Genius said:

Hello, i don't know where i am wrong... ?

 

Only fire seem to work but not smoke.

 

I use thiseffects:

- city_fire

- city_firesmall

- villagesmoke

...

 

Are only seeing the fire from city_fire? If so, I suspect that you either did not trigger the IN_effect or you do not have Effect start_1 and Effect start_2 set to "Start". If neither of these problems are the case, then please zip and post your mission for people to check.

 

City_fire starts automatically at mission start and shows smoke and fire for about 16 seconds. Then the smoke disappears but the fire stays (at least that's what happened when I tested it four years ago). There is extra logic in the effect sustainer (pg. 291 of the manual) that deactivates city_fire at the start until it's needed later.

 

 

Edited May 13, 2020 by JimTM

[Habu]

I agree with Jim, and i think that the effect is gone when you have a look on it.

[PatrickAWlson]

Smoke has to be continuously restarted (sustainer).  In PWCG the i restart the smoke effect every n number of seconds.  At normal speed it looks good.  The break is noticeable in time compression. 

[IRRE_Genius]

Ok thanks all, my edit was correct but i have a bug with check zone: if your "group" check zone when plane are in radius of the check zone, i think the check zone "memorize" the place of the plane and trigger every time.

 

S!

[ITAF_Airone1989]

Did the villagesmoke_loop and city_fire_loop solve the despawn problem or it's still necessary to use the "effect sustainer" for them?

Edited February 2, 2022 by ITAF_Airone1989

[Sketch]

6 hours ago, ITAF_Airone1989 said:

Did the villagesmoke_loop and city_fire_loop solve the despawn problem or it's still necessary to use the "effect sustainer" for them?

Yes, you only need to use the Command Effect MCU (set to Start) and object link it to any effect with _loop as the suffix.

[Jaegermeister]

... and make the effect a linked entity

[YoYo]

On 2/4/2022 at 12:20 AM, Jaegermeister said:

... and make the effect a linked entity

 

On 2/2/2022 at 5:56 PM, Sketch said:

Yes, you only need to use the Command Effect MCU (set to Start) and object link it to any effect with _loop as the suffix.

 

Hi guys, sorry, Im noob in this part of IL-2 BoX. Id like to use smoke (loop, so always present on the map) for MP mission. Id like to add a little smoke on the battlefield (Arras map). It is not very clear to me . What else is missing here to work?

 

 

Edited April 19, 2022 by YoYo

[firdimigdi]

26 minutes ago, YoYo said:

 

 

Hi guys, sorry, Im noob in this part of IL-2 BoX. Id like to use smoke (loop, so always present on the map) for MP mission. Id like to add a little smoke on the battlefield (Arras map). It is not very clear to me . What else is missing here to work?

 

 

 

You need to trigger the command MCU - simplest way is to use a Mission Start MCU if you want the smoke to start up and be visible right away.

[YoYo]

1 hour ago, Firdimigdi said:

 

You need to trigger the command MCU - simplest way is to use a Mission Start MCU if you want the smoke to start up and be visible right away.

 

Thank You, it works now!