Smoke Orienter

[LF_Sire]

Hello friends,

 

As far as I know just small smokes (landfire, signalsmoke_*...), and 'flags' (banner, flag and windsock) take wind direction.
Meanwhile big smokes (city_fire*, villagesmoke*...) are just a fixed movie, ignoring wind direction, taking just in account their own AY orientation.

That is just a big downside on IL2 flying experience as a pilot should not trust his own eyes.

Sure it is CPU saver feature, but at least big smokes should auto-orient to wind direction (once you save the mission, for example).

It doesn't, so I want to develop an easy tool to fix it, with great PyIL2GB MiMec (a too large name to remember, 'PyL2ditor' sounds better?). A one-click solution.

So first, know the problem.

 

On image example: plane is 0º oriented and wind (irrealistic) layers are:

 

1. Know the problem.
   
   - 'Flags' (banner, flag and windsock) take 0m level wind direction.
   - Small smokes take 500m level wind direction (chimney*, house_smoke, landfire, signalsmoke_*, static_fire)
   - Big smokes take their own AY orientation.
   - Wind direction is 'wind blows to'.
   
   Am I right?
    
2. Propose a solution
   
   Big smokes need to be oriented to wind direction... level 500m seems OK? (Do you agree with me?)
    
3. Build the fix tool. Work in progress. I will update.

 

In the meantime, could you check my points 1 and 2, please?

 

 

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by LF_Sire

[Jaegermeister]

5 hours ago, LF_Sire said:

As far as I know just small smokes (landfire, signalsmoke_*...), and 'flags' (banner, flag and windsock) take wind direction.
Meanwhile big smokes (city_fire*, villagesmoke*...) are just a fixed movie, ignoring wind direction, taking just in account their own AY orientation.

 

On image example: plane is 0º oriented and wind (irrealistic) layers are:

1. Know the problem.
   - 'Flags' (banner, flag and windsock) take 0m level wind direction.
   - Small smokes take 500m level wind direction (chimney*, house_smoke, landfire, signalsmoke_*, static_fire)
   - Big smokes take their own AY orientation.
   - Wind direction is 'wind blows to'.
   Am I right?
2. Propose a solution
   Big smokes need to be oriented to wind direction... level 500m seems OK? (Do you agree with me?)
3. Build the fix tool. Work in progress. I will update.

In the meantime, could you check my points 1 and 2, please?

 

 

You missed the Aerostats category, (aetype, caquot, drachen, parseval) and their orientation is 180 degrees opposite from wind direction to be aligned correctly.

 

1. Not necessarily, usually between 0 meters at sea level and under 500 meters. I would have to check how high the mountains are in Kuban but I think over 500 meters so it would be different there.

Small smoke should be the same as the flags

yes

yes - wind is "to" not "from"

2. Seems like sea level up to 500 meters would be correct most of the time. Not in the mountains of Kuban though.

 

In most cases I think the wind would be set in the same direction at various altitudes although you can change that as needed. Also the wind sock self aligns to the correct wind direction as long as it is a linked entity. It shows the correct wind direction while the player is on the ground, but "follows" the player when viewed from above while flying. I have considered submitting this for Dev review, but I haven't gotten to it. It honestly doesn't seem worth the trouble. 

 

Be aware that smoke effects have a tendency to "auto levitate" when they are adjusted or reset in some way and not specifically returned to ground level with the set on ground tool. I think your efforts are a great idea, but check to make sure the utility does not accidentally raise all the smoke about 20 meters or so as that could be annoying. 

 

 

 

Edited March 7, 2021 by Jaegermeister

[LF_Sire]

Thank you @Jaegermeister

I will check all that too.

 

Too busy this days to advance, may be tomorrow.

 

First version is working yet*, but a I need some time to test and documentate first, before release.

 

*(Very easy thanks to Py IL-2 MiMec tool)

I will post here.

[LF_Sire]

Help wanted as critical errors show in complex missions. See last comment on

 

[LF_Sire]

Ok. I skipped MiMec fix so now I return on this project.