Zephyr wrote:I bring you some news...
Yesterday I finished new beta version of PAT Smoke Mod. It improves functionality of the mod, brings new colours of smoke and smoke looks better now.
1. I rewrote smoke colour switcher code. Network communication code has been extended - players send complete information about their smoke colour. Also, code which enables saving replay from the flight has been changed and now it allows saving records with all available colours.
2. The number of available colours has been increased. Now mod supports 10 colours. Colours can be selected and changed easily during flight.
3. Each colour has it own key. Keys can be assign via normal "Controls" panel from the game. I used Engine Power control keys which are usually useless - as all virtual aerobatic pilots use throttle.
4. Selecting a colour and activating/deactivating smoke is signalized on the HUD with a message. Moreover, there is a "check smoke state" key, when pilot is not sure about his smoke generator state.
5. Smokes look better. Now each smoke consists of about 1200 particles. This improvement has bad effect: it reduces FPS. On my computer with 4 planes using smoke I have 8FPS less than without smoke. This effect may be greater when using shaders. I'm considering preparing two versions: one with the best graphics, and one low-end with worse smoke outlook and no "wake effect"
Some other remarks:
This mod will change only AirShow smoke effects. It is possible to change other smoke effects - maybe it will be my next project - if people from AAA will be interested.
Particle effect code in IL2 is strange. Unfortunately it contains more "native" methods than other parts of IL2 code. This means that most of particle effect features can't be changed (OK, they can be changed but it needs lot of effort and better programming skills than mine.).
Programming wake effect on smoke/dust is not so tricky. But, as I wrote above, it can't be done now. Complain to Oleg's team - they could do it, but they didn't.
Last note:
If any virtual aerobatic team is interested in having a special tone of smoke colour, please send me a PM with RGB values. I'll try to tune colours.
Best Regards,
Zephyr
Here's a video clip of it in action, and the final version will also include prop wake effects in the smoke.
Follow the link in my first post for more info.
