General Category > Unofficial F/A-18 Acceleration Pack board
High-G Nose Vapor, Engine Exhaust Smoke and lighter HUD
Doum76:
Greetings all,
Been a while i've been posting, or asking advice :P, this time i post to come back on some old post, i've been reading a while ago, people looking for High-G vapor, or the ones mentionned in the thread «Is it possible to add high-g vapor effects to the F-18? », not working, or some others with some trick to get the glass off the HUD or some alternative, well i decide to share with you my last few days fool around, i've been flying a bit less lately, and ended-up for my personal likes, getting the HUD less dark, at first a while ago, i've downloaded some modification spoken in a thread on here,, but after a while, i get to dislike it, was flat, and either too transparent or too flat white, i wanted a bit more effect of the lens in the glass, was a nice looking, but too dark greenish, making hard to see through, so i've been looking around files, folders, and found out the picture, used for the lens reflection, found out the image of the lens, and on the wbe how to modify stuff, what kind of format to save, so that was my exploration of doing stuff, modify stuff in FSX, so i used my graphic designer ability in Photoshop to tweak FA_18_Hud_Glass. If anyone would be interested to get the effect of relection on the glass, but less Darker, since i don't know how to attach file here, i made a little video i got on Youtube, feel free to take a look, it'll be a pleasure to provide the FA_18_Hud_Glass file.
After that i got a little bit more in the complicated stuff, and found out why the High-G Vapor from FS-KBT F-18E as mentioned in the thread, weren't working, the problem was mainly inside the Gauge XML file inside the .CAB file, the problem was, to trigger, the Vapor needed to be 5g, 12 deg. celcius and at least 120 KIAS, that wasn't much of a deal, but the first required item, was, Flaps at 0%, maybe the SuperHornet mod. doesn't have automatic Flaps, but the awesome F/A-18 from Acceleration Pack, do have Automatic flaps, so the chances to get Flaps at 0% on high-g manouver is pretty much impossible, so mostly never triggers, so by deleting, inside the XML Gaugle file «wing_vapor» (located inside the dfa18_fx.cab file that should be inside the Panel folder of the Hornet if you installed the stuff for it.) the 2 places you see (A:TRAILING EDGE FLAPS0 RIGHT PERCENT,percent) 0 == ;
and delete one && on the first line where you took off the first flaps line. If you would need more help i'll be glad to help, about how to decomrpess the file and how too use it not inside the .cab file.
And for last, i'Ve been also learning,, fooling inside the effect file, gotta say at first, it ain't that easy to understand each stats and does what, well, i ended up doing an Engine Exhaust Gas smoke, used with the XML gauge from the same set as the set for the High-G Vapor, so when Engine 1 and 2 N1 reaches 80%, the smoke is triggered, if you get below 80% it stops, and i made my effect 3 parts, first part is a darker small smoke trail, that gradualy fades away after a few seconds, the second part is some puffs of darker smokes that comes randmonly while the smal trails last, then it ends upw ith a light gray smoke, wider, that last for about 35-40 seconds, then the entire smokes disapear.
If you guys don't mind to give me your opinion you can take a look at the Test run video i've made, and you can also see he high-g vapor. It's far from being perfect, but not bad at all for my first try, let's say i've made lots of tries, and reading in the SDK manual to understand. :S If anyone want's it, i don'T mind to share.
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SpazSinbad:
Doum76, have not seen the 'effects' videos but like your 'Optimum Angle of Attack approach to runway video'. Nicely done indeed. Did you photoshop the OAoA? Only joking. Nice and steady approach a little lined up right is what the LSO would say but 'long in the groove'. No worries though - I understand issues about making a 'one take video' to demonstrate something. I look forward to your carrier approach video now.
Having used the HUD modifications noted on other threads I found the almost clear one to be best for forward vision; but people will have their own preferences. Getting rid of the 'head bob' I found to be essential. Why this is a 'feature' in FSX I'll never understand because in a military jet it is downright dangerous to have the cockpit view zooming in and out - often at the most problematic times. Having 'no head bob' I would suggest will help your flying the FSX Hornet a lot.
Intrepid:
--- Quote from: Doum76 on September 03, 2009, 09:29:39 am ---
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Doum76:
You have done an incredible job with your effects additions,,Well done ,VERY well done 8) 8)
Voodoo and myself spent a lot of time playing around in the smoke and other effects folders to create a certain look ,and I can appreciate the amount of work put forth to get the look you have achieved
Tweekers nightmare ,fooling around with all the parameters, and lots of trial and error I am sure
Thanks for showing and sharing on this forum
Randy
Doum76:
--- Quote from: SpazSinbad on September 03, 2009, 10:23:32 am ---Doum76, have not seen the 'effects' videos but like your 'Optimum Angle of Attack approach to runway video'. Nicely done indeed. Did you photoshop the OAoA? Only joking. Nice and steady approach a little lined up right is what the LSO would say but 'long in the groove'. No worries though - I understand issues about making a 'one take video' to demonstrate something. I look forward to your carrier approach video now.
--- End quote ---
Well Thanks, and yes, my biggest problem is line-up, i don't know why i always sems to get magnefide on one side, can't seem to make it centered, for the angle of attack, let,s say as i told you in other thread, i did practice a lot, but angle, so hard, specialy since i made and use my 3 point cap with FreeTracker, i'm better now, but when i got this new stuff, lol was a challenge to fly with it, a single movement made you move in the cockpit and miss alined, tricking your eyesight versus the Vector Path indicator, lots of practice with this little thing, but when it starts to lag, it makes rude movement. For the Carrier,, been about a week i haven't done a pattern as i said, i was mostly working on effects, but i can try to make a video, i made this video for the HUD only, of course, i tried my best to make a not so bad approach while at it. :) And yes the groove was long, if i make it short, my line up is even worse. :( Maybe i don't use Rudder enough.
--- Quote from: SpazSinbad on September 03, 2009, 10:23:32 am ---Having used the HUD modifications noted on other threads I found the almost clear one to be best for forward vision; but people will have their own preferences. Getting rid of the 'head bob' I found to be essential. Why this is a 'feature' in FSX I'll never understand because in a military jet it is downright dangerous to have the cockpit view zooming in and out - often at the most problematic times. Having 'no head bob' I would suggest will help your flying the FSX Hornet a lot.
--- End quote ---
So the clear HUD, is mostly the more realistic? Gotta find it, because the one i had was White, made me thing of old games HUD. As for the 'head bob' , i surely took this option off as mentioned in one post here, but still moves a bit, don't know why, but at least i can zoom out fast with my zoom ou-in programmed to my throttle handle's mouse wheel. I'll have to verify is installing Rex2 haven't change anything in the file and reset it.
Doum76:
--- Quote from: Intrepid on September 03, 2009, 02:12:06 pm ---
Doum76:
You have done an incredible job with your effects additions,,Well done ,VERY well done 8) 8)
Voodoo and myself spent a lot of time playing around in the smoke and other effects folders to create a certain look ,and I can appreciate the amount of work put forth to get the look you have achieved
Tweekers nightmare ,fooling around with all the parameters, and lots of trial and error I am sure
Thanks for showing and sharing on this forum
Randy
--- End quote ---
Thanks you, and ined, hell of a nightmare, specialy when FSX SDK effect tool doesn't show the effect, well, not working, inside the game, so pretty long to understand the effects, when you gotta work in notepad, make a change, load FSX take a lok at the effect, quit FSX etc... As for errors, my brain got saturated on the numbers, and stoped the count. :)
I've been trying to get a Vapor effect of my own, instead of 23 static particles, but a moving one, but mostly impossible so far on the Hornet, due to the X travveling direction of the air flow travelelling and following the nose wing, and ends up on the wing, let's say this effect really comes hard. The onyl problem so far with my effect, and i don't know why, it isn't showing in the instant replay, well it does, but not where it should be, like Carrier in instant replay, but it's fine on any outside view if i fly live and look, no problem also when saving the flight then viewing afterward the replay.
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