PAL Tracers and SmokeTrails MOD - v1.4 for 4.12.2m (wind speed considered, etc)
Main new feature in this version:
you can supress the tracers / smoketrails of all the weapons with a single setting.
I have made some corrections to the He-219 of CY6 and reverted the weapons to the standard tracer ones (because at night is impossible to hit anything without tracers), but the typical discussion about tracers emerged again.
So why adapting the weapons of the planes, redefining stock behaviours of the game plane by plane, etc? If the question is To Trace or Not To Trace, just with my MOD use this settings in the Conf.ini and you can disable all the tracers and all the smoketrails without rewritting code for each plane:
[Mods]
PALNoTracers=1
PALNoSmoketrails=1
So easy like that, so straight, so universal. Those who hate tracers will not see them anymore (and probably would gain some FPSs).
The rest of the MOD makes all what my original one did, except that I touched up some of the effects to make the smoketrails more transparent and more natural in some way. The original post is here:
Since the very early time I started to play IL-2, I was completely astonished by the size of the stock tracers used for the game. They are terribly big. Much more than any real tracer is seen in normal conditions in reality. They are basically 6m long, which is huge. There are many MODs around which changed the textures of the Tracers to make them less neon kind, but basically none attacked the real problem, the 3D object. Some time ago I edited the tracers objects, and I reduced them drastically, to be 1:5 in length of the original ones.
Originals (stock ones):
(https://storebror.it.cx/sas/archive/sas2/benitomuso/TracersLong.jpg)
Edited (MOD ones):
(https://storebror.it.cx/sas/archive/sas2/benitomuso/TracersShort.jpg)
Another very uncomfortable thing were the SmokeTrails, which were usually my main concern. The problem that they caused to the FPS counter when you are in high flak or very intense aereal fight is basically unbearable. Does this look logical?:
(https://storebror.it.cx/sas/archive/sas2/benitomuso/FlakLong.jpg)
The answer is NO, it doesn't happen in reality, just take a look at any of the videos available in YouTube or ask your grandparents.
So I decided to make something more real and at the same time more fps friendly:
(https://storebror.it.cx/sas/archive/sas2/benitomuso/FlakShort.jpg)
How I did it?: I divided the 3 different effects used for smoketrails into 3 different levels of them (9 total instead of the original 3), I reduced drastically the visibility distance and I edited the Gun class to trigger the smoketrails in a differential way depending if they are:
-For your own plane (the more detailed ones because they are part of the immersion of the game).
-Other planes (you don't need that the game engine waste precious time in making detailed trails as above).
-Ground forces (they only emit a trail time to time and the mildest one).
Another thing that I added: now it is altitude dependant. Water condensation is not the same for any altitude. Here are 3 different levels (mainly seen for your own plane).
-From 0m to 300m.
-From 300m to 1000m.
-From 1000m onwards.
Try them and let me know what do you think.
New from v1.1:
all the effects were edited and adjusted to give a more random visual. The difussion of the smokes is more natural, and they present a kind of intermitent behaviour similar to Philip.ed ones but from my point of view and mantaining the concept of the different levels of smoketrail effects. Mainly I consider these edited ones more "speed respectful" considering what we can see in film footage of WWII.
New from V1.3:
v4.101m compatible, disables / enables all tracers and smoketrails, adjusted transparency of smoketrails.
New from V1.4:
v4.12.2m compatible, includes Santobr code changes (not Camera trails) made over my concept.
Download PAL Tracers and SmokeTrails MOD v1.4, from here (https://www.mediafire.com/download/ifndijlfo6g26r1/00_PAL-SmokeTrails.rar)
Regards,
Pablo