Does anyone know of a way to disable the touch down smoke in FS2004? If I am watching a landing from tower view or spot plane view, everything runs smooth until touchdown when the could of smoke appears. I tried to remove the "fx_tchdwn" from my effects folder and this stopped the smoke from apearing but the game still locked up for a fraction of a second. Any help with this problem would be greatly appreciated. One more question....Does anybody know how to change the speed in which the strobe lights blink on the aircraft? Thanks again to all who help on the problemThank youGalant VR4

Look for your EFFECTS section in your aircraft's AIRCRAFT.CFG file. The entries are pretty obvious. Try disabling "touchdown" by changing it as follows by putting "//" in front of the word:wake=fx_wakewater=fx_spraydirt=fx_tchdrtconcrete=fx_sparks//touchdown=fx_tchdwn_s, 1That should stop it. As you say, removing the file from EFFECTS is not enough as the aircraft still tries to produce the effect when touchdown smoke is enabled.Why, though? It's realistic.Strobe lights: can't help there. They are standard MS effects. Look under the LIGHTS section in your AIRCRAFT.CFG file to see what effect does what. They can be edited but I shouldn't bother, personally.Mark "Dark Moment" Beaumonthttp://www.swiremariners.com/newlogo.jpg

Thanks for the help mark!!! I know the smoke makes it more realistic but unfortunately I am running a lower end machine and for some reason the touchdown smoke has negative effects on my machine.

Also try turning off the sound (normally the "Q" key) to see if that impacts your touchdown pause problem. It is probably making a screech sound (even though your view point is too far away to hear it) and I've heard that that sound can cause a pause. Try it. R-

>Also try turning off the sound (normally the "Q" key) to see>if that impacts your touchdown pause problem. It is probably>making a screech sound (even though your view point is too far>away to hear it) and I've heard that that sound can cause a>pause. Try it. R- Well I tried these 2 things and the smoke still shows up and with the sound off my comp still "stutters". Thanks for the suggestions though guys. Does anyone else have a suggestion?

Greetings,In the absense of instruction (ie no mention of fx filein the {effects} section) the Sim plays the default effect"fx_tchdwn.fx"...Hard way:There is a file in the FS2004effects folder called "fx_dummy.fx"that can be used. It does nothing, but will prevent the defaulteffects from playing if it is pointed to in the {effects} sectionof the aircraft.cfg...you have to change it in each AC aircraft.cfg..Easy way:Or you can rename the "fx_tchdwn.fx" file to "fx_tchdwnOFF.fx".This will globally "hide" it from all AC that would use it..andyou can easily get it back by re-renaming when you upgrade the PC..JR

Thanks JR! I did what you saud and it worked like a charm.