I wonder why no one seems to notice the fine wing tip contrails on the new FSD T-38 Talon? They are "dynamic", switched on and off by flight parameters. Really great, I've never seen this before in FS...Wouldn't it be nice to have this on all planes? :)ckfly

Well I noticed them. I mentioned them also in a thread, in the SS forum, tow days ago as far as I remember. Look at this:http://ftp.avsim.com/dcforum/DCForumID47/6375.htmlThere I also wondered how they are working, I thought it was a gauge, but I have doubts if flight paramaters can turn them on/off.Regards :-wave from EDDFhttp://flightsimmers.net/airport/etti/signature_pro.jpg

I wanted to get more effects on my aircraft for some time now, waiting for releases of "real" gauge programmers. Now I've written my own effect gauges. :)Expect a release in a few days.ckfly

May I ask what your gauges will do?

They will enable every effect that can be put into the {smokesystem}.- dynamic high level contrails for every aircraft type - based on altitude - based on temperature and/or altitude- wingtip contrails on high-g manoeuvers- more engine smoke based on (???)- afterburner effects- a lot more funny things... Give me input. :)ckfly

Hmmm sounds great! :-)But as far as I know you can assign only one smokesystem to an aircraft (which can have multiple effect files though). But it's triggered as one. So you cannot have all these effects (contrails, engine smoke, afterburners...) in one aircraft, right?

You're right. But better than nothing. I've never done a gauge before, but at least two different effects are working now.I wanted to get started with this, and hope to encourage other designers, too.ckfly

That's cool man. Keep it up.Looking forward to the release :-wavehttp://flightsimmers.net/airport/etti/signature_pro.jpg

I would much rather have the smoke system work like it does on most other FS2K2 aircraft by using the "I" key. It appears that the intermittent contrails are the "thing" that FSD is hell bent on keeping on the aircraft. If I could get into whatever compiled portion of the model that has changed the function of the "I" key, I would do it myself. I wouldn't know where to start.I would love to have continous smoke on the Thunderbird paint scheme model, but FSD has not interest in making the change, not even for just that one particular model. I guess we should just be thankful for such a great model being totally free. I am now T-38 addicted!Keith

If you can just give us continuous smoke when smoke is "ON" (using the "I" key), that would be absolutely wonderful. I find a great tutorial on how to change the magnitude of the smoke, the color of the smoke, and how to add other smoke trails on the aircraft. However, if this "intermittent" smoke release issue is not fixed (it probably was done this way to add more of a sense of realism to the aircraft), the smoke effect will look extremely choppy.Hope your close to solving this one issue. Thanks for your efforts!Keith

Don't use the default panel of the T-38, and you will be able to switch the smokesystem manually with the "I" key.BTW, I like the intermittent contrails. :)ckfly

Unfortunately, no other panel matches the quality of the FSD T-38 panel. What is it about code in the panel.cfg file that disables the standard key "I" for turning smoke on and off? The Panel.cfg file definitely seems at the heart of the matter, but I don't see anything that jumps out at me that disables the key.By the way, the T-33 Thunderbird model does have a nice panel layout and smoke can be controlled with the "I" key. Looks awesome, but does not have the same texture quality (probably not GMax) as the T-38.Keith

>Unfortunately, no other panel matches the quality of the FSD >T-38 panel. What is it about code in the panel.cfg file >that disables the standard key "I" for turning smoke on and >off? The Panel.cfg file definitely seems at the heart of >the matter, but I don't see anything that jumps out at me >that disables the key. It's in one of the gauges, obviously.ckfly