Hi!Like you probably know, me and guys are making a freeware Maule package. And as you might know, there will be a wheel-ski version too. I then became to wonder, would it be possible to make such gauge that would control the show-up of two different effects. I was thinking that it would be cool to have such thing on the wheel-ski version, that when you land the plane "off runway" on winter time it would create snow-cloud from the wheels/skis and on summer time instead of snow-cloud it would create some dust. Would it be possible to make this kind of thing with gauge? If it is, would someone be interested in taking part into this project and making that kind of gauge for it?If you are interested, please throw me an e-mail :)Mikko http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/mmniemi/shots/banger.gif

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Mikko [email protected]

Hi - I guess it was ment for me? :)This is not possible through the use of the smoke system, unfortunately. However, the simplicity of this particular aircraft, suggests there will be a few *light* effects that can be assigned instead. But I don't know if lights have any different behaviour over the smoke system, but probably it doesn't.Also, I've found that the surface condition reported by FS2002 may be wrong at times (but not logical). I have a feeling that it relates to the problem scenery designers have, making an offshore landable helipad of a "hard" type - it isn't always "updated" correctly in FS2002. If landing in clear weather, you might get a reading of a wet surface (don't know about snow or icy conditions though) when it obviously is dry. Maybe it has rained before? :)Another thing to consider is that downloaded or standard scenery isn't always very correct in terms of having the correct surface flags set; the flag might often suggest asphalt, but the visual might be grass - could cause some confusion on why snow would show up at the wrong places.Lastly, I think the clue in using effects is using them with care. I've seen pictures of light GA trainers causing huge amount of "spray" or wake turbulence upon touchdown; way overdone naturally, but only has a fun purpose, not realistic :DI've attached a gauge as a textfile on how to do this, modify as needed to include more surface types or using multiple effect (smoke *and* lights) types. Read with a texteditor for "easier" reading, as line characters are usually removed with IE. I haven't tested it other than checking it's intergrity with IE, so let me know if it doesn't work at all. Make a gauge that displays the setting of the smokesystem/light. Effectfile(s) is chosen in aircraft.cfg, and smoke/electrical has to be enabled for the system. Sorry, but I don't have the time to get *fully* involved in the Maule, which is looking great btw :)

Yeppers, you exactly :)Thanks for this report. I guess we will have to manually change the used effect for winter/summer times. No big deal to someone who know how to do it, but for some people it might be hard. Well, it's their loss then :)Thanks,Mikko http://www.flightsimnetwork.com/mmniemi/shots/banger.gif

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Mikko [email protected]