More, better SAM launch smoke

[Hog_driver]

I made some Wild Weasel missions against the SA-2 to get some practice and realized that the launch is often not really visible from the air.

Could we get something like this? (2 top photos)

Because now we have something like this... (3 screenshots at the bottom)

 

Edited June 25, 2024 by Hog_driver

[Gunfreak]

It's probably a preformance thing.

Aircraft launched missiles, ground launched missiles and ship launched missiles all produce less smoke and dust than they should.

Same goes for smoke from bombs, especially the larger 1000-2000lb stuff.

[Czar66]

1 hour ago, Gunfreak said:

It's probably a preformance thing.

 

IDK. The sky can be cluttered with missile smoke and the performance impact is pretty much non existent, same goes for carpet bombing. Surely something can be done with fewer smoke particles than a single R-27 smoke tail.

Standing besides a sam site while it launches missiles just feels like something is missing in the visual fx department. It doesn't need to be replicated at 30nm away.

Just something to see within 1 or 2 nm especially within a couple 100s feet away.

Edited June 25, 2024 by Czar66

[Exorcet]

1 hour ago, Gunfreak said:

It's probably a preformance thing.

Aircraft launched missiles, ground launched missiles and ship launched missiles all produce less smoke and dust than they should.

Same goes for smoke from bombs, especially the larger 1000-2000lb stuff.

They could probably copy and paste the vehicle smoke effect.

 

It would look good coming from a SAM launch.

[Hog_driver]

Perhaps some lesser smoke grenade effect could be added to the launcher as a temporary solution.

[draconus]

Yep, a lot of smoke should be added for launches. We only have small smoke trails.

[bandit648]

This can be tweaked by editing the parameters in the smoketrail.lua file. I haven't worked out what each parameter does, but lowering the SegmentLength under A2AMissile* settings seems to produce a thicker smoke.

 

SA2 launch modded:

 

[Hog_driver]

Not bad, have to try it out!

And what about smokeLaunch.lua?

Edited June 26, 2024 by Hog_driver

[bandit648]

5 hours ago, Hog_driver said:

Not bad, have to try it out!

And what about smokeLaunch.lua?

 

I tried messing with smokeLaunch.lua but It doesn't appear to do anything.

 

[Hog_driver]

I've got an impression that some time ago (2 years?), the smoke effect was more visible, so maybe something has changed with updates.

[bandit648]

4 hours ago, Hog_driver said:

I've got an impression that some time ago (2 years?), the smoke effect was more visible, so maybe something has changed with updates.

ED needs to go through and adjust all of the effects. Missile smoke is too thin and lifetime and view distance is too short. Many other effects need adjusting. These effects have little impact on modern GPUs. I'd like to see view distance for things like effects, clouds, buildings etc. added to the configuration options with a nice wide range. People running VR can keep it low for better performance and people running flat screen can crank up the eye candy!

 

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

There are plenty of first-hand reports from Vietnam for example on the distance at which SAM launches are visible with the naked eye, both during the day and at night.

ED could use those reports as reference as well…

[draconus]

Was some mod used here?

Maybe the effect got bugged in later DCS versions for SAM launches.

[Hog_driver]

BTW, a strategy game is to be released on 12th November, "Maritime Strength" or something like that

From what I've seen, it has some nice SAM launch effects.