Shaders edits to make some effects (afterburner, rockets exhausts, flares) a little bit more realistic
Less visible in daytime, glowing white/purple at night
*** UPDATED FOR 2.7 ***
Just a little effect edit to make more realistic afterburners and rocket/missile exhaust.
Color and opacity now depends on sun (maybe also moon) intensity.
Red-orange and almost invisible under a bright sunlight ; more visible with a purple/white-ish tint at night.
I added a bunch of comments in the lua, so if you want to change opacity or colors, you can DIY...
If you have questions or comments, you can also head to the forum thread : https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=255288 (<<more screenshots here !)
Afterburner fx tested successfully with most aircraft having AB (F-5/-15/-16/-18, mirage...), including AI ones (Tu-160/22M3, Su-34...).
Only exceptions are :
- player AJS-37 : Effect not applied. Don't know why.
- AI AJS-37 : Afterburner tail is too large and too short, awful. Could be fixed by modding AJS37.lua, but breaks IC.
- F-14 (both player and AI) : Afterburner fx is VERY VERY small (diameter and length = 0.01). Fix provided, but BREAKS IC (means you won't be able to connect to most multiplayer servers).
If the afterburner looks like a big cylinder, you're probably using an AB texture mod without alpha channel, remove it !
This mod should be in "DCS World\Bazar\Effects\ParticleSystem2\afterburner.dds" or "DCS World\Bazar\TempTextures\afterburner.dds".
WARNING -------------------
While modifying *.fx files won't cause any issues with the IC (Integrity Check, kind of anti-cheat for multiplayer, enabled on some servers), any edits to *.hlsl files and afterburner.dds will.
If you plan to play multiplayer, please choose the mod variant accordingly !
INSTALL -------------------
Pick a variant (subfolder) and extract it's content into DCS World main directory, overwrite if asked. Backups of original files are also included.
DO NOT INSTALL THE F-14 FIX IF YOU WANT TO PLAY MULTIPLAYER.
Don't forget to backup "...\DCSWorld\CoreMods\aircraft\F14\Entry\F-14B.lua" (a simple copy-paste will be ok).
Backup from openbeta build 2.5.5.41371 (2019-12-22) is provided for reference / Remember this file could be overwritten by weekly updates.
CHANGELOG -----------------
2019-11-17 : v1
- Initial release
2019-11-24 : v2
- AB trail color was slightly changed for night, should be a little more white
- Noticed some noise was ADDED to the opacity, hence the hard cut visible when you push AB to 100%. Used another way to add noise, so that the end of the trail will remain fully transparent.
As a side-effect, the trail may appear a little shorter. (Sorry, I REALLY can't do anything about that, it would break IC)
2019-11-25 : v3
- Changed variable used by heat blur effect. Should be less noisy when flying (but doesn't change the blur when you're on the ground).
Thanks Harker for the tip !
2019-12-04 : v4
- Added some variants.
2019-12-23 : v5
- Added missiles and rockets exhaust FX. (WIP)
2019-12-25 : v6
- Added F-14 AB fix.
SINGLE-PLAYER ONLY. THIS FILE CAUSE IC (integrity check) FAILURE IN MULTIPLAYER.
2019-12-26 : v7
- Added a variant "night only". Should be very similar to DCS unmodded fx for day, and var. 1 for night. (WIP)
2019-12-26 : v8
- Tweaked var. 4. Day version is more visible.
2019-12-29 : v9
- Added new afterburner texture, FX slightly tweaked for this. (Variant 5)
This variants also change textures for F-16 and F-18. If you want to keep default textures for those, remove all "afterburner_f-1*C.dds" textures in "DCS World\Bazar\TempTextures\...".
SINGLE-PLAYER ONLY. THIS FILE CAUSE IC (integrity check) FAILURE IN MULTIPLAYER.
2019-12-30 : v10
- Added flares fx.
Moved missile/rocket exhaust fx to different mod variant.
Moved new afterburner texture to "Bazar\TempTextures\" and restored DCS default "Bazar\Effects\ParticleSystem2\afterburner.dds" (Don't worry, textures in "TempTexture" folder have priority over the other ones).
SINGLE-PLAYER ONLY. THIS FILE MAY CAUSE IC (integrity check) FAILURE IN MULTIPLAYER.
2020-02-25 : v11
- Added 2 variants for DCS 2.5.6
The first one may looks reaaaally blue for F-16 and F-18, the other one uses the red channel of the afterburner texture for all channels (R,G,B) but with different luminances. You'll get better results for F-16 and F-18, but the overall result is better with variant 1.
2020-03-08 : v12
- Updated F-14 fix for DCS 2.5.6. DOESN'T PASS IC.
- Updated AB effect for 2.5.6, variant 1. Still too blue for F-16/F-18 (their AB texture contains too much blue).
- Splitted folder tree into DCS 2.5.5 / DCS 2.5.6
2020-05-22 : No files updates, but PLEASE DO NOT USE THE F-14 FIX IF USING THE OPENBETA 2.5.6.49314 OR LATER BUILDS. You won't be able to fly it anymore.
2021-04-24 : v13
- Updated for DCS 2.7. Colors could be slightly differet due to all atmosphere changes introduced in this update. Please report and detail any issues ON THE FORUM THREAD.