Surface ships smoke barely visible | Forums

[Flaskegaard]

In SH4 WOP, I noticed the smoke that comes from the stacks of the various surface ships (military and merchant) is barely visible, especially at distance. I was viewing some SH4 tutorials on YouTube and noticed the smoke was much darker and more visible in some of the videos, which looked more realistic. Does anyone know of a way to make the surface ship smoke darker, or at least more visible? Is it possibly a game file change or a mod that has to be down loaded? Go to the YouTube video: SILENT HUNTER IV DOUBLE TARGET ATTACK TUTORIAL and you will see the smoke from the merchant ships is much more visible.

[WernherVonTrapp]

OMG! WE HAVE A POST! OH, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.


I knew this forum wasn't dead yet! I just knew it!


OK, whew, glad I got that out of my system. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, "Smoke". The Stock version of SH4 doesn't do a very good job of rendering realistic smoke. There are a number of downloadable MODS over at Subsim that address this, including one called TMO. Just go to this website, sign-up and check the Download section. You'll find everything you need, and more.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=202

Hey, I think there's an echo in here. Boy, it's awfully dark in here lately. Starting to look like the corridors of my mind, but it's not quite dark enough yet.

[BigDog1701a]

"Hey, I think there's an echo in here. Boy, it's awfully dark in here lately. Starting to look like the corridors of my mind, but it's not quite dark enough yet."
Which reminds me, "Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most"

I may look at some of the other smoke mods too. I'm running TMO 2.5 and I get decent smoke on the horizon, but up close both funnel and fire smoke are blotchy and thin.

[Flaskegaard]

Which other ones would you suggest? I also saw another tutorial on YouTube called: SILENT HUNTER 4 - HOW TO ATTACK CONVOY. I noticed this version of SH4 appeared different from the SH4 Wolves of the Pacific I have. The dials and other features were different on the plot map and attack scope. I especially liked the sound effects of the torpedos launching and explosions when they hit the ships. More realistic in my opinion. Is this standard with this particular version of SH4, or is it a mod?

[donna577]

Which other ones would you suggest? I also saw another tutorial on YouTube called: SILENT HUNTER 4 - HOW TO ATTACK CONVOY. I noticed this version of SH4 appeared different from the SH4 Wolves of the Pacific I have. The dials and other features were different on the plot map and attack scope. I especially liked the sound effects of the torpedos launching and explosions when they hit the ships. More realistic in my opinion. Is this standard with this particular version of SH4, or is it a mod?

Copy and post the YouTube link here, if it's thick smoke it's most likely RFB supermod....but it could be a separate mod. Most of the supermods enhance everything, sound files, and environments.

I prefer TMO with RSRDC

[MWolfe1963]

If you had to play with it, it would be Data/library/particles.dat. The particle dat. nodes control
how most textures render, fire, bomb effects, explosions.....and smoke.
The nodes for funnel smoke are 745/746. You can click on it and several options become available, emission area, radius, scale, etc.
The only pain is you also have to go to the Sea file and adjust the sim file for each ship, unless you want all boats to have
the exact same smoke effect. Historically many merchants used coal and had very dark black smoke, compared
to warships that burnt oil and had a thinner smoke. There is a mod that does just this for TMO, called TMO different
smoke mod, for an older version and based on all the ships in TMO.

If you play with paticle dat and get too carried away your textures can become blocky

[LouLewis1967]

I have tried installing that "different smoke" mod over the latest TMO but since it only overwrote a couple files I did not think it was updated. I would really like getting some variety in the smoke for different ships. If escorts could produce just thin smoke it would make sizing up convoys very interesting. That, and if there is a way to suppress the gun flashes of Japanese ships (to simulate the smokeless powder some used), would be a neat trick.

[MWolfe1963]

It should work basically fine, I don't think Duci has added any ships since, shouldn't be much of an overwrite, just give it a try and see what you think.
Heck for all I know he may have included it, just have to compare.

You could pick certain japanese ships and tweak the sim and dat file so the flash wouldn't show, I never noticed it much unless cams are off and have to eyeball things more.

[LouLewis1967]

Hmm, I guess I will give it a try then. I have been wavering about when/where to start my next career and what mod's to activate. As such, I've been indecisive to the point of not playing for a couple weeks.

[Flaskegaard]

I tried the PARTICLES.DAT route, but it was written in some weird script that I couldn't read so I left it alone. I didn't want to screw up the game and have to reinstall it.