[Huecuvoe]

The recent short thread on an alternative dieselsmoke.ace texture prompted me to share something I have worked on (and used) for the last 3-4 years. All of what I have to say and share applies to MSTS. I don't know how ORTS will respond. The name "Universal Diesel Smoke" is actually a pun of sorts. I'll explain at the end of this post. The problem I have with almost all of the diesel smoke textures is that they make my diesel locomotives look like they are blowing black soap bubbles in the sky. This is not surprising when you consider how MSTS generates the diesel smoke effect. For those of you who haven't ever looked under the smoke so to speak, the underlying diesel smoke effect looks like this.



Here is the horrid truth laid bare for all to see. MSTS generates the diesel smoke effect by drawing SQUARE black soap bubbles in the sky. Fold in a roughly circular mask (alpha layer) and MSTS reducing the alpha mask to just 4 bits and what do you get? About 3-4 years ago I was thinking about the problem (and trying several different smoke candidates) when I had one of those "Ah-Ha!" moments. What would happen if instead of trying all of those intricate delicate shadings which MSTS promptly ignores I created a dieselsmoke.ace that was made up of many delicate (and very small) tendrils or filaments? The actual number of alpha bits wouldn't matter as the "delicate" shading would come from a large number of filaments waving around in front of you.

The result looks like this.





To me the resulting diesel smoke seems both delicate and translucent. If you want your diesels to all look like first generation Alcos in heat, this isn't for you. The effect looks better when the smoke is "in motion" as the individual filaments twist and turn. I don't really notice the individual filaments - just the overall effect. To me, it's a little like the "heat distortion" you see when looking a column of hot exhaust.

Using this diesel smoke texture will of course require you to adjust the "diesel smoke effect" parameters in the ENGine file. To get you started, here are the parameters I use for 0.05m and 0.10m radius exhausts.

Exhaust Radius (m)	0.05

	DieselSmokeEffectInitialMagnitude ( 0.636 )
	DieselSmokeEffectMaxMagnitude ( 1.286 ) 
	DieselSmokeEffectInitialSmokeRate ( 0.707 ) 
	DieselSmokeEffectMaxSmokeRate ( 1.000 ) 


Exhaust Radius (m)	0.1

	DieselSmokeEffectInitialMagnitude ( 0.900 )
	DieselSmokeEffectMaxMagnitude ( 2.571 ) 
	DieselSmokeEffectInitialSmokeRate ( 1.000 ) 
	DieselSmokeEffectMaxSmokeRate ( 1.414 ) 

Tip: To get "more smoke" from a locomotive that has a single rectangular exhaust, use both exhaust1 and exhaust2 for the same exhaust point with a small (I use 0.2m) X offset between them. As an example, here is my U30B specification:

	Effects (
		DieselSpecialEffects (
			Exhaust1 (
				0.2 4.765 -2.34
				0 1 0
				0.15
			)
			Exhaust2 (
				0.0 4.765 -2.34
				0 1 0
				0.15
			)
		)
 	)

Two things that I think are true that you may not believe:

1 - MSTS seems have a -0.1m offset in both the X and Z position in the diesel smoke generation algorithm. I stared at a lot of pictures that look like this before coming to that conclusion.



ALL of my diesel smoke positions are offset +0.1m in X and Z. I also use a +0.2m Y offset, but that is a matter of taste (how wide do you want the smoke to be as it exists the model.

2 - The ONLY thing that MSTS cares about from dieselsmoke.ace is the alpha channel. The "image" layer can be anything you like.

How do you use this texture?

In some ways, if you don't know how to change the dieselsmoke.ace texture, you probably shouldn't. However the procedure is very simple:

1. Locate the current dieselsmoke.ace texture in the \GLOBAL\TEXTURES folder of the MSTS installation or mini-route you are using.

2. Rename the existing dieselsmoke.ace to something you will remember (like MyOldDieselSmoke.ace).

3. Copy the UniversalDieselSmoke.ace to the \GLOBAL\TEXTURES folder mentioned above.

4. Rename the UniversalDieselSmoke.ace to dieselsmoke.ace.

5. Try it out. (Editing the DieselSmokeEffect parameters is the subject of another tutorial.)

Legal

I'm not big on copyright or copyleft. I don't expect my great-great-grandnephew to earn a living with the royalties from this texture. I you find this useful or interesting, just let me know. For the present, I would prefer the Universal Diesel Smoke texture to stay within the ET community. Think of it as an extended beta test. I will package the texture and upload it to the file library if you think that there is enough "value-added".

I almost forgot ... the "pun". When I had the idea for this texture, I didn't relish the thought of drawing in all those filaments one at a time. Then I remembered some computer generated graphics that illustrated the filamentary structure of the universe. A short internet search, some appropriate processing on my part and "Voila!", one Universal Diesel Smoke texture and a very bad joke.

 UniversalDieselSmoke.zip (451.21K)
Number of downloads: 612

[Huecuvoe]

It's been a couple of weeks and there have been a few downloads. I may regret asking, but if you tried the UDS, what did you think?

[espee]

I love it, a vast improvement on whatever I had before :D

Here's a shot of a San Joaquin Daylight on 3DTS Tehachapi Pass route using mostly BLW Daylight Set stuff and some scratchbuilt Heavyweight SP Headend cars.

Open Rails at last allowing the full 8 exhausts for the E7B's...

Thankyou very much for sharing :sign_thanks:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~espee/Open Rails 2017-06-02 07-59-49.jpg

[ebnertra000]

I used it, too. I do like it, but I'm still kind of torn between it and the 3dtrains version. It looks a little blotchy in OR, but I suppose that could be chalked up to heat distortion. Not sure what I'll go with in the end since they're both quite good, at least to my eye

[hiball3985]

I use it also in MSTS, very nice. As an experiment I used ( borrowed ) your alpha channel with just a slight modification on my steam .ace :pleasantry:

[Huecuvoe]

Thanks to everyone for their response. I'm happy that some of you are finding it interesting (if not useful).

Quote

It looks a little blotchy in OR

I haven't tried OR since a very early beta. I'm surprised that the UDS works as well as it does.

Quote

As an experiment I used ( borrowed ) your alpha channel with just a slight modification on my steam .ace

I also tried it on steam locomotives. I thought the UDS made them look too much like diesels.http://www.elvastower.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif

[Dogbert]

I like it thank you, i am using it with UK diesel loco's :thumbup3: