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THIS FILE CONTAINS ALL THE KNOWN ISSUES/FIXES FOR MY A-I JET EXHAUST FX PACKAGE I AM AWARE OF TO DATE.
PLEASE READ IT BEFORE EMAILING ME FOR ASSISTANCE :0)
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FOREMOST:
I have no control over how A-I performs in the simulator. In order to control A-I behavior it would require editing and replacing the A-I .dll files in the modules folder of the flight simulator for in which I have no access to software that will do the job. I also can not possibly test the effects with A-I aircraft at every airport in the simulator world and that being the case I thought I should mention the following:
The exhaust effect does not really *shut down* when the A-I plane descends for landing. In all my tests at 20 different airport locations around the globe, and at different ground elevations, wind and wether conditions. what I discovered early on while creating this package is that during A-I decent for landing the exhaust trail effect visually separates from the A-I aircraft engines and remains directly above the plane at about the 2500 to 4300ft level. Unless you are either following an A-I plane or are closely zoomed in on it at the exact moment it crosses the elevation threshold you cannot see the heat/exhaust traces separate from the A-I aircraft being rendered, nor would you ever know where the effect went. If you look for the exhaust trails you may find them as they will remain at 90 degrees (directly above) the aircraft in the sky at around the 2500 to 4300ft level (over the true terrain elevation) until the sim parks the plane at the terminal and shuts down the engines. I was originally not going to disclose what happens to the exhaust effect but decided it would be better to go ahead and mention this behavior because I could not possibly test this package at every single airport in the simulator and I know a lot of people eventually may notice the traces above the aircaft if they happen to be in the right place at the right moment. If for some reason the simulator displays this -or- a different A-I exhaust behavior than I have described here while it is descending and landing, you now know why.
So far I have not found any visual problem with the way it works since the FX separation happens so far way from the airport. If it were not for the sim A-I screen identification you would probably not even know there is an aircraft approaching at that distance and cannot see the exhaust/heat traces anyway. By the time the aircraft gets within solid visual range even at 4x or 6x zoom the effect is usually in the sky environment several thousand feet above the plane and well out of the zoomed view range.
Please repeat after me:
Nick cannot control what A-I does
Nick cannot control what A-I does
Nick cannot control what A-I does
...and there is no work-around for it should it behave differently than I have described here so -please- do not email me about this issue because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. :0)
Continued....
1.
You will be loose the RECOGNITION light function. The gauge file works with and activates on a preset throttle value, light type 7. Some, aircraft use [LIGHTS] effect type 7 (Recognition Light) and have a switch in the cockpit for it. If the type 7 light is being used by the model in which you wish to include/use these effects with, then not only will that light not be functional by a cockpit switch but also when the exhaust effect is activated the corresponding recognition light assigned by the model will illuminate. Unfortunately this is the only downfall to using this gauge however in my opinion itÂ’s WELL worth the trade off for the totally awesome visual A-I effects. In the past my effects took over the taxi, wing, logo AND recognition lights. This package will not interfere with any other light channel than the recognition.
Microsoft did not provide any other way that I could use to make the switching of the exhaust effects for the aircraft being flown and having A-I display the effects at the same time possible.
2.
I have tested these effects with MANY 1, 2, 3 and 4 engine aircraft, both default and 3rd party, in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 - A Century of Flight, and it functions fine. There may be other types of aircraft out there that the gauge will not function with. Aircraft that make use of certain types of .xml gauges may also render the gauge useless should conflicting programming in those gauges exist.
3.
Some planes have a large [LIGHTS] section defined in the aircraft.cfg file. Microsoft only allows 19 lights (light.0= through light.18=) to be defined and recognized by the sim. If the [LIGHTS] section of your 3rd party aircraft totals more than 19 light lines, including the new exhaust effects code lines, anything in the list greater than light.18= will NOT function. In rare cases where the light list exceeds the 19 light line limit with the new effects lines included, you must eliminate one or some of the 3rd party aircraft's lights until the last light number is light.18= in order for the effects to properly display. Any light line can be eliminated, simply choose one(s) that will not be very obvious. This issue will usually affect larger 4 engine aircraft as they tend to have more lights and it requires 4 [LIGHTS] section lines for 4 engine jets in order to apply the effects.
4.
If you are experiencing jet smoke constantly displaying at idle on the aircraft you are flying and/or you have no throttle control the problem can only be caused by 3 situations:
a. The code section in the panel configuration file is not properly edited into the file including typos, improper location, improperly numbered, has a gauge file name that does not exist or has been totally omitted.
b. The .xml gauge file itself is not located INSIDE the nn-gauges folder and/or the ENTIRE nn-gauges folder is not located INSIDE the main Flight Simulator \Gauges directory.
c. If you made edits or created a new gauge file for the aircraft having problems, the .xml gauge has been improperly edited or created.
If you are not seeing any exhaust at all on the aircraft you are flying no matter how high you throttle up the problem can only be caused by 4 situations:
a. The aircraft configuration file [LIGHTS] section is either not properly edited with the code lines including syntax and filename typos, improper location, improperly numbered or totally omitted.
b. The effects files themselves are missing from the effects folder or were not installed (or have somehow become renamed which is highly unlikely).
c. If you made edits or created a new gauge file for the aircraft having problems, the .xml gauge has been improperly edited or created.
If all the above checks out and you are still seeing none or partial effects under the proper conditions it is possible the 3rd party aircraft has an XML gauge that conflicts with the exhaust control.
ALL A-I aircraft you applied the effects to in their aircraft.cfg files should display the effects without issue unless your line edits to the [LIGHTS] section are incorrect -or- the effects files are not properly installed.
5.
I designed the gauge that controls the effects for the aircraft being flown to cover the N1 specifications for the majority of aircraft out there however if your 3rd party aircraft does not under those specifications -or- the effects are not appearing/disappearing at a proper throttle level for your aircraft and you need to tweak or create a custom gauge, please refer to the TWEAK_IT.txt file located in this package for custom gauge creation and editing.
