#4460378 - 02/07/19 08:56 PM
Tracer editor instructions
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 4,859
Rotton50
3DZ / campaign designer
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3DZ / campaign designer
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 4,859
Cape Charles, Virginia, USA
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Tried out the new tracer editor.
Works great so I thought I'd document what I found.
You can set the colors for all four default guns, Light MG, Heavy MG, 20mm Cannon and 30mm Cannon.(The three new guns, Heavy Cannon, Very Heavy Cannon and Revolver cannon all use the 30MM settings, which is fine.)
Most of the colors aren't realistic but they are at least available for any player that wants some variety. I think you can mix the colors to gain more variety but I didn't try that feature. If you want lime green tracers, now's you chance.
To me the two colors that matter most are yellow and orange.
I set the light MG and the 30MM cannon to yellow and the heavy MG and 20mm cannon to orange with the idea that usually planes with mixed calibers have the Light MGs with 20mm cannons, Heavy MGs with Heavy Cannons or as in, late war German aircraft, 20mm with 30mm cannons. I know, not always true but close enough.
The fun part is you have the ability to change the tracer frequency, range and velocity.
The defaults seem to be:
Frequency - 5
I found that if you set the frequency higher than 5 you don't get tracers and more importantly, the number has to be odd, not even. If you use an even number the tracers will only show from the guns on one side of the plane.
I set the frequency to 3 and it looks good to me.
BTW, having the ability to change the tracer count is reminiscent of the choice that WWII pilots had so between this new function and the ability to set convergence you get closer to reality.
Range - 1
This one works opposite to intuition. The higher the number the shorter the range. What's particularly interesting is that if you set the range to Zero you can see the tracers drop. I haven't tried it in battle yet but it might help with leading an EA or sighting on a ground target.
Velocity - 1
I assume, the higher the number the faster the tracers fly. I didn't see a lot of difference in their movement but I did see that the higher the number the SHORTER the tracers appear. I set them to 3 and they look pretty good.
FWIW, I always though the tracers were too long in EAW so this is a nice improvement.
What I haven't tested in how this looks coming from ground AA. Hopefully the settings while flying will look OK when observing ground AA.
Overall, a very nice utility and improvement to the game.
Heck, even paranoids have enemies.
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#4460427 - 02/08/19 09:49 AM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 12,497
MrJelly
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I am not sure of the order, but it looks as though the four low-res bullet colours are 179,181,183 and 185. They are taken from a palette, but I do not know which one. If I did it would be possible to make them selectable. The high-res colours are editable. In theory 255 255 0 is yellow. 255 128 0 is orange, but what you see depends of the video display of your PC.
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4460432 - 02/08/19 10:38 AM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 718
SkyHigh
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Ireland
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I found that if I didn't enter values for the low-res bullet colours, I got an immediate screen-freeze in-game when I pulled the trigger. Once I entered values for these and saved them, along with the high-res and other values, everything worked fine. According to my TracerSet.mpf, the lo-res values are 4, 7, 7, 4 respectively, having chosen yellow for the light MG and the 30MM cannon to yellow and gold for the heavy MG and 20mm cannons.
Last edited by SkyHigh; 02/08/19 10:49 AM.
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#4460444 - 02/08/19 12:32 PM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 12,497
MrJelly
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I have just made a new version which displays the four RGB colours when you click "View" It means that you can make tests. These values give a range from red to yellow BTW I checked all of the EAW palettes that I have, but none of the colours match the values of the original low res bullet colours. They were 179, 181, 183 and 185 and in later versions they were 179, 180, 181 and 182. These number sets work if you manually enter them, but it would be nice to have a full set which can be displayed in the utility. Jel
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4460446 - 02/08/19 01:02 PM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 718
SkyHigh
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Ireland
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Surprisingly, it isn't easy to find concrete information on tracer-colour in wwii combat aircraft. I did find old footage of a machine-gun attack on a Japanese freighter which clearly showed the tracers as being a yellowy-white, so Ray seems to be on the right track. The Russians used Barium-based tracer, and this is supposed to have shown as blue or green. Apparently, colours such as red, green and blue were not uncommon during the Battle of Britain, but the most common information was discussions on the merit of the usage of tracer, in the first place. For example, it could give the game away when sneaking up from behind, or in night-time conditions. Nevertheless, they look good in a game.
I think a yellow-type colour is probably most realistic as a default; otherwise, it is more a matter of personal taste.
Update: Mr Jelly's new editor clarifies things considerably.
Last edited by SkyHigh; 02/08/19 01:04 PM.
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#4460460 - 02/08/19 02:04 PM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 12,497
MrJelly
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1. I think so, but it needs to be tested. 2-3. That's why I made the editor, because I was not sure how these values affected the outcome. Feedback from people trying the utility will be most welcome. This is V2: TracerEditorV2
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4460474 - 02/08/19 03:41 PM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 4,859
Rotton50
3DZ / campaign designer
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3DZ / campaign designer
Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 4,859
Cape Charles, Virginia, USA
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I would think from your expertise with the exec, you must know what the available ranges are even if you don't know all of the effects.
Edit - I checked the light AA and it does indeed have the same color tracers as the planes as well as the other functions. With my settings I see shorter, more numerous tracers and possibly even the bullet drop but that's hard to tell from the cockpit.
Last edited by Rotton50; 02/08/19 04:51 PM.
Heck, even paranoids have enemies.
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#4460598 - 02/09/19 04:11 PM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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MrJelly
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They are denominators and you cannot divide by zero. A value in the exe is divided by the number. With the old bitwise shift it was divided by the power of two, so it was divided by 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, ..... etc
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4460610 - 02/09/19 05:21 PM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 12,497
MrJelly
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One thing at a time as I am flat out doing all sorts of things With the old bitwise shift it was divided by the power of two, so it was divided by 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, ..... etc I was explaining your CTD. In the original source code if the speed denominator = 0 then after the speed was calculated it was divided by 2° so it was divided by 1 and remained the same. In the new code it is divided by the speed denominator, and if the speed denominator = 0 then you get a CTD because you cannot divide by zero. I prefer the new code because you can divide by numbers which are not powers of 2. I will change the code in the utility so that the number in the last three boxes must be a minimum of 1 and that will fix the problem.
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4460689 - 02/10/19 08:42 AM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 12,497
MrJelly
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I have a Version 3 which makes the minimum values 1, and also loads the existing values if there is a "TracerSet.mpf" in the root folder. During tests I got a bit suspicious. When I checked the exe I found that the routine using the duration value was still in the old "bitwise shift" format and the value was not a divisor. So I recompiled the exe. I ran these tests in low res with the frequency set to 1 so I could see more tracers: Duration 1 and velocity 1 Th tracers are clear in the distance and you cab see their paths Duration 15 and velocity 1 You can just see a red cannon flare, but you cannot see the paths of the tracers Velocity 1 and duration 1 A long flare Velocity 30 and duration 1 A much shorter flare So now we know the effects of these values The length of the flare is divided by the velocity. Duration really affects what you can see when you fire the guns. I can see no advantage in reducing it and I will keep mine at "1". I found that if the duration is more that 16 you do not see any machine gun tracers at all. The bullets still work. I will make a patch with the new exes and the new TracerSet editor February 10th update Run the "Patch10Feb2019.exe" in your 160 folder
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4460709 - 02/10/19 12:06 PM
Re: Tracer editor instructions
[Re: Rotton50]
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 12,497
MrJelly
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Low-res tracers are just a line and the colour is the low-res bullet colour set in the first part. High-res tracers are a bullet whose colour is the low-res bullet colour, followed by a flare whose colour is the RGB triplet in the second part. I just did an experiment where the frequency was 1, but the velocity was 20. I saw lots of short tracers. The orange and red are cannon and the green is machine gun fire mainly from the B17s BTW I have just found the cause of the intermittent B17 CTD with large numbers of planes and detail level high so that contrails are on. It was one value in a routine I had modified to try to get the best effect for the Me163 smoke trail. I just tried it with the Me163 and the smoke trail is fine I have replaced today's patch with one which has the B17CTD fixed exes. It has the same name February 10th update BTW have you tried my standalone SPAW folder yet?
Last edited by MrJelly; 02/10/19 01:43 PM.
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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