More realistic smoke and fire effects mod by Stonehouse.

[Stonehouse]

1 hour ago, Stonehouse said:

Don't think there are CTDs hidden in this one but can't be absolutely sure. They seem to have been related to me trying to tweak the fires themselves. Anyway, see if this seems better. Reworked the petrol tank fire smoke too.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qb8z4xk6gv4nic7/mp_effects_-_WIP.zip/file

Noticed an issue. Uploaded fix. please get it again.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qb8z4xk6gv4nic7/mp_effects_-_WIP.zip/file

[Mysticpuma]

4 hours ago, Stonehouse said:

Noticed an issue. Uploaded fix. please get it again.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qb8z4xk6gv4nic7/mp_effects_-_WIP.zip/file

Thank you, I wont get a chance to try this until tomorrow but I look forward to it and your continued efforts. Cheers, MP

[Stonehouse]

Effects WIP with full suite of other mods in play as well 

 

Edited February 6 by Stonehouse

[Redeye]

I'll give it a shot in my Stuka career. Will report.

[Redeye]

Hi @Stonehouse have run two career missions and did not run into an issue. So all good so far.

[Mysticpuma]

On 2/6/2026 at 10:53 AM, Stonehouse said:

Effects WIP with full suite of other mods in play as well 

 

Didn't get a chance today... crossing fingers for tomorrow 🤞👍

[Mysticpuma]

Well I took it for a spin last night and.....I'm on the fence in regards to the smoke. It looks like a sheet of fog, almost like a comet tail rather than textured smoke.

I did record a track which I'll continue to use for reference as it contains some really good fire, vapour, smoke all in one track. I won't get a chance to try this again until Wednesday but I'll share some screenshots from vanilla, previous mod effects and the latest version.

 

I do appreciate your continued efforts with this though 👍

[Stonehouse]

6 hours ago, Mysticpuma said:

Well I took it for a spin last night and.....I'm on the fence in regards to the smoke. It looks like a sheet of fog, almost like a comet tail rather than textured smoke.

I did record a track which I'll continue to use for reference as it contains some really good fire, vapour, smoke all in one track. I won't get a chance to try this again until Wednesday but I'll share some screenshots from vanilla, previous mod effects and the latest version.

 

I do appreciate your continued efforts with this though 👍

If you can upload the track that would be useful as then I can see what you are seeing and use it as a baseline. Which smoke do you refer to as well? Remember engine fires and tank fires are completely separate in regard to effects. Each has its own epl file.

Edited February 8 by Stonehouse

[Mysticpuma]

2 hours ago, Stonehouse said:

If you can upload the track that would be useful as then I can see what you are seeing and use it as a baseline. Which smoke do you refer to as well? Remember engine fires and tank fires are completely separate in regard to effects. Each has its own epl file.

Yep, understand, when I get back to my PC I'll upload the trk file.

[Stonehouse]

49 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

I'll upload the trk file

Reminder in case you forget that it is the trk plus the corresponding folder (name will match trk file name) and contents of folder.

[Mysticpuma]

11 hours ago, Stonehouse said:

Reminder in case you forget that it is the trk plus the corresponding folder (name will match trk file name) and contents of folder.

Here's the smoke/flame trk file (and folder)

Good fire moke trk.rar

[Mysticpuma]

So playing around with the current modded version and the new modded version, the initial length of the trail of vapour is significantly better in the new version.

Current version

These are all from the current version 

[Mysticpuma]

These are from the new WiP version 

[Mysticpuma]

What I have noticed is some of the effects are very dependent on the camera angle, with dark smoke vanishing and leaving just the white smoke only...I think this is beyond your control and is a game engine issue, but while looking at the track something struck me which made me wonder if it is possible to do.

You mentioned that the game uses (or reuses) some effects, which can cause issues, but this intrigued me.

So looking at this image from the old version

And this image from the new version 

Those two images are more than enough to represent a catastrophic fire which will bring the aircraft down (when you watch the trk file you'll see it finally explodes).

These effects below are (to me) ridiculously over the top to me

And while I appreciate that really is catastrophic, it feels like it's done just for the sake of it rather than realistic. Most fires end up like this in BoX.

I compare them to IL2 Cliffs of Dover, which to me, has the most realistic or best implementation of smoke and fire effects like this for an engine/wing fire.

But, returning to the new WiP effects, these two images really make me think that the effects are there but need to be manipulated (by someone like you? 🙏🤞)

[Mysticpuma]

My question regarding the last two images; Is it possible to just use those two effects for the fire and smoke for all damage to the aircraft? So replace these effects 

(Effectively delete these being used) and replace all the fire and smoke effects with just this one set of effects 

So all the catastrophic effects which looks over the top, are reduced to just this effect, which would be subdued and produce that type of smoke and vapour, no matter what the damage?

I hope I have explained that well enough?

I think these look much more natural.

[Stonehouse]

5 hours ago, Mysticpuma said:

My question regarding the last two images; Is it possible to just use those two effects for the fire and smoke for all damage to the aircraft? So replace these effects 

(Effectively delete these being used) and replace all the fire and smoke effects with just this one set of effects 

So all the catastrophic effects which looks over the top, are reduced to just this effect, which would be subdued and produce that type of smoke and vapour, no matter what the damage?

I hope I have explained that well enough?

I think these look much more natural.

So the first pic is two fuel tank fires. Off the top of my head I don't recall but assume the Ju52 had two inner tanks between engine and wing root and some outer tanks (because I have seen fuel tank fires out near the ailerons). 

Based on a game level file I can say there are 4 separate fuel tank fire effect instances for prop aircraft. Each with a specific argument. I think the game level file is just a reference rather than a control file but could be wrong on this and will have to try a few experiments.

One quick thing I can try is to clone the engine fire epl and name it the same as the fuel tank fire epl. Note while this was ok for your track it did seem to cause CTDs when I fiddled with these epl's previously.

You get the following results, note that there is no change to the width and shape of the smoke plume and you still get the fan shaped trail rather than the more linear engine fire smoke. I believe this is set in the 3d model somewhere, essentially parameters passed from the model to the epl file. Therefore, I don't think I can do much in that regard.

Not sure if I can do anything to the smoke colour which I think is wrong for a pure fuel fire, I believe I would need to hex edit the epl file and assign new textures. This definitely seemed to cause CTDs previously so while I can try can't guarantee anything.

Yes agree with your comment re the angle from viewer to smoke changes the colour of the smoke. Believe it is something in the graphics engine and outside my control but hacking around things like this means you can't be sure of anything really.

[Stonehouse]

@Mysticpuma

I've been looking around at old real life pics and video footage trying to reconfirm the colour of the smoke and see what the fire size is for a wing fire. Particularly large bombers. Generally it seems like the wing fires (not engine fires) should be fairly large but not with dark smoke. See here for an example of sort of things I am seeing.

 

[Mysticpuma]

47 minutes ago, Stonehouse said:

@Mysticpuma

I've been looking around at old real life pics and video footage trying to reconfirm the colour of the smoke and see what the fire size is for a wing fire. Particularly large bombers. Generally it seems like the wing fires (not engine fires) should be fairly large but not with dark smoke. See here for an example of sort of things I am seeing.

 

I can't disagree with your findings. Maybe it the smoke effects that is the main issue then?

Maybe it could be that it lacks texture or the visual representation of realism? The large flat, textureless smoke, just a flat featureless effect?

 

[Stonehouse]

32 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

The large flat, textureless smoke, just a flat featureless effect

I can only try to improve it. No sure if anything will come out of it sorry.

[MajorMagee]

One other thing I've seen in personal accounts by escaping crew is that the oxygen system seemed to be a frequent source of raging fires in the fuselage.

[Stonehouse]

19 hours ago, MajorMagee said:

One other thing I've seen in personal accounts by escaping crew is that the oxygen system seemed to be a frequent source of raging fires in the fuselage.

Different epl to the ones I am looking at but I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't share some of the effects textures.

[Stonehouse]

Give this version a crack and see what you think, if it turns out you think it is fine I will tidy it up and stick it under the other smoke and fire mod thread and maintain it.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qb8z4xk6gv4nic7/mp_effects_-_WIP.zip/file

Edited February 13 by Stonehouse

[Mysticpuma]

On 2/13/2026 at 3:49 AM, Stonehouse said:

Give this version a crack and see what you think, if it turns out you think it is fine I will tidy it up and stick it under the other smoke and fire mod thread and maintain it.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qb8z4xk6gv4nic7/mp_effects_-_WIP.zip/file

Look forward to it. Can't try until Tuesday morning though...will be in touch 👍

[Mysticpuma]

On 2/13/2026 at 3:49 AM, Stonehouse said:

Give this version a crack and see what you think, if it turns out you think it is fine I will tidy it up and stick it under the other smoke and fire mod thread and maintain it.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/qb8z4xk6gv4nic7/mp_effects_-_WIP.zip/file

Hi @Stonehouse had a chance to run the files this morning. 

I think the fire texture is more detailed and richer in colour than the previous WiP:

Although I still 'hate' how large that fireball is...guess that's just a 'me' thing...

What I spotted, which I find puzzling, is the engine exhaust trail length of the P-38 compared to the smoke trail length of the Ju-52

Is there a way of lengthening the Ju-52 trail of smoke (but reducing the width....so same particle count but longer rather than wider?) The length of the P-38 smoke looks pretty good, but compared to a smoke trail from the fire, the fire looks odd against it?

[Mysticpuma]

I wonder if something close to this is possible (engine/fuel tank on fire) 

I used Ai to generate the result...maybe an evening longer smoke trail but the fire looks perfect?