Need Afterburner only visible during takeoff

[Mirage4FS]

I did a search and nothing jumped out as the answer so hope I'm not asking an old question.

I'd like to have some AI fighter jets that take off with afterburner but then turn that off a little bit after takeoff so they aren't flying all over the sky with the afternburner(s) lit. I've seen how I can delay the onset of afterburner as they "taxi into position and hold". But not so that it only burns for 30 seconds or so. It might be in the xml file but I'm just not seeing it. Any help is appreciated.

[gsnde]

Frank, what you describe is the normal behavior, so I wonder how you manage to have the afterburner on all the time...
That is by the way something I am looking for since a long time.

Is that with all your aircraft? And are we talking about true AI aircraft or user aircraft here?

[Firebird]

The answer is quite simple, Frank.

All of our afterburners have this feature. The secret is timing.
You have already discovered what parm starts the effect the length of the effect is determined in the Particle section. The length of the effect is the Lifetime parm.
You have a minimum and a maximum time in secs. What you need to do is add the delay time and the length time together to see the shut off time. Each Particle section of the effect will need its own length and they may be different according to what effect you are trying to create.

Have a look at the fx_nbai_mirage_f1_ab.fx I created for Nick and you will see what I mean and you will see why some Emmiters all end together and why some last the same length of time.

I am guessing that you are trying to mod a flyable effect, if you are let me know as there is something else you need to do or FS will crash with a VB error.

[Mirage4FS]

Thanks for the replies. This is for AI taking off and coming back and particularly at night. As I think I read somewhere else here after asking the AB effect in Henry's F-16s may do what I want. Just don't want the aircraft flying patterns to look like comets. Thanks for identifying the parameters in the effects file.

[Mirage4FS]

I am guessing that you are trying to mod a flyable effect, if you are let me know as there is something else you need to do or FS will crash with a VB error.

I'm working on the AB for a BAC TSR2. Team SDB (myself and Michael Dews) is doing a "what if" scenery for RAAF Base Scherger with an AI version David Hanvey and Paul Barry made back in the Alphasim days. It was originally used in a Wattisham what if scenery Michael made for FS9. David made a specific AB and exhaust effect for that aircraft at the time that I was going to try to use rather than just sub in Henry's F-16 AB.

It hasn't caused a crash yet (FSX) but what was it you wanted to tell me since it was not originally made as an AI effect?

[Firebird]

OK basically if you use a burner from a flyable aircraft you will get a visual basic error. The reason is that a flyable aircraft was designed to run under certain conditions according to an xml gauge in the cockpit, either on or off.
There is no way to use these effects in AI aircraft so we run the effect as a light. The problem appears to be that AI system does not like lights that stop when they should be working and you get the VB error. So we have to cheat and have the effect running all the time but only shows the burner on initialisation.

This is achieved by adding a section designed by HT and Graham King, I believe.

The chances are your effect has that section but I will pm you and example so you can check. Basically if you are modding a flyable effect you need to add some code, if you are modding an AI effect then you will be OK.