General Toggle Engine Trails (Colour or Smoke)

Devilish Dave

Devilish Dave
Dear Team,

I have been interested in the Engine colour cosmetic items, however there's one issue I am having with them, and that is the coloured smoke they leave behind.

From a science perspective, I could understand that various elements could change the colour for a combustion.
However, the smoke trail would in most cases, always be black, grey or white.

I personally don't like the coloured smoke we leave behind with these engines, and I've got ships which would looks great with a red engine, but the red line I pull is too excessive.
Therefore, I'm not asking for a change that affects everyone, but the option to keep the smoke and smokey colours, while maintaining the desired enginge colour.

Would this be possible?

I've watched many sci-fi films and oftentimes there are various colours for the combustions, but in no movie do they pull colourful lines behind them. Even in reality we can change the colours of a flame, but the smoke will not be colourful in most cases.

If it's too challenging to make this change, I'd even opt for no smoke at all, as that is also more likely if the combustion is highly efficient.
 

aRJay

aRJay
The exhaust trails not being smoke coloured had never crossed my mind as a problem, mainly because I had never considered there was anything involving combustion taking place.
 

Devilish Dave

Devilish Dave
aRJay said:
The exhaust trails not being smoke coloured had never crossed my mind as a problem, mainly because I had never considered there was anything involving combustion taking place.
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When I am in combat, and then I am greeted with my red/blue smoke, it bothers me for some reason. That's why I was hoping for an option to change that, but I understand some people like to see their own colourful smoke, which is why I am not coming at this from the perspective that it all needs to be scrapped.
 

aRJay

aRJay
Devilish Dave said:
When I am in combat, and then I am greeted with my red/blue smoke, it bothers me for some reason. That's why I was hoping for an option to change that, but I understand some people like to see their own colourful smoke, which is why I am not coming at this from the perspective that it all needs to be scrapped.
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The trails do bother me from time to time but that is the trails themselves not the colour, at least we don’t get firework sparkles coming out the exhaust and the smoke drifting up like in the old Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials.
 

Devilish Dave

Devilish Dave
aRJay said:
The trails do bother me from time to time but that is the trails themselves not the colour, at least we don’t get firework sparkles coming out the exhaust and the smoke drifting up like in the old Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials.
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That is good that we aren't getting that, but we're headed in that direction. :ROFLMAO:

I don't see where the harm is, in giving those of us who don't to draw long coloured lines, the option to just make it white.
Could be accessed from the livery page, I don't think it's that much effort.
 

Devilish Dave

Devilish Dave
Koma Pahu said:
Have you ever seen the Red Arrows?

View attachment 428319
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Pretty sure that wouldn't work in space and it's not needed in space either. You don't see these jets pulling these lines during war and if you look closely, you'll still see a fire-like flame at the exhaust of these engines. It doesn't change that, but in Elite, the engine's exhaust is changed so there's a chemical reaction involved there, and not just some dye thrown into the engine.

Ships in ED when stationary will still have a dyed engine.
The example with the jets you used, if they are taking off or taxing on the runway, their engine colour is undyed.

Or did you think they literally have special engines which permanently burn red and blue or whatever other colour they want?
 
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Devilish Dave

Devilish Dave
Koma Pahu said:
No? 🤔

“The red and blue vapour trails produced by the Red Arrows are created by injecting a mixture of 75% diesel and 25% dye into the hot exhaust from the jet engine of the Hawk aircraft, whilst the white vapour is produced by injecting diesel only.”
Source

Edit: interesting that you edited it almost immediately, the quote is different from the post I hit reply to!
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It wouldn't work in the vacuum of space, there's no atmosphere to scatter light or hold particles, so any released material would disperse instantly and not form a visible trail.

And yes I edited, because I wasn't sure how good your English is, so I rewrote it to be more comprehensible.

Edit: And once again, I'm not asking for it to be removed. I'm asking it for it to be an option for those of us who would like to even take photos while moving, without drawing lines all over the planet in the background.
 

Devilish Dave

Devilish Dave
Kzak said:
The sound is simulated by the ship's computer to give the pilot an audio indication of other ships being close or distant.
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Oh, so that must be those bangs I keep hearing when in supercruise? I always thought they're other ships entering hyperspace and found it funny how that's audible in space, but this explanation would make sense.
 

Devilish Dave

Devilish Dave
metatheurgist said:
Light and color doesn't work differently in space, except for it not being modified by atmo. 🤷‍♂️
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We were talking about the coloured vapours which jets emit during festivals.
Those won't work in space.

On Earth, smoke or dye particles in the atmosphere scatter light, making the colors visible as they reflect and refract sunlight. In space, the vacuum lacks air or other particles to scatter light effectively. If a spaceship released colored particles, the light from them wouldn't be scattered by a surrounding medium, so the colors wouldn't form a visible trail. Instead, the particles would spread out rapidly and appear faint or invisible due to the lack of interaction with light in a vacuum.#

But it isn't really about the smoke being possible or not, it's the colour that irritates me when I am flying or trying to take screenshots.
No idea why everyone so combative when someone suggests something that is scientifically accurate and also harmless.

Would it be such an emotional burden for them to not see certain players drag colourful lines behind them?
I don't get it.
 
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Dillon Fallon

Dillon Fallon
Devilish Dave said:
When I am in combat, and then I am greeted with my red/blue smoke, it bothers me for some reason. That's why I was hoping for an option to change that, but I understand some people like to see their own colourful smoke, which is why I am not coming at this from the perspective that it all needs to be scrapped.
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You can turn it off. I think there's even a hotkey option for it.

Although the whole idea of a cosmetic item is that it's clearly visible, so I can see why they'd go further than just the colour of the engine which might be difficult to spot.
 

Devilish Dave

Devilish Dave
Dillon Fallon said:
You can turn it off. I think there's even a hotkey option for it.

Although the whole idea of a cosmetic item is that it's clearly visible, so I can see why they'd go further than just the colour of the engine which might be difficult to spot.
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You are right, but that toggles everything not just the trail.
I first thought this was a solution too. :)

And yes, of course it is meant to be visible, so I really don't mind it if others enjoy the effect.
I however would have only liked for the combustion bit to be coloured, without the colourful smoke.

But if people want this fancy stuff, then so be it.
I wasn't expecting so many defenders of smoke to appear.
 

cmdr chequers

cmdr chequers
Devilish Dave said:
That is good that we aren't getting that, but we're headed in that direction. :ROFLMAO:

I don't see where the harm is, in giving those of us who don't to draw long coloured lines, the option to just make it white.
Could be accessed from the livery page, I don't think it's that much effort.
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If you deselect engine colours in the livery screen they do in fact default to white
 
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