Version: 1.XX.XX.X
Frequency: Consistently
Severity: Blocker
(Low - quality of life, workflow optimization, rare enough to not impact production, etc…
High - critical but workarounds are available, important feature not working as expected, frequent enough to impact production
Blocker - prevents from working on the project, prevents from releasing the product)
Context: Earth FX in community folder.
Similar MSFS 2020 issue: No issue in 2020
Bug description: I have created many custom smokes and fires using either Fixed Axis or FaceCamera. Those options are gone and replaced with spherical and cylindrical which does not behave the same.
Repro steps:
Attachments:
2020:
2020:
2024:
Private attachments: Send a PM to @PrivateContent with the link to this topic and the link to download your content
Edit:
I had to extensively edit most Visual Effects values to get them working correctly. Strangely, previously effective x and y coordinates (ranging from 5 to -5 for a random value) now require drastically different values (300 and -300). This significant change in coding parameters seems illogical.
Many other values had to be changed.
Curious if this is similar to what you are seeing with your fire VFX as well?
I haven’t been able to get into the Effects Editor to debug any. Have got a CTD every time I try to use it. But this effect uses FaceCamera as well.
This effect is broke like this when using the 2020 package in 24, as well as in a native 24 package. Though, the effect XML itself is still 2020 either way.
How it looks in 2020:
This is the node structure I use to control the spacing of the sparks in 2020:
Yes, the effects are broken. The random values don’t work as it should. I had to increase mine, both x and y, from 5 to 300 or sometimes 600 to get almost close to what it looks somewhat descent. I am still playing with other values to see what works best.
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Hello Bijan,
We need more information in order to repro the bugs you have encountered.
Did ALL your effects have issues, or only the ones using FixedAxis ?
How are your VFXs spawned in the world ? What kind of objects are they attached to ?
Can you show some of your VFX graphs and how the effect behaves in 2024 compared to 2020, highlighting the changes you had to make ? (you can pm @PrivateContent with the link to this topic and the link to download your content if you do not want it to be shown publicly)
Also, were you able to repro the bug with relatively simple VFXs ? (Building them in 2020 and spawning them in 2024 with issues)
Regards,
Matthieu
Hello Matthieu,
Thank you for writing back.
I have created multiple giant Volcano ash clouds.
They are not attached to any object as they are just placed on crater of volcanoes.
The base are just smokes but with added many variable and textures and mathematics.
I did, however able to redo and change all settings so it would work but still not as good as how it looked in 2020 version.
Please see attached for 2020 and 2024 version showing the settings which replaced facecamera.
I will send the graph privately.
Thank you
Bijan
After fixing in 2024: (This is how it should behave)
It looks stretched in 2024:
And it looks like this with spherical. Gravity gets disabled.
Stretched again with another setting in 2024.
Other examples of how they are suppose to look with my other volcanoes in 2020:
Hello again,
I assume your VFXs were placed within sceneries. Were the VFX objects scaled or rotated ? Are there other objects within the scenery ?
The changes between the 3 screenshots labelled “2024” are purely from selecting different QuadOrientationType values after you’ve already fixed other issues if I understand correctly ?
What would be most helpful to us is your sending your unmodified 2020 package sources to @PrivateContent
Regards,
Matthieu
Hello,
They were not scaled. Yes there are other objects in the scenery but not connected to it.
Yes to this question: The changes between the 3 screenshots labelled “2024” are purely from selecting different QuadOrientationType values after you’ve already fixed other issues if I understand correctly ?
Yes
Unmodified 2020 package sources sent.
Thank you
Hello Bijan,
Looking at your package I can see a color difference like reported here and some issues with materials but the general shape of the ash cloud seems identical.
Did you experience issues with your VFXs at every location ?
Regards,
Matthieu
Something has changed. Mine looks good now as well. But on previous build it was different and odd looking (previous screenshots I sent). Now I just have to figure out the missing glowing material that is not showing.
Thank you for taking the time to look into this.
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Good news 
I will mark this post as fixed as the remaining issues have been reported elsewhere already and were not the focus of your post.
Regards,
Matthieu
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