[Question] Smoke on Kashan and other maps.

[Pronck]

Everyone must have seen them, the huge smoke clouds on Kashan Desert creating a sky filled with thick black smoke. What I am interested in , is if they "block" any thermal activity below it. So if you stay under these clouds, will you stay invisible from the thermal cameras when the enemy helicopters are flying at a high altitude or above you.

Do you guys know it? Am I invisible under these smoke clouds with my tank?

[Pvt.LHeureux]

I think so, I think it acts like the smoke effects when something explode. When you destroy a tank or shoot rockets with your chopper you don't see through the smoke you just made (explosion effects) when in thermals, so maybe it count as the same..?

[Rhino]

probably the best way to find out would be to load up and try yourself as I don't think anyone can give you a definitive answer

[Pvt.LHeureux]

Yeah go on in co-op, place a tank under one then go back to base and get a chopper and see for yourself

[CopyCat]

False, black smoke is same smoke as handheld smoke shells. (I think) Due to unable to do or either didn't bother DEVs didn't do anything special about the smokes coming out of burning oil rigs. You'll be visual on thermals from above by UAV, Choppers or even jets without thermals.

/CC

[PricelineNegotiator]

I know that if you hit another tank with HE or AP, a smoke cloud sometimes goes up at the other tank and you aren't able to see where to put the second round.

[SShadowFox]

CopyCat is right, if you get a tank, activate the thermal and look to the skies, you'll see a clear sky like you've never seen before.

[Sniperdog]

This is a tricky question. Clouds in the skydome (a part of the engine) will not be visible. Clouds that are static objects (for example the clouds you can pass through on Kashan) will not be affected. Additionally the only effects that are explicitly disabled and thus not visible are smoke grenades. You can see a full overview of how the settings are changed in:

common_server.zip\TR_Scripts\tis\tis_on.con

You can see there where the skydome clouds are disabled:

skydome.hasCloudLayer 0
skydome.hasCloudLayer2 0
Skydome.skyTexture common\textures\sky\tis_sky

and where all the smoke grenade effects get set to:

ObjectTemplate.transparencyGraph 0/0/0/0