Environment Wind/Storm/Dust/Fog via rocket-engines, how exactly is that working?

So several levels got this nice dust clouds passing by in the background or this stormy wind created by Rocket-engines.
I am currently working on a level where you start in a airplane and I would need this clouds of the Rocket engine passing by to sell the moving of the airplane through the clouds.
This is going to be my 6th level for online release, so I am not totaly unexperianced. I might even say I am a quite good Creator. But I NEVER managed to get this wind effect working. As soon as the Rocket-engine is outside the screen, the smoke won't be emitted anymore. I also tried with the MGS rocket projectile, no succes.
I found one crappy "tutorial" online but it just said "Use rockets!". Well yeah, thats obvious but does not work.
Do I need to spawn or move the rocket?
Do I need a exact value for the "boost power"?
Shall there be any specific Matter attached to the Rocket?
Do I need to "see" the rocket first and then move it out of he screen?
I tried sveral things but it won't work for me D:

Any help is much appreciated


PSN ID: The5Brotherhood

hmm...im not totally good with weather effects but you could try placing a wall of matierial suspended in the air with dark matter and them make the clouds look how you want, put the rocket on them with low power and hide it on the cloud. then as the plane "passes by" there could be some clouds attatched to the wall on moveing pistons. and any other cloud along the line that passes the plane is atuck on by static pistons....

maybe something like this diagram?

http://img137.imageshack.us/f/moving...littlebig.png/

and maybe the further back the layer the clouds are on the slower they move along...and the closer they are they tad faster they move

Nice idea there, thanks!
Though, that rocket-engine-smoke method MUST work somehow. I see it often in all kinds of levels but I never see the rocket itself, so I doubt it is inside the screen boundaries all the time. Search for "wind dust tutorial" there is one (nooby made it appears to me) but it does not explain anything, just shows the result :(

I would like to place a rocket-engine anywhere in my level, do the secret trick that I lack of ATM and then the engine spews it's clouds all over my level giving it that nice stormy clouds passing by.

To make:

1. Attach DM to rocket

2. Set rocket to full power and turn it on

3. Make it really big and hide out of view

That simple

- placed a piece of dark matter (small raster 8 high 1 with)
- selected the rocket, turned power to max, switched it on, resized it to approximately the size of the dark matter block and attacked it to the Dark Matter
- selectd the new pice and scaled up enormously! (1/3) of levles heigh
- palced the thing outside of the screen boundarys (the smoke is now emitted verry high above my sackboy, soI created a platform up there)

Result: nothing, no smoke at all

I tried various different sizes before, that whole procedure was actualy the first thing I tried.

I might be just to stupid to do something obvious. Add me to your freinds and show me how it is done. Just something realy step by step D:

This happens to me sometimes. I resize it, full blast, turn it on, and nothing happens. This is probably something to do with rendering, or the fact that you are probably in hover mode or something. Perhaps activating them by switch might work?
Or changing to play mode to see if they work like they're supposed to. Sometimes, the smoke effect doesn't happen at all for me, so it's best to just try it out first.

I always test this in play mode, in edit I works now and then, but not in play mode.
I am tryign it since some hours now and also tried it in different levels on my moon, just in case the whole level is corrupted.
The thign with activating the rocket just when the palyer enters the level won't work either.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The5

Do I need to "see" the rocket first and then move it out of he screen?

---

It seems to be this.

Code:

---

>)  = rocket
A  = sackboy spawns here
[]  = screen borders

---

Code:

---

I spwan in my level, this is the starting situation
    [  A    ] >)
no smoke is emmitted

---

but you people say that method above works

Here is what I tried

Code:

---

I spwan in my level
    [  A  >)]
I see the smoke
then move the rocket out of the screen with a stiff piston
    [  A    ] >)
still see the smoke
I can even move it away more as long as the piston moves slowly
    [  A    ]              >)
still see the smoke

---

So it seems you need to see the rocket first and see the smoke comign out (so the PS3 feels necesary to draw the smoke) and then you can move it away.

Now the confusing part is:
Noone of you told me that so far, what makes me doubt that this realy is the problem.
You all managet to get smoke without the rocket ever beeing visible? How that?

EDIT:
Little information for you, my plane is (obviously) in the sky, so I can't hide the rocket behind anything.
Moving the rocket away when sackboy spawns in the level is a sollution, but the rocket would still be visible for a short time, which I don't like to have.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The5

Moving the rocket away when sackboy spawns in the level is a sollution, but the rocket would still be visible for a short time, which I don't like to have.

---

If you lethalise the rocket as gas, you can hide it in a wall.

Didn't know that was possible o_O Thanks!
How do you guys normaly do this effect? I am still not shure if my method is THE method people use or jsut some unneccesary "complicated" variant :/

I haven't used this effect myself, but it seems to me that when people do it, they have the rocket just barely offscreen. Maybe the problem is that you're putting it too far away? You might try gassing it and attaching it to the plane itself with a stiff rod so that it's exactly the right distance away, but it never gets close enough to see, even if the plane moves.