Contrails Pro User’s Manual Page 1

Contrails Pro User’s ManualVersion 1.03

Copyright 2009-2010 FlightSimTools.com

IntroductionContrails Pro is a module for Microsoft Flight Simulator X and Microsoft FlightSimulator 2004 that adds realistic contrails to AI aircraft.

Contrails Pro comes with its own optimized display engine, which allows displayingcontrails in unprecedented detail while keeping a low frame rate impact.

There are excellent customization options allowing you to specify the contrail length,density, dispersion, minimum altitude for contrails to appear and a few other settings.

Setting up the programDuring the installation, a ModuleInstaller window will appear offering to install the FS9and FSX modules. You should check the FS9 and FSX paths and click Install FlightSimulator module(s). This will install the modules.

To uninstall the program, use the Windows Control Panel.

In FSX, Contrails Pro installs its own model library called ContrailsProLibrary1.bgl .For the product to function correctly, it is important that you do not use this library toplace any objects in FSX.

Free demo modeWhen you download Contrails Pro but do not register it, the product runs in the freedemo mode. You will be able to test all product features for up to 10 minutes per FSsession.

To register your free demo and remove the time limit, you can either purchase the fullversion using the Flight1 wrapper (available from the product homepage), or purchase aregistration key.

To purchase using the Flight1 wrapper, download the wrapper from the product page.Start the downloaded program and enter your payment details. After processing yourpayment, the full version will be extracted and installed and a license file will be createdautomatically. No registration key is required.

If you purchase a registration key, select Addons|Contrails Pro|Register… (FSX) orModules|Contrails Pro|Register… (FS9) and enter your registration key. After that,restart Flight Simulator.

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Using Contrails ProContrails Pro adds it’s own menu to Flight Simulator. In FSX, you will see a ContrailsPro entry in the Addons menu. In FS9, it appears in the Modules menu. Note that themenu appears in the main Flight Simulator window (for example, during free flight) andnot on the opening screen.

To enable or disable contrails, select Enable in the menu. When contrails are enabled, acheck mark will appear in the menu. If you close Flight Simulator with contrails enabled,they will stay enabled the next time you start Flight Simulator.

To set contrail options, select Options in the menu. Individual options will be describedlater in this manual.

To display the user’s manual, select Manual in the menu. When Flight Simulator is notrunning, you can also display the user’s manual using the Windows Start menu.

To visit the product homepage, select Product Homepage in the menu. On the producthomepage, you can purchase a full version, download future updates and purchase otherproducts by FlightSimTools.com.

To display the version information, select About… in the menu.

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Setting contrail options

In the Options dialog box, you can set options for contrails.

Minimum contrail altitude defines the minimum altitude (AMSL) at which contrailsappear.

Maximum contrail length defines the maximum length of a contrail.

Contrail visibility radius defines the maximum visibility radius (around the useraircraft) for a contrail. If a contrail is only partially within the visibility radius, only it’sparts within the visibility radius will appear.

In FS9, it is recommended not to set the visibility radius above 40NM, because distantcontrails would appear dark gray due to the fading with the distance enforced by FS9.

Contrail density defines the density of contrails. With 100%, there is a lot of fog incontrails and they are not transparent at all. Lower values result in more transparentcontrails.

Contrail start distance defines the distance from the airplane to the start of the contrail.

Dispersion angle and width defines two angles and two maximum widths of thecontrail.

The contrail first widens at the first angle specified, until it reaches the first width. Afterthat, it widens at the second angle specified until it reaches the second (maximum) width.Following that, the width stays constant.

Draw individual contrails behind engines - enables individual contrails from engines(at the cost of a higher FPS impact). When this setting is disabled, a single contrail willappear behind the aircraft instead.

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Draw contrails behind the user aircraft - enables the contrail behind the user aircraft.You may want to disable this if you use the slew mode a lot, because the contrail willfollow the aircraft movements in the slew mode as well.

Quality of nearby/distant contrails allow to determine the detail level of contrailsdepending on their distance from the user aircraft. The texture quality determines thesmoothness of the contrail texture. Data points quality determines how close the contrailmatches the flight path. Higher quality settings result in a higher number of polygonsused to display the contrail, thus affecting the frame rate.

Enable FSX display method, when enabled, ensures that contrails do not interfere withthe display of clouds in FSX. This setting should normally be left enabled in the FSXversion.

Disable stock contrail effect allows you to control whether the stock contrail effect inFSX will be visible.

Clouds obscure contrails until… (FS9 only) - allows you to specify the user aircraftaltitude, starting with which contrails appear in front of clouds. Below this altitude,clouds always obscure contrails even if the contrails are below them. This is caused bylimitations of the FS9 clouds engine.

Hotkey for enabling/disabling contrails allows you to define a key combination youcan use instead of the Enable menu item.

Version history

Version 1.03• Contrails should no longer show through clouds in FSX.

• In FS9, a maximum altitude can be specified for clouds to obscure contrails.

• Problem with flickering textures in FS9 resolved.

Version 1.02• It is now possible to define a hotkey to enable/disable contrails.

• Option to enable/disable the default FSX contrail effect added.

• Bugfix: Minimum contrail altitude was sometimes incorrectly interpreted.

• Bugfix: The user aircraft contrail was not visible in FS9 in multiplayer mode.

• Bugfix: With AI traffic disabled, the user aircraft contrail was not visible in the FSXdisplay mode.

Version 1.01• Frame rate improved.

• Settings for contrail quality added to the Options dialog box.

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• In FSX, contrails no longer cause blue lines to appear across clouds.

Version 1.00Initial release.