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Removing or minimizing prop strobe effect?

J

jfrench

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us-california
Hi,

As "prop strobing" is an artifact which is produced when a recording is made and not what normally would be perceived by the eye, I would like to remove or minimize this effect as much as possible from existing aircraft simulations.
Is this possible? If so any suggestions as to how this could be done would be greatly appreciated.

Jim F.
 
Get hold of the prop disc texture, load it in DXTBmp, edit the alpha channel so that it becomes almost uniformly dark grey, strongly downtoning any lighter colored blurred blade representation. In DxtBmp click Image > reload after editing. Save. Done. Your screenies won't look good though.
 
It's also an artifact of a sim running on a display system with a discrete frame display interval. A display running at many hundred Hz frame rate might help, but I think the hardware is some way off mainstream yet. :(
 
Hi,

Here's the image in DXTBmp:

379propblur.jpg


I've tried replacing the alpha channel with either black or very dark gray and replacing the existing alpha channel. Any change to the strobing effect was minimal.

I've just been using Paint. Any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong? General guidance just doesn't seem to be doing it for me.

Jim F.
 
This is Before or after? If after re-read my post above. For testing purposes, make the the alpha uniformly 15,15,15 and bingo no strobing...but nothing to write home about either. I'd be massively surprised if you liked what you see.
 
Hi,

I'm really pleased! I really thought I had followed that exact (almost) procedure before without much noticeable change.
I created a new alpha channel (black), sent the alpha to the editor (paint); defined a custom color only changing the R, G, and B to 15; filled; saved; returned to DxtBmp; refreshed the alpha and saved as a DXT3 bmp.
Perhaps my satisfaction requires a bit of explanation. Once I realized that the strobing effect was nothing the eye would normally perceive but a cool effect it became increasingly annoying. Every time a stopped or slowly rotating prop blur image came into view I tended to focus on it and it became a real distraction.
Thanks very much I really appreciate your help!

Jim F.
 
Hi,

I wasn't finished! I hit submit when I intended to hit preview.

Here's the before image:
166with_plur.jpg


And here's the after:
331blur_removed.jpg


It's no longer necessary to answer your question but that was the "before" image. (just in case someone is as confused as I normally am).

And actually I'm "massively" pleased!

Jim F.
 
Customer satisfaction, that's the main thing.

BTW ...

"Stopped" prop discs can be avoided, in FS9, by adding the line prop_anim_ratio=0.99 to all fltsim sections in the aircraft.cfg. In FSX this shouldn't happen.

I understand that strobing is most often (and spectacularly) caused by shutter speeds or flickering lighting. Still I am wondering whether strobing cannot also occur for ordinary eyes in natural environmental conditions. Birds seem to be able to see and react on it and rumor has it that prop blades and spinners are painted in colored sections precisely so that props don't appear as transparent and motionless discs, to birds and humans alike. Possibly an urban legend ...

My main problem with prop discs as a modeler is that I cannot make them look convincing in exterior side view, try as I might. And the more transparent you make them the worse it gets.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
What got me started on this yesterday was a "prop_anim_ratio" incorrectly located in an aircraft.cfg file. I think. I found it in the General section. I decided to see what it did. On the freeware CLS Piper Arrow, I set it to zero and the prop disappeared! I thought I was on to something but apparently this was a unique situation. I've had varying success following the procedure you outlined on some other aircraft. Don't go away. I really wish I knew what I was doing.
I think there are cases where the strobing effect does appear in nature. Well sort of. I recall hearing a situation where a truck wheel appeared to move backwards. It had something to do with reflections off the lug nuts.
 
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