After some tests I found the actual particle effect that comes from the smoker (see spoilers below), and I've now discovered that the smoke cloud animation itself is a timed effect - it displays for about 15 seconds before it finally dissipates (I had to use a
particles plugin to find the actual smoker FX), and now after my tests I don't think a timer would have evaporated the smoke cloud quickly anyway.
So the next best thing would be to disable it completely. I found a 'vpk' from L4D2 [
link here] that can disable the smoke effect. I reckon if this can be done using a 'vpk' addon client-side, then it must be possible for this to work in Sourcemod server-side for L4D1 as well. In the server's 'particles' folder I found the file "particles_manifest.txt" with its "!particles/smoker_fx.pcf" - and I found the actual particles FX for the smoker at this [
link here].
"particles_manifest.txt" below:
And within "
!particles/smoker_fx.pcf" - I found two FX that should disable it. It's "smoker_smokecloud" and "smoker_smokecloud_cheap" - " also shown below:
I'm hoping that the above extra information I've provided will give some kind coder here some clues to help create a plugin to disable the smoker's cloud - instead of using a timer?
Sunyata
.