HOW TO: Disable Unrealistic Heat Blur effects from Airliner Jet Engines

[VIPER883]

DISCLAIMER: TO ANYONE following this guide, I will not be responsible if you break your sim!

For all you airliner simmers out there, if you are like me, then you’ve no doubt noticed by now, just how unrealistic the jet exhaust heat blur appears in the sim. The level of distortion they create is a detriment to the visuals, especially if you have created custom wing views, and want to take some nice screenshots.

So far, I have not found a way to edit or tone down this effect, however there is a way to disable it completely- at least until someone finds a way to tone them down, or Asobo themselves improve upon them. Here is how to disable this effect in the meantime:

Go to your “official” MSFS 2020 folder. It is usually in the same location that your community folder is. The default location differs between the Steam and MS versions of the game, and also differs as some users have the directory of the official and community folders in a custom location.

Like so: Official/Steam/fs-base-effects-legacy/effects. In the effects folder, you are looking for the file called: “FX_ASOBO_HEAT_BIG.fx”

Technically, you could just rename the extension of this file from “fx” to “old” , however with Asobo’s forced updates, it is something I would not recommend, as an update may look for this file and not finding it, may cause issues.

You can however edit this file, by opening it with notepad or your editor of choice. Open the file and you should see this:

---

"[Library Effect]
Lifetime=5
Version=2.00

[Properties]
Spot=1
Tower=1
Map=1
InternalEffect=1

[InternalEffect]
Type=PARTICLE_SYSTEM
resourceName=FX_PLANE_HEAT_BIG"

---

Change all the values under the [Properies] Section from =1 to =0. ( You could leave “spot” as is, if you don’t mind the effect when outside the plane)

Then click on file in the notepad pane, and click “save” from the dropdown.

That is it! No more heat blur blobs from hell!

You’re welcome!

[CONVEEN]

I test and see no different. Can you show me what do you mean?

[VIPER883]

I don’t know how I can make it any simpler, than I have already made it.

Which aircraft have you tested? I’ve only tested this on the 320neo. I’m not sure if this mod takes effect on the other two airliners (787- 747) to be honest. Which version of the sim do you own? What drives and directories have you installed the sim onto?

The mod affects the unrealistic heat blur exhaust distortion effect from the jet engines on the airliners. I know for sure this edit works with the NEO.

If this mod/edit to the FX_ASOBO_HEAT_BIG.fx file is not working for you, it could be that:

A) It only works on the NEO, and you are testing on another airliner.

B) You cannot access the file. Maybe you have the Microsoft store version, and not the steam version of the sim, and are not given access to the file permissions, in order to make the necessary edit the the file. I cannot speak for the MS store version of the sim, as I do not have it.
Also I’ve set up my sim in a custom location. My main MSFS folder, and the Cummunity/official folders reside on my D drive, and not the %appadata% or Program files folders, as sometimes editing files in the aforementioned folders are protected by the OS.

C) You made the edit to the file, but did not click “save” in your text editor, or notepad, for the changes to take effect.

Cheers.

[TropicMouse6365]

It works, thank you!

[AnimalMarble975]

Thank you! I was just playing around with my new camera mod and found it pretty annoying when looking outside the cabin window onto the back of the wings of my A320neo… you barely could see anything since it was just a blurry mess

[CptTai]

hey , does anybody has the Asobo heat big file ? I accidently deleted it and my game is not updating anymore.

[VIPER883]

I tried to upload it here for you but the forum won’t allow fx files. But you can create this file easily, as it is nothing more than a text file, with the file extension changed to .fx

Copy and paste the text below into notepad without the quotes:

"[Library Effect]
Lifetime=5
Version=2.00

[Properties]
Spot=1
Tower=1
Map=1
InternalEffect=1

[InternalEffect]
Type=PARTICLE_SYSTEM
resourceName=FX_PLANE_HEAT_BIG"

Now name the .txt file as so and save it as an .fx file:

FX_Asobo_HEAT_BIG.fx

Please note the file is in original form. If you want to disable the heat blur, follow the instructions that I originally posted.

[VIPER883]

EDIT: This was observed ONLY on the FBW A32NX, as the FBW team have toned it down for THEIR aircraft ONLY! There are reports that it still looks terrible in say- the Asobo NEO!

Just an update for you guys:

After having the heat blurs disabled like this pretty-much since I started this thread, I was curious today if Asobo had made any changes after all this time. So I reverted the file back to default values- lo and behold, the effect has been refined considerably.

It’s still not as realistic as it should be- I’ve sat in the rear wing view window of many a jet and the blur should be constant in flight- not wavering as it does in the sim. However FBW (only) have tweaked it to the point where it is not as nearly as distracting as it once was. I have now left the file in its default state.

You can check it out for yourselves, by reverting to the default values of the file in the properties section of the “FX_ASOBO_HEAT_BIG.fx and see what you think:

[Properties]
Spot=1
Tower=1
Map=1
InternalEffect=1

[CasualClick]

Moved to #self-service:aircraft-systems