I'm Interested on what factors go into afterburner color. I've seen many sources say that its due to the stochiometric air to fuel ratio, but it cant be that factor alone, since you can see the same planes with different afterburner colors in different pictures. here are some examples:
I think it is mostly due to varied lighting/photography. In particular, time of day seems to have a big impact on the color. You might be able to add color changing afterburners in SP by using activation groups and different colored engines, though I am not sure how to control them based on the in game time, or if that is even possible.
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Does anyone know what other factors might go into afterburner color, or if there is a way to implement it to SP?
IIRC it involves the temperature, and can involve the quality of the fuel. I've heard that either low quality fuel, inferior engines, or both leads to the Tu-160 having blue afterburners. Idk if that's true or not, though.