i fixed it but not in the way i wanted too.
after reinstall i still had the same prob, i then took the plunge and deleted the sh3 folder in my documents and to my surprise the smoke/fire effects etc were working again.
I guess 1 of the configs had been changed and was removing the effects.
Thankfully i had only started my career 2 days ago.
If anyone has experienced this before and knows a fix for it can you please tell me incase it happens again, touch wood.
cheers.
