Registered: Mar 2003
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Posts: 31

Well ... things are starting to fall into place a bit more for me, but I have run into some snags that I can't seem to find a cause for!!!

I have got the basics of a system for building the mesh in something other than Truespace, and building a POF that works in game ( Hooray )

I use AC3D to build the mesh, then exporting the result as a .OBJ file. This avoids the problem I had with the 3DS export triangulating EVERYTHING!

Map it in AC3D, then correct the texture refs and materials in Lithunwrap. This utility also does an excellent COB format conversion!

next, in TS3.2, build up the required model format, and scale it etc. ( This could well be where I messed it up... )

Finally, using the latest PCS, add in gunpoints etc.

Here's the snag ...

The model works fine in game, but I have no engine glows! I also have some odd messy effects which may be down to how I made the mesh! I need someone who knows this stuff to have a little look at it and tell me where I went wrong !!!!

can anyone help!

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Registered: Jul 2001
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Are you talking about thrusters (as in fighters and bombers) or engine glows (as in honking great big capships) here?

Engine glows are pretty easy really and unless you`re putting them in the wrong place I can`t really see what you`re doing wrong.

Oh and you know what they say about a picture being worth a thousend words

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Last edited by karajorma on 04-06-2003 at 03:13 PM

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This is definitely a fighter! .... and I would post a pic... but I have no webspace that allows me to link images

I guess I mean thrusters...

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Well .... made some progress by trial and error ....

I now have engines that glow, and afterburners showing up as they ought to, with a bug plume of engine flame ...

Trouble is, my engine glows are inthe wrong place!!!

I carefully aligned the lights in TS3.2 so they sat at the rear end of the nacelles, and were named EngGlow01, 02 and 03. PCS auto gen created 3 nice engine glows , aligned almost exactly where I wanted them, only too far forward! They are sat in the middle of the nacelles!!!

IS there any way to control WHERE the engine glow effects appear ? I thought it appeared where you placed the loclight in TS ... but this isn't happeneing

I tried moving the lights in TS3, but the glows always appear inthe wrong place .... I can send anyone a pic of the problem if that will help.

any ideas?

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Registered: Jul 2001
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You can use PCS (or modelview V1 Beta 5 for that matter) to move the engine glows once you`ve converted if they aren`t in the correct place. (I`m not certain about Aurora but that probably works too).

Your names for the engine glows sound wrong BTW. I thought it was supposed to be EngGlow01-01 to EngGlow01-03 unless you`ve got more than one engine subsystem.

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Questions about FS3? Questions about Fred? Questions about missions? Questions about adding new ships to your games?

[URL=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/karajorma/freespace/intro.html]Karajorma's Freespace FAQ [/URL] (now with added GE goodness)

Supreme Overlord of The Mercury Affair Campaign.

FREDder, Modder, Story design and general busybody for [URL=http://www.3dap.com/hlp/hosted/mindgames/Background.html] Mind Games[/URL]

Last edited by karajorma on 04-07-2003 at 10:09 PM

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Registered: Mar 2003
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Thanks for the tip ... I'll give it a try!

p.s. IF a picture is worth a thousand words... her ( hopefully ) is 2000 words worth!!! ... wither that or 2 little red crosses ....

http://shadowpuppet99.bravepages.com/home.html

additional: I changed the engine lights name in TS, and it DID make a difference ... before, I had 3 thruster groups, and nothing inthe glow points section. Now I got one group of thrusters with 3 glow points. Definitely better .... but the glows are still wrong .. when I view hte model in the Viewer, I can see the positions for the engines is where it should be ... just not in game!

Last edited by ShadowPuppet on 04-07-2003 at 10:41 PM

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Z'ha'dum
Posts: 1402

why is the exhaust halfway up the ship? It looks pretty cool that way, and would look better if it were centerd better around those pipes.

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Registered: Jun 2001
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Edwin, where did you learn to read?

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Transylvania, ROMANIA
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Galactica hmmmmm....Ian you got a fan here comme quick until it is not dead

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Revealed on a need to know basis... And you don't need to know...
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Yeap, Battlestar Galactica...

was watching that show at 4 am... when I was working evenings, I was keeping my self awake till 6 or 8 am, then start again at 4h30 pm.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: Z'ha'dum
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quote:

---

Originally posted by Xaphod_x
Edwin, where did you learn to read?

---

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"If you go to Z'ha'dum you will die"
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Registered: Mar 2003
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Nearing Insanity point ....

I have looked at the way I have built up the engines, and I suspect that is where I am going wrong... just not sure how to put it right!

In short...

I have got the main 'ship' as a single object, mapped to a couple of textures. The big 'plumes' are a single subobject, which had 3 light objects named EngGlow01-01,02 and 03.

The 'plumes' were mapped to a texture called thrusterglow01.

Looking at stock models, I can see they use thruster01 instead. This, when I look at in in the VPView is an 'ani' file. Trouble is, when I try to extract it, it crashes VPView.

I also noted that the stock models use the same physical mesh for the ordinary engine glow and the afterburner ..it just changes colour.

So.... if I mapped my 'plumes' to thruster01 ( how do I do this? just change the name in PCS? ) is that correct?

That being the case... what is appearing when the afterburners are off? There is no model part sitting where the blue glow is!

If I knew WHAt made them... I could move them to where they were hidden, and get a much better afterburner effect for a Viper... HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPP !!!

I am so near to getting this sorted, if I can only make sense of this!!!!

p.s. I have been documenting EXACTLY the steps I went through to do this, and will be ( hopefully) making this available

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: UK
Posts: 1185

ShadowPuppet. I have BSG things. My ICQ # is 29118701.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States
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lemme see that model's .cob i'll see if i can fix it (and yes ytou can change the texture name in PCS)

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Registered: Jan 2001
Location: UK
Posts: 1185

Ok. What have you done with the real Kazan!?

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bsc Ian Andrews

"I have a lot of projects in the fire." - my mate Jules

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Kazan ... I tried to mail you on the address on the alliance site in your signature ( can't seem to use the profile to mail ) but it got bounced! Where can I send the file??? I really appreciate your offer of help


IP... I don't have ICQ, but if you can PM me with links to anything useful, that would be great! Are you still working on a BSG mod? I thought I would have a crack at making a Viper since I like the things, and had a mesh already built that I figured would do I would REALLY like to see a fully finished BSG addon for FS2 and am quite keen to do what I can to make that happen!

Last edited by ShadowPuppet on 04-09-2003 at 05:23 PM

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Registered: Jan 2002
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Posts: 156

The engine glow problem might be a result of incorrect normals. It looks like it's backwards. Try making the engine normals go the opposite direction.

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Registered: Mar 2003
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right..well... I learnt a few more things which shed a bit more light on the problem ...

I tried moving the physical mesh of my 'plumes' backwards in TS3, and tried another run.

This moved the engine glows to where they should be. I can see now, that they are a 'compressed' version of my plume mesh, textured a bluish tint. This is good...

Trouble is, when I hit the afterburners, my plumes jump backwards and appear disconnected from the ship!

How do I set it up so that the plumes expand from the front end only? I have read some stuff about 'axis position' but I don't see where I do this. I presume there must be some way of setting the origin of the plume mesh, so that when you accelerate, and the afterburners fire, the mesh is scaledin the correct way.

If the object 'centre' of the plume was at the exact front of the mesh, and sitting on the end of the ship model, any scaling would not move this point!

I got the theory.... now how and where do I do this? My guess is it's a model thing

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