Mil Ship Engine and Exhaust Placement

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 4:48 am

I am toying around with creating a military ship model and noticed that EL automatically creates an engine and places it on the model. I have created engines for the model so this is redundant and makes the model look bad. Is there a way to prevent the auto-insertion of the stock engines?

Also, is there a way to tell EL where the main engine exhaust will come out of, or do I need to place the engines of the ship to match the pre-determined exhaust point?

-Accountant

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:05 am

I think al the military ship use engine 10 so just replace the engine10.x with the one you created.
The placement and exhaust are fixed thou I believe.

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:16 am

The problem with doing that is that it will change the engine for any frame that uses it. That prevents the player from switching frames if (s)he wants.

Also, something else I forgot. I am trying to create a custom texture for the ship, but am unable to. The ship is called frame22.x and the texture is called frame22.jpg, but the default texture is still applied. Is there a way to apply custom textures?

-Accountant

Nigel_Strange · Post by **Nigel_Strange** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 5:54 am

That's how I applied the custom texture. I did notice, though, that the texture did NOT show up in the shipyard or on any other craft. The only way I was able to see it was to buy the ship and fly it out, then use a 3rd person view to look at it.

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:25 am

Thanks for the info about the textures, Nigel.

I have decided to go with the default textures. I have found a way to accomplish what I want and still make it look good.

The question about the engine remains, though.

-Accountant

Post by **Vice** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:38 am

I am toying around with creating a military ship model and noticed that EL automatically creates an engine and places it on the model. I have created engines for the model so this is redundant and makes the model look bad. Is there a way to prevent the auto-insertion of the stock engines?

You can place a nearly blank engine component in place of the default object. Even just a cube scaled to be extremely small would work to essentially remove it.

Also, is there a way to tell EL where the main engine exhaust will come out of, or do I need to place the engines of the ship to match the pre-determined exhaust point?

Both are options. To instruct the game to change the exhaust placement, use a file named exhaust.txt in the \\ships folder. Use the following values in each line:

EnginePosD = Float value to set the initial exhaust outlet placement distance from the default position.
EnginePosV = Float value to set the initial exhaust outlet vertical placement from the default position.
EngineScaleX = Float value to set the X scale value.
EngineScaleY = Float value to set the Y scale value.
EngineScaleZ = Float value to set the Z scale value.

So the file might look like:

0.0
0.0
100.0
100.0
100.0

Not sure how well this will work as it's not really an officially implemented option, but the system is in place to allow for these modifications in build 1.188. You can test changes to this file by just exiting to the main menu, then relaunching back into the game. You don't need to exit from the game entirely each time you want to test changes.

Also, something else I forgot. I am trying to create a custom texture for the ship, but am unable to. The ship is called frame22.x and the texture is called frame22.jpg, but the default texture is still applied. Is there a way to apply custom textures?

Check the filename carefully, make sure it doesn't have a double extension (ie frame22.jpg.jpg), which seems to come up once in a while. Also make sure it's not a lossless format and that it's placed in the \\ships folder along with the mesh itself.

[Edited on 12-17-2009 by Vice]

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:52 am

You can place a nearly blank engine component in place of the default object. Even just a cube scaled to be extremely small would work to essentially remove it.

Would this also change the engine component for all other frames, though? So, if I were to do this, and someone switched to a civy frame with the same engine class, then would the engine not appear on their civy ship?

Thanks for everything else, Vice. I will give the engine exhaust text file a try.

-Accountant

Post by **Vice** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 7:17 am

Yes, it would be a global change for that engine class, similar to how the frames work.

warsign · Post by **warsign** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 11:59 am

You need an example, please check out "eclipse military fighter" for changing engine model and whole texturing, might be help...

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 6:27 pm

Thanks for the suggestion, Warsign. I have decided to use Vice's workaround and use the default textures. Creating my own textures would take a while and probably not look as good.

-Accountant

warsign · Post by **warsign** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 4:04 pm

Result looks so good, I think I was late