Mapping thruster exhaust to engine exhaust
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Yes its that question
Has anybody ever figured out how to make thruster exhaust use the engine exhaust? I dont mean mount the thruster on the hardpoint, I mean using the engine exhaust animation for the thruster animation.
Thrusters as discrete output would make sense if we had a bunch of them scattered around the ship (turning thrusters, reversing thrusters, etc) but since we only have the one thruster it might as well as use the engine output
One possibility is make thrusters for each ship and use explicit hardpoint mapping and engine animation but worth asking if anybody has figured out a generalized method
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From my understanding, it should be a simple change of the variable ‘particles’ in the thruster’s equipment entry in st_equip.ini
particles = gf_ge_s_thruster_01
‘gf_ge_s_thruster_01’ refers to the FX ‘gf_ge_s_thruster_01’ (crazy, huh) in effects.ini
So, in theory, you should be be able to change it’s vis_effect variable to something else, for example ‘gf_rh_largeengine02’ ( I do not recommend using that particular one).I’ve never tried this, but it seems straight forward enough.
Lemme know if it works or not.EDIT: You’ll note all thrusters use gf_ge_s_thruster_01 for their effect, thus all thruster particles look identical.
EDIT2: Also, you can have multiple thruster, but the fact that they fire at the same time limits their use. They do however add their respective force, so lots of weak thrusters can equal one strong one… Which may or may not be useful to anyone.
EDIT3: (Last one, I promise!) Also, if you have skype and would like to add me for basic FL modding support such as this, you can do so: striketheory
If I can’t help you, you’ll just end up posting anyway, but it might save you some time!
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‘gf_ge_s_thruster_01’ refers to the FX ‘gf_ge_s_thruster_01’ (crazy, huh) in effects.ini
So, in theory, you should be be able to change it’s vis_effect variable to something else, for example ‘gf_rh_largeengine02’ ( I do not recommend using that particular one).That just changes the effect to another effect. I am trying to figure out if its possible to use the current engine animation. For example, a Wyrm has a single Kusari engine exhaust, while an Avenger has two Liberty engine exhausts, an Orca has 4 rogue exhausts, etc. What I want is for the current engines to light up instead of that stupid little thruster flare
I think it can probably be done with ship-specific thrusters, but maybe there is a way with memory tweak to call the engine animations when the thruster is activated. I am wondering if anybody has figured this out
Here’s an example, I used the rogue-gunboat-engine “trail” particle effect, and moved the HpThruster to the top engine mount. I would like it to simply trigger all of the engines though, instead of having to make ship-specific thrusters with multiple hardpoints.
That looks much more believable than the little bitty thruster flare
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Right, apologies for misunderstanding the question.
I’m not aware of any way to do it as you ask.
