I have been quite a busy bunny since my last post. I decided to start with the engine glow project.
I feel a bit like a toddler trying to learn to walk with this. I know what I have to do, but how to do it is an entirely different thing.
First thing I looked at was mixing and matching different stock engine glows to see how it came off. Unfortunately, that didn't come off just like I wanted. It will just take one 'flame_effect'. The only sort of pick and mix option that there is between the standard fly around glow and the cruise glow. Honestly, it is a bit of a downer. I wanted more options.
So I find myself looking at the enviable task of trying to make my own. Thus the toddler learning to walk analogy. There are a few tutorials, but I would really prefer a 'Make an engine glow' tutorial, rather than a generalised 'this is how you tool around with an ALE' tutorial.
Sushi pointed me in the direction of 'The Starport', a place where there are number of developers for the game. With the assistance of a few users there, I was put on the right track of how to do things. A chap named FriendlyFire gave me the basics of what to look for in regards to changing the colour of the engine glow.
Here is a very basic change to the engine glow.
As you can see, it was minor stuff, but a start
At the very least, I am happy that I can do just that.
In terms of learning, I feel I have enough basic skills to do what I started off with this project. I know how to tweak the colours in the engine; how to modify elements of the glow and most importantly; how to get it into the game.
I messed around with a couple of sets of coding, in an attempt to understand what it all means. Most of it went over my head, heck some of it still does. I started off with the idea of messing with numbers as I went, to see what effect that in.
In the end, I settled for trading lines of code between vanilla engines. So I started off with the Liberty engine code, then switched it with lines from the Kusari code. Given the differences in the engine glows, it game me an understanding of what the lines were changing.
So I've identified a number of lines that I should tweak with. Honestly, I don't see too much tweaking going on. Engines will probably be standardised enough given that Star Wars wasn't all about really funky engine glows. I have the base I'm going to work with.
Slight tweaking of the code led to different results.
The last thing I learned tonight was actually making a standalone engine glow effect work. Up to now, with testing, I was simply copying the effect onto a standalone one. But for the overall mod, it was important to have them with their own files. Once more, I turned to The Starport for help. A user named Why485 directed me to his tutorial on adding new ALE files.
Works a charm, even if it take me twice as long to do it as I played trial and error with it. I know now, which will definitely speed up the process.
So I plan to take it each ship as it comes. If I can fit ships under a generic engine colour, I will. But if I find a ship needs a more.. specific glow to make it look right, that will be the plan too. It will be a case of trial and error. The advantage with having a number of ships in the mod right now is that I have a lot to play with.
