Engine Glows and Weapon Flares
Getting the engine glows and weapon flares placed on your model can be extremely frustrating. Hopefully this will make it a little bit easier for you.
Assuming that you are using a test mod to check out your new ships (highly recomended) add a Pictures folder and then an Effects subfolder in it. In the Effects folder add copies of "EngineGlow.bmp" and "weapon_flare.bmp." In your test empire folder add a copy of "BitmapEffects_Combat.txt" and the shipset viewer. Edit the "BitmapEffects_Combat" file so that only the entries for Engine Glow and Firing Flare remain.
Once you've done all that go into the "_Ships_XFileClasses.txt" and find your ship. Change the number of Engine Points to 1, set all the coordinates to 0 (including the offsets,) and make the glow radius 0.9. Save and open the viewer. Go to your ship, zoom in a bit, and press "G" to make the engine glow brighter. To get a really good idea of where the glow is at you may want to zoom in very close and spin the ship.
Now you should have a good idea of which direction you need to move the engine point. In the "_Ships_XFileClasses" file the coordinates are laid out like this;
- x = left and right, positive is right and negative is left
- y = front to back, positive is front (away from the camera) and negative is back (towards the camera)
- z = up and down, positive is down and negative is up (yeah, that's backwards from any 3d I've ever worked with too)
The offsets are just to move the glow off of the model, you can choose to use them or just make the engine points equal the glow points. Once you've got the first one set where you want it you can add the second one and so on. The weapon flares can be done the same way.
It takes some (a lot) of trial and error so you'll find yourself bouncing in and out of the veiwer often but at least it loads quick.
Hopefully this'll help someone out. Any questions please feel free to post them here or pm me. Now, back to working on my set!
[Edit] If you have a hard time finding your engine glow you can always use a weapon flare slot to help you pin down the location. Set one to a 90 degree arc and the arc lines will form an arrow for you. Once you have it nailed down you just put those coordinates back into the engine glow slot. Hope that makes sense!