[MOD]Engine Colors - Beta (updated 3/11/08)

fud · Post by **fud** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 03:15

Ever since Reunion, it's bothered me why EVERY ship, regardless of race, had the same "exhaust" color from their engines (same with the shared factories, SPP, etc, but I digress).

So, I changed them all so each race had a different color.

I've changed them all for TC, I'm just double checking everything is ok with them (no missed "-" or such that causes an invisible effect).

Here are some samples (linked, because they're rather large (1900x1200)):

http://www.apexf1.com/x3/TC/screens/argon.jpg ***updated***
http://www.apexf1.com/x3/TC/screens/boron.jpg
http://www.apexf1.com/x3/TC/screens/teladi.jpg ***updated***
http://www.apexf1.com/x3/TC/screens/split.jpg ***updated***
http://www.apexf1.com/x3/TC/screens/paranid.jpg ***updated***
http://www.apexf1.com/x3/TC/screens/xenon.jpg ***updated***
http://www.apexf1.com/x3/TC/screens/pirate.jpg
http://www.apexf1.com/x3/TC/screens/terran.jpg ***updated***

[Edit]
Added Argon.

Changes:

Terran reverted to stock Ego. Most of the others are as above.

http://www.apexf1.com/x3/TC/mods/new-en ... ors-TC.rar

OOZ662 · Post by **OOZ662** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 04:41

IIRC, there's a whole plot/story background thing about how everyone fears the Xenon's "distinct" blue exhaust. Just putting that out there.
The Split's exhaust color ought to remind us of ground-up Spaceflies.

Observe · Post by **Observe** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 04:45

Good job fud! I'm happy to see you working with TC

Predator02 · Post by **Predator02** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 06:43

Shouldn't Terran's and Xenon have the same exhaust? Terran's did create the Xenon to begin with, and some Xenon ships can use Terran weapons.

X2-Eliah · Post by **X2-Eliah** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 08:25

Nah.. The Xenon have evolved since their creation, so I reckon they would change the engine systems during that time. Besides, the Terrans might have re-designed their engines as well, therefore those 2 races having same exhausts would be more unlikely than different.

On topic - these certainly look far, far better than what the game has by default, so as long as this thing can be kept compatible with other scripts (mods?), it's a five thumbs up

Baleur · Post by **Baleur** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 10:10

Dude i love what you have done here. I was thinking that the Split should have red exhausts, but then i saw the Xenon screenie, and yeah it fits better for them

When can we expect a release?

Will it be in script form, or mod form?
Offtopic, how does one activate more than one mod at a time? For instance this one, the community mod to allow jumpdrive kits, and the 100km view distance mod?

supakillaii · Post by **supakillaii** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 11:16

Xenon should have Blue.
Boron should have perhaps Cyan... or it could be green... Haven't seen any Boron ships so can't say
Split should have Red
Paranid... something else. I mean.. Pink?
Pirate is good
Terran perhaps White

aquemnun · Post by **aquemnun** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 11:50

dude your work is brilliant, i just have a few suggestions on the race engine trails

Xenon: i know theyre meant to be blue, but if you toned down the red, so it was like a light blood red (think rogueys mod) that would look badass

Boron: i freakin adore!!! suits the ships perfectly nice work!!!

Split: i think more a pale yellow, rusty kinda colour, suits them better IMO (like the teladi)

Paranid: use the teladi one, paranid ships with those engine trails would rock!

Pirates: badass!

Terrans.... i dont really think these should be changed, in perfect honesty i think they're fine as they are, the sample you provided is still great, but i would probably remove it and keep the original

teladi: as with the terrans i'd keep these stock, more out of personal taste really.

Great work man, keep up the great work!! i look forward to seeing (and downloading) the final thing!

fud · Post by **fud** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 13:08

The reason I chose the red for Xenon is because I think it makes them more sinister.

That, and when you've got 50 of them swarming you, it looks absolutely bad ass.

I'll keep messing with them.

Baleur, it's definitely a mod. As for running multiple mods, you can do it a couple different ways:

1. Combine them into one.
2. Run them as "false patches".

I'll save the explanation for a later time/different topic, so I don't clutter this one up.

As for the colors, advice noted. Changing the colors is relatively easy (now), it was editing the 50 or so engine files that took all the time.

aquemnun · Post by **aquemnun** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 15:25

dude, very nice, especially the new terran, teladi and split ones. the paranid i like but im not entirely sure (if you could use a different ship to demonstrate it just so i know how it looks on other ships)

argon.....different but no questioning good looking i may keep the stock depending on how it looks with the other ships. acctually, thinking about it, those would make AWESOME kha'ak trails!

also, fud man: I COULDNT AGREE MORE about the red xenon trails. when theres a swarm of L's its like one of those old cartoons involving bats in a cave with the glowing red eyes

its badass, sinister and awesome all rolled into one! awesome job!!

maybe, you know the split trails... darken that a little bit and you might just have your badass xenon!

Baleur · Post by **Baleur** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 16:49

I actually liked the pink Paranid, i actually love the colors as they are now, perhaps split should be a tad more green to further diffiretntiate it from the old yellow. (yeah i cant spell).

I mean look at the paranid shaders on the ships, they are all pinkish

Would it be possible to include a readme of what values to edit in which files? After we have extracted the mod contents ourselves of course =P

Edit: OH updated screens, nevermind what i just said about the split, it looks kickass with red

And the xenon sort of looks menacing in a wierd soothing way with that blue, almost like a fake serenity/peace thing going on.
Gief mod NOW

Could you PM me on how to combine mods, if its not too much to ask?

bounty_hunter66 · Post by **bounty_hunter66** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 18:01

Paranid Pink?
Teladi Yellow?
Boron green?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Why not make them like old fashioned x2 engine trails?

Argon - Cyan
Boron - Dark Blue
Teladi - GREEN...because they are green skinned lizzards
Paranid - Yellow - much like their color of skin and sector color and ships color
Split - RED! - like their ships and skins and sectors....

Cmon man! Pink? Sheesh.......

aquemnun · Post by **aquemnun** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 18:13

Paranid - Yellow - much like their color of skin and sector color and ships color

acctually i kinda like that idea.
however my previous preferences still stand, i never played X2 and to be honest the current and recommended colour schemes suit the ships just fine. you'll see...

supakillaii · Post by **supakillaii** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 18:34

bounty_hunter66 wrote:Paranid Pink?
Teladi Yellow?
Boron green?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Why not make them like old fashioned x2 engine trails?

Argon - Cyan
Boron - Dark Blue
Teladi - GREEN...because they are green skinned lizzards
Paranid - Yellow - much like their color of skin and sector color and ships color
Split - RED! - like their ships and skins and sectors....

Cmon man! Pink? Sheesh.......

Xenon is/was/should be blue. Remember the story...

Edit 1: Text was in wrong place

fud · Post by **fud** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 21:55

I didn't play X2, sorry.

bounty_hunter66 · Post by **bounty_hunter66** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 22:29

Well, how did you change the colour of the trails? I would like to make mine like in x2.

How did you do it?

fud · Post by **fud** » Sat, 1. Nov 08, 23:09

You need:

X3 mod manager
Photoshop
Nvidia DDS plugin

The default engine texture is -79.dds.

After you monkey with them in photoshop (need to open them without mipmaps), save as 8888 ARGB, no mip maps. Save as (for example) -1000.dds

Then if you want the game to see the changes, you have to edit the engine effect files in objects\effects\engines. Change each one to correlate with the new dds files you made (-1000.dds).

1Prophecy · Post by **1Prophecy** » Sun, 2. Nov 08, 00:06

I like what you've got a lot! But the fade-out looks somewhat cut as-is.

enenra · Post by **enenra** » Sun, 2. Nov 08, 00:13

1Prophecy wrote:I like what you've got a lot! But the fade-out looks somewhat cut as-is.

That's because fud is using the vanilla models and just changing the textures afaik.
To change those edges, the models have to be tweaked, which is a hell of a lot work. I did it with X3R and it took me about two free days or even more.

fud · Post by **fud** » Sun, 2. Nov 08, 00:24

Yep. I had custom engine effects models for R as well, it's a tedious process to say the least.

Add to that, TC has about 60 different engine effects, compared to R's 20 or so.

egosoft.com

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[MOD]Engine Colors - Beta (updated 3/11/08)

[MOD]Engine Colors - Beta (updated 3/11/08)