[MOD] SmoothPlume - A Better Engine Thrust Plume (Smooth Texture Without Streaks)

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Khaak_Slayer
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[MOD] SmoothPlume - A Better Engine Thrust Plume (Smooth Texture Without Streaks)

Post by Khaak_Slayer » Mon, 12. Jul 21, 17:41

By Khaak_Slayer aka PurpleFire

12/07/2021
Version 1.0

Hi everyone,

One of the very first things I noticed when I loaded up the game for the first time was how they were still using that old rotating-animation style engine thrust texture from back in X3. I remember thinking how cool it looked at the time along with the rest of X3, which was a good upgrade from X2. X4 has brought the universe such a long way since, and is such a beautiful game in many ways. But this engine texture just looks so jarring to me whenever I see it. It's the most obvious on the travel engines which honestly look terrible in vanilla.

It's my opinion that none of the engines need an animated texture, especially as the rest of the engine glow effects look so good. I solved this visual problem and also made it look a lot more realistic by just replacing the engine thrust texture with a cleaner and more subtle gradient. If you zoom in far enough you can still see a slight texture around the core of the plume which looks nice with the animation loop.

The texture applies to all engines including XL; the game shapes it to the engine.

Both the main texture and the alpha texture are edited. Both of these files had a half-resolution counterpart with "-small" added to the filename, these didn't seem to be listed anywhere in the content library and don't appear to be used anywhere so I omitted them, but if you notice something amiss please report it.

This is the first mod I've made public on here and hopefully I put it together properly. I read that I don't have to repackage these into .cat files, and it works for me the way it is, but if there's anything I did wrong please let me know :)

Thanks, enjoy!

= =

Nexus Download

= =

Image Image Image Image Image Image Image Image
Rawr.

Mycu
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Re: [MOD] SmoothPlume - A Better Engine Thrust Plume (Smooth Texture Without Streaks)

Post by Mycu » Mon, 12. Jul 21, 19:02

Thanks for sharing.
In case of /libraries/material_library.xml it's better to use diffs instead of replacing the entire file for those two changes.
X3 AP 3.1 + XRM
X3 AP 3.1 + LU

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Shuulo
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Re: [MOD] SmoothPlume - A Better Engine Thrust Plume (Smooth Texture Without Streaks)

Post by Shuulo » Mon, 12. Jul 21, 21:43

oh, if it replaces entire materials file it can break most custom assets in mods. Better use diffs really. If you dont know how, come join Egosoft discord, guys in modding community will help

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alexalsp
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Re: [MOD] SmoothPlume - A Better Engine Thrust Plume (Smooth Texture Without Streaks)

Post by alexalsp » Tue, 13. Jul 21, 00:31

material_library.xml

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<diff>
  <replace sel="//material[@name='p1_fx_gas']/properties/property[@name='diffuse_map']">
    <property type="BitMap" name="diffuse_map" value="extensions\SmoothPlume\assets\fx\textures\engine_fx_streak_01" />
  </replace>

  <replace sel="//material[@name='engine_fx_arg_gas']/properties/property[@name='diffuse_map']">
    <property type="BitMap" name="diffuse_map" value="extensions\SmoothPlume\assets\fx\textures\engine_fx_streak_01" />
  </replace>
</diff>
but it is not clear what the file does in the engine_fx_streak_01_alpha.gz mod if it is not in the file material_library.xml ...

content.xml

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<content id="SmoothPlume" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop." author="Khaak_Slayer/PurpleFire" version="1.0" date="2021-12-07" save="0" enabled="1">
  <text language="7"  name="SmoothPlume" description="Заменяет исходную текстуру тяги двигателя на более чистую, которая избавляет от уродливого анимационного цикла."/>
  <text language="33" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
  <text language="34" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
  <text language="39" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
  <text language="44" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
  <text language="49" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
  <text language="55" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
  <text language="81" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
  <text language="82" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
  <text language="86" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
  <text language="88" name="SmoothPlume" description="Replaces the stock engine thrust texture with a cleaner one which prevents the ugly animation loop."/>
</content>

Khaak_Slayer
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Re: [MOD] SmoothPlume - A Better Engine Thrust Plume (Smooth Texture Without Streaks)

Post by Khaak_Slayer » Tue, 13. Jul 21, 07:49

Thanks for the feedback, I updated the file on Nexus to contain the difference patch.
Rawr.

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Volken32
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Re: [MOD] SmoothPlume - A Better Engine Thrust Plume (Smooth Texture Without Streaks)

Post by Volken32 » Thu, 15. Jul 21, 09:18

Does this also remove the engine trails? I dont see any in the previews

Khaak_Slayer
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Re: [MOD] SmoothPlume - A Better Engine Thrust Plume (Smooth Texture Without Streaks)

Post by Khaak_Slayer » Thu, 15. Jul 21, 13:38

No it doesn't affect the exhaust trails.
Rawr.

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