Ion Trails

White Tiger 30 · Post by **White Tiger 30** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 00:56

Since I'm not sure on which forum to post this, I'll try this here. According to the interview with Bernd, it is possible to put the ion trails from the weapons back into the game:
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[WIZ]ReiAyanami[STI]: Just a small question, why were the nice laser effects in the Beta taken out for the full version. IMO the laser effects in the Beta were much nicer.

Bernd: Not much was changed. Only little things. What you probably mean were the particle effects on the lasers. You can easily re-enable these using the bullet types.
_____________

Since I'm oblivious, is he referring to scripting here? If so, how (step by step because I AM oblivious) would I go about doing this?

Thanks for your help.

The_Abyss · Post by **The_Abyss** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 01:07

I honestly can't remember how to activate them, but from previous betas, I can confirm that they certainly looked nice, but killed the game performance somewhat.

Burianek · Post by **Burianek** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 02:08

I'd be willing to bet it's basic modding and not scripting.
The particle effects must be defined somewhere in the types files. I took a quick glance at TBullets and TLaser, and I don't believe it's in either of those. I haven't looked at the rest of the types files (those are the main two edited for lasers).
But if you wanted to find out where they're defined, you'd have to unpack your game files,
http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48593
figure out which types file has the particle effects defined in them, figure out which texture you'd want to redefine the effect to, and edit the relevant types file to point to the correct texture.
(That's my best guess anyway)
Sounds like a job, I know. Perhaps Commander Jamieson could tell more . . .

-Edit-
Aha! I knew I saw this recently:
http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=40940

youtookmyname · Post by **youtookmyname** » Wed, 2. Jun 04, 02:34

yeah, it appears no one (unlessJamieson is right) has acheived the effect.

White Tiger 30 · Post by **White Tiger 30** » Fri, 4. Jun 04, 15:57

youtookmyname wrote:yeah, it appears no one (unlessJamieson is right) has acheived the effect.

Bummer. Maybe we can all PM Bernd and get him to give us the secret.

Seawolfe · Post by **Seawolfe** » Fri, 4. Jun 04, 16:39

But if you wanted to find out where they're defined, you'd have to unpack your game files,

Quick question - do you need to repack the game files after making the changes?

Burianek · Post by **Burianek** » Fri, 4. Jun 04, 17:42

nope, you can run the game in unpacked mode.
just move the 01-04.cat / .dat files out of the root directory, and the corresponding .pck files to the .txt files you changed out of the /types dir. The game tries to load those 1st. If they aren't where they should be, it'll use the .txt files.
Alternatively, i believe there's a command line switch that will force the game to run unpacked.

Commander Jamieson · Post by **Commander Jamieson** » Fri, 4. Jun 04, 23:50

White Tiger 30 wrote:
youtookmyname wrote:yeah, it appears no one (unlessJamieson is right) has acheived the effect.
Bummer. Maybe we can all PM Bernd and get him to give us the secret.

Try to exchange this texture with the one you have in your unpacked tex/true folder in the game. This is the 380.jpg particles laser effect pic with one of the spikey purple laser textures in it. See what effect it does in your game.

http://www.hrh1000.com/x2/pics/380.jpg

Cheers

White Tiger 30 · Post by **White Tiger 30** » Sat, 5. Jun 04, 17:48

Thank you very much Commander J. I'm at work now, and didn't see this reply untill this morning, I'll try that as soon as I get home.

Thanks.

Slugworm X · Post by **Slugworm X** » Wed, 9. Jun 04, 14:43

Any luck White Tiger?

I tried to do the particle thing, and all I managed to do was to attach effects to the shots. Funny seeing a PAC shell with a blinking red light on top!

Got them to do all sorts. Have the shell have an Engine glow produced a nice effect. Could not enable particles however. Tried all the field in TBullets, tried altering the look of the particle texture by refencing it to another area and another picture. Although never expected this to work due to it being a particle effect. I know Particle2 and 3 do stuff, because I can remove all engine trails by editing the file. The data is there for the shells, but I cant seem to get it to work. I was trying for smoke trails on bullets!

Did edit effects tho, so now I get less lag and I think, a better hit effect for PAC's.

Hope someone has better luck.

SlugwormX