Post by Redneck on Oct 5, 2004 9:15:49 GMT -5
Back By Popular Demand! Thanks bro.
Hi all,
Ok so you wanna know how to add chicken lights ehh? Ok get a pen and read carefully. Words in caps and in bold do not mean shouting. They mean pay close attention to this part. Let's begin shall we? (note view the pics in the easy tutorial if needed for better understanding)
legend:
negative numers = -xxx
positive numbers = xxx
spacer\seperator = : ( colon )
X AXIS = Left to Right
Y AXIS = Top to Bottom
Z AXIS = Front to Back
Bold and caps = points of interest
Bold and Italics = clips from actual flare def files
sflares folder = standard flares. these are the ones on your truck by default
aflares folder = additional flares that you buy in the notepad screen
OK open up the "sflare" or "aflare" folder for the truck you want to add the new lights to. ( this folder is located in X:\my documents\18WoS Across America\makes\truck\truckname\acc )
Locate the desc.def file for the aflare or sflare file. ( located in the aflare or sflare folder ).
Next open it up in wordpad ( notepad will do as well for those of you on XP ).
Ok now we get our hands dirty. For this example I will be using rusty's ( P351 ) sflare file because it doesn't have many lines so it's a good starter. From here on out anything in bold AND italics is excerps from the actual file.
Locate this line inside the desc.def: flare_offset:"-60.295 223.521 -372.752:59.905 223.521 -372.752"
So what exactly does that all mean exactly? It means this. The first line -60.295 is your X axis. What is an X axis? An X axis is more commony called your width axis. i.e. the width from left to right of the truck. Thus whatever is at that line is located to the LEFT of the center position of the truck. Imagine the truck cut in half down the middle from front to back. minus values means it will be on the left side of the truck. positive ( indicated by just numbers. no + sign and no - sign ) numbers means it will be on the right.
Next line 223.521 is your Y axis. What is a Y axis? It's more commonly called your height axis. i.e. Height from the road to the top of your truck is your height. I'm assuming Valusoft is using inches for all of this but I could be wrong. Best bet is trial and error anyways as it's hard to align it without seein it on the truck. Any positive numbers, like the line above, will be above the truck. any negative numbers, you SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY NEGATIVE NUMBERS, wuold be below the frame. (note only use negative numbers if your putting them BELOW the fram. a Y of 0 means it'll be even with the bottom of the frame. anything more than -35 on the Y would result in it bein underground)
Last line now. ( I will be going into more detail just shortly. I'm walkin you all threw the basics first ) -372.752 This is your Z axis. What is a Z axis? A z axis, more commonly called the lenght axis, is your lenght from the tip of the front bumper to the tip of the rear. HOWEVER be advised that in the modelling world the dead center of an object is where 0 on the Z axis is located. All numbers go from there outward. i.e. Any negative number, like above, is at the front of the truck. Any positive number will be at the rear.
Last line ( note this line only appears in the flares and nowhere else ). : thais line is your SPACER. what's a spacer? it's tells the game that that's the end of one flare's coordinates and marks the beginning of the next line's. As you can see by the line I pasted in the beginning it has a : followed by 3 more sets of numbers. That's the second flare's coordinates. Always use a : inbetween your lights or you'll get either a big fat error message or a crash to the desktop.
Ok let's get a bit deeper here. Moving the lights is pretty simplistic and requires much moving, and testing ingame, to see where it's going. A value of 10 added to what's there, example: -300.00, if I changed that to -310.000 then the lights would move a somewhat small distance. Roughly 10 centimeters? lol It's hard to judge exactly what measurements they used. But an extra value of 10 is a very small increase.
If you really want to compare and want me to explain it in deatil then look no further! I already have that planned. Below are 2 different lines from 2 different defs but applied to the same truck. What am I talking about? What I mean is this. In the additional parts I put on the Pete 362 ( available on sugarfoot's website tomorrow. look below my name for a link. ) I borrowed the flares from another truck and threw them on the Pete 362. However the flares were not inline so I had to adjust them. below are the lines between the 2 trucks for the same flare file.
Original flares:
flare_offset:"-28.406 224.559 -490.222:0.632 224.559 -490.222:30.322 224.559 -490.222:-119.708 39.508 -249.31:121.18 39.508 -249.31"
And here's the one I put on the 362:
flare_offset:"-28.406 234.559 -568.222:0.632 234.559 -568.222:30.322 234.559 -568.222:-119.708 49.508 -315.31:121.18 49.508 -315.31"
Now let's just use the very first lines ( before the first : ) for this example. Note in the original file the lights were set to 224.559 for the Y axis. They were too low so going in increments of 5 I finally got them to line up at this value 234.559. Note the 10 increment difference? Comapre the Z axis lines for the first set ( first set as in the lines before the first : ). Originally when I put those lights on the truck the first 3 lights were halfway INSIDE the cab just over the driver's head. lol Again going in small increments, this time in values of 15, I finally got them where I wanted them. Again note on the Z axis the lines are negative values. This means they will be in the front. Positive values means they will be at the rear. If, for example, you got a set of lights directly on the nose of the truck at Z axis of -500.000. Then if you changed that line to 500.000 technically they should be at the very rear, or close to it, on the truck.
Ok let's move onto the directions.
flare_direction:"-1 0 0" again this is 1 line and this time is an example line. The direction works the same as the flares to a degree. Both have 3 sets of numbers and then a spacer\seperator at the end of each. (must also end the last line with a " not : just like the offsets ). valid (from what I've found so far. I'l update if I find more) direction numbers are as follows:
0 0 -1 = this line will put your lights forward facing. In other words when looking at the BACK of the truck you will not see them. Much like the lights I put on the Pete 379's breathers. (filters)
0 0 1 = this light makes them shine backwards only. Much like the loading light I put on the Pete 379. i.e. only visible when looking BACK of the truck. exact opposite of the 0 0 -1 line.
-1 0 0 = this line will make them show only on the left side of the truck. that means you will only see them when looking at the left side of the truck. Much like the lights I put on the left side of the sleeper (bunk) on the Pete 379.
1 0 0 = this line will make them shine on the right side only. Exact opposite of the -1 0 0 line.
DO NOT MIX NUMBERS. Thus far I have not been able to do both and the default game does not have both. What I mean is do not do this:
-1 0 -1
That will only crash your game. Even the default rusty's (Pete 351) blinkers are set to have 2 seperate lights. one with a 0 0 -1 and one with a 0 0 1 line so the blinkers are visible from both angles. You CANNOT MIX THEM!
This is difficult to explain so try and bare with me. hey you, in the back, WAKE UP!!!. good your still payin attention.
Now I know this is difficult to understand but I have been doing this for so long it's almost not possible for me to "umb" it down anymore. The mind forgets how after a while. lol But I'll take any questions you have and I'll answer them as best I could. Your best bet though is to "play" around a bit first to get the hang of it and see how everything works.
Thanks you for your patience in reading this and good luck my students. Take your time and practise before jumpin off the deep end and sayin " I moved it 50 numbers higher and it only moved an inch". I mentioned that above. lol So now you all know how to edit chicken lights.
Topdog
Hi all,
Ok so you wanna know how to add chicken lights ehh? Ok get a pen and read carefully. Words in caps and in bold do not mean shouting. They mean pay close attention to this part. Let's begin shall we? (note view the pics in the easy tutorial if needed for better understanding)
legend:
negative numers = -xxx
positive numbers = xxx
spacer\seperator = : ( colon )
X AXIS = Left to Right
Y AXIS = Top to Bottom
Z AXIS = Front to Back
Bold and caps = points of interest
Bold and Italics = clips from actual flare def files
sflares folder = standard flares. these are the ones on your truck by default
aflares folder = additional flares that you buy in the notepad screen
OK open up the "sflare" or "aflare" folder for the truck you want to add the new lights to. ( this folder is located in X:\my documents\18WoS Across America\makes\truck\truckname\acc )
Locate the desc.def file for the aflare or sflare file. ( located in the aflare or sflare folder ).
Next open it up in wordpad ( notepad will do as well for those of you on XP ).
Ok now we get our hands dirty. For this example I will be using rusty's ( P351 ) sflare file because it doesn't have many lines so it's a good starter. From here on out anything in bold AND italics is excerps from the actual file.
Locate this line inside the desc.def: flare_offset:"-60.295 223.521 -372.752:59.905 223.521 -372.752"
So what exactly does that all mean exactly? It means this. The first line -60.295 is your X axis. What is an X axis? An X axis is more commony called your width axis. i.e. the width from left to right of the truck. Thus whatever is at that line is located to the LEFT of the center position of the truck. Imagine the truck cut in half down the middle from front to back. minus values means it will be on the left side of the truck. positive ( indicated by just numbers. no + sign and no - sign ) numbers means it will be on the right.
Next line 223.521 is your Y axis. What is a Y axis? It's more commonly called your height axis. i.e. Height from the road to the top of your truck is your height. I'm assuming Valusoft is using inches for all of this but I could be wrong. Best bet is trial and error anyways as it's hard to align it without seein it on the truck. Any positive numbers, like the line above, will be above the truck. any negative numbers, you SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY NEGATIVE NUMBERS, wuold be below the frame. (note only use negative numbers if your putting them BELOW the fram. a Y of 0 means it'll be even with the bottom of the frame. anything more than -35 on the Y would result in it bein underground)
Last line now. ( I will be going into more detail just shortly. I'm walkin you all threw the basics first ) -372.752 This is your Z axis. What is a Z axis? A z axis, more commonly called the lenght axis, is your lenght from the tip of the front bumper to the tip of the rear. HOWEVER be advised that in the modelling world the dead center of an object is where 0 on the Z axis is located. All numbers go from there outward. i.e. Any negative number, like above, is at the front of the truck. Any positive number will be at the rear.
Last line ( note this line only appears in the flares and nowhere else ). : thais line is your SPACER. what's a spacer? it's tells the game that that's the end of one flare's coordinates and marks the beginning of the next line's. As you can see by the line I pasted in the beginning it has a : followed by 3 more sets of numbers. That's the second flare's coordinates. Always use a : inbetween your lights or you'll get either a big fat error message or a crash to the desktop.
Ok let's get a bit deeper here. Moving the lights is pretty simplistic and requires much moving, and testing ingame, to see where it's going. A value of 10 added to what's there, example: -300.00, if I changed that to -310.000 then the lights would move a somewhat small distance. Roughly 10 centimeters? lol It's hard to judge exactly what measurements they used. But an extra value of 10 is a very small increase.
If you really want to compare and want me to explain it in deatil then look no further! I already have that planned. Below are 2 different lines from 2 different defs but applied to the same truck. What am I talking about? What I mean is this. In the additional parts I put on the Pete 362 ( available on sugarfoot's website tomorrow. look below my name for a link. ) I borrowed the flares from another truck and threw them on the Pete 362. However the flares were not inline so I had to adjust them. below are the lines between the 2 trucks for the same flare file.
Original flares:
flare_offset:"-28.406 224.559 -490.222:0.632 224.559 -490.222:30.322 224.559 -490.222:-119.708 39.508 -249.31:121.18 39.508 -249.31"
And here's the one I put on the 362:
flare_offset:"-28.406 234.559 -568.222:0.632 234.559 -568.222:30.322 234.559 -568.222:-119.708 49.508 -315.31:121.18 49.508 -315.31"
Now let's just use the very first lines ( before the first : ) for this example. Note in the original file the lights were set to 224.559 for the Y axis. They were too low so going in increments of 5 I finally got them to line up at this value 234.559. Note the 10 increment difference? Comapre the Z axis lines for the first set ( first set as in the lines before the first : ). Originally when I put those lights on the truck the first 3 lights were halfway INSIDE the cab just over the driver's head. lol Again going in small increments, this time in values of 15, I finally got them where I wanted them. Again note on the Z axis the lines are negative values. This means they will be in the front. Positive values means they will be at the rear. If, for example, you got a set of lights directly on the nose of the truck at Z axis of -500.000. Then if you changed that line to 500.000 technically they should be at the very rear, or close to it, on the truck.
Ok let's move onto the directions.
flare_direction:"-1 0 0" again this is 1 line and this time is an example line. The direction works the same as the flares to a degree. Both have 3 sets of numbers and then a spacer\seperator at the end of each. (must also end the last line with a " not : just like the offsets ). valid (from what I've found so far. I'l update if I find more) direction numbers are as follows:
0 0 -1 = this line will put your lights forward facing. In other words when looking at the BACK of the truck you will not see them. Much like the lights I put on the Pete 379's breathers. (filters)
0 0 1 = this light makes them shine backwards only. Much like the loading light I put on the Pete 379. i.e. only visible when looking BACK of the truck. exact opposite of the 0 0 -1 line.
-1 0 0 = this line will make them show only on the left side of the truck. that means you will only see them when looking at the left side of the truck. Much like the lights I put on the left side of the sleeper (bunk) on the Pete 379.
1 0 0 = this line will make them shine on the right side only. Exact opposite of the -1 0 0 line.
DO NOT MIX NUMBERS. Thus far I have not been able to do both and the default game does not have both. What I mean is do not do this:
-1 0 -1
That will only crash your game. Even the default rusty's (Pete 351) blinkers are set to have 2 seperate lights. one with a 0 0 -1 and one with a 0 0 1 line so the blinkers are visible from both angles. You CANNOT MIX THEM!
This is difficult to explain so try and bare with me. hey you, in the back, WAKE UP!!!. good your still payin attention.
Now I know this is difficult to understand but I have been doing this for so long it's almost not possible for me to "umb" it down anymore. The mind forgets how after a while. lol But I'll take any questions you have and I'll answer them as best I could. Your best bet though is to "play" around a bit first to get the hang of it and see how everything works.
Thanks you for your patience in reading this and good luck my students. Take your time and practise before jumpin off the deep end and sayin " I moved it 50 numbers higher and it only moved an inch". I mentioned that above. lol So now you all know how to edit chicken lights.
Topdog
