[Ares III]

I have two stupid questions:

1) What happened to the thruster trails?

2) Can it be reversed by the user? (i.e. without changing the code)

[Mars]

Aren't trails still in? 

Are you using the Zetas?

[CP5670]

Those actually aren't the old, large trails. I'm still using those, as I think they look better than the new ones.

[Backslash]

Waitaminute... those aren't the ones in the zetas... they're non-teal!  But yeah, the zetas do have small afterburner trails by default.

But that orange, I like!  Share, please?

Heck, both of you, if you would.  I'd like to try the 'old style' too.

[Ares III]

What I was asking about were the 3d thrusterglows.
The kind that trailed behind the fighters.

[Colonol Dekker]

I noticed the thruster glows dont turn off, when you hit zero throittle, The high poly models, did people remember to update the thruster lod/stages?

[Ares III]

Just so everyone's clear this is what i'm talking about:

http://www.hard-light.net/file_show.php?fil=75

Note the large, triagular nature of the glows.
Is there any way to restore these?

[Flipside]

Those are the older versions of the trails iirc.

Of course, there's always the Engine particle system to play with, I don't think that's been used much, at least in public models

[Ares III]

What I'm saying is that the new trails are ugly, and asking how I can get the old ones back?

[Mars]

Figure out which files are the new ones, and replace them, it's not that hard. I gave myself orange afterburners the same way.

[Ares III]

I don't think you understand:
The files are all there, in the effects folder, all the glows are the right color, but they don't behave properly.
(i.e. no thuster trails)

[Mars]

It depends, could you post any more detail?

[Col. Fishguts]

Thuster trails (those visible from the side) are not working in recent builds, IIRC. Same goes for those visible from the front.

[Backslash]

Yeah, unless you're using some old build, or have a weird non-karajorma-faq folder setup, or are missing mv_effects, or have an odd table like a modified species_defs.tbl somewhere in data interfering with things (or if you don't have the Zetas, maybe you NEED a species_defs.tbl), if "the files" are all there, it will work.  Col. Fishguts is mostly right; however they are visible from the side at a rear angle, like in the picture you posted.  IIRC this is a known HTL problem, but I dunno, that part of the code is beyond me.

Course, from the picture you posted it looks like the 'trails' you're referring to aren't trails at all, just really long thruster graphics.  Specifically, thruster02-01 (but a different, older version graphic than what is in mv_effects, as CP5670 and Mars are talking about), but I'm just guessing here.     Where did you get these "the files"?  I'd like to try those graphics myself, variety is fun.  Is there somewhere to download really old mediaVPs?

Play around with a species_defs.tbl or (something)-sdf.tbm.

[Mars]

@Backslash
I specially modified my thruster glows because the teal ones are ugly and fubar, not to mention tuifu. Use the gimp and use the "Hue-saturate" tool to make:

ABbombertrail.pcx
ABtrail.pcx
thruster02-01a.tga
thruster03-01a.pcx
thruster03-01a.tga
thrusterglow01a.pcx
thrusterglow01a.tga

a fairly uniform shade of orange

I'd send it to you, but again, I have nowhere to send it to.

Have you checked your PMs lately?

[Trivial Psychic]

Actually, there's been a change in recent builds.  The WMC's May 21st build shows them fine, but I've noticed with TBP testing, that newer builds have them altered and not just on fighters.  Fighter engine glows are MUCH larger, while cap-ship glows are almost non-existant.  I've held off posting a Mantis bugreport until testing all builds, including the 3.6.9-RC1.

[CP5670]

I uploaded the old thruster graphics here, if anyone wants to try them out. Although it looks the problem is different here.

[taylor]

Actually, there's been a change in recent builds.  The WMC's May 21st build shows them fine, but I've noticed with TBP testing, that newer builds have them altered and not just on fighters.  Fighter engine glows are MUCH larger, while cap-ship glows are almost non-existant.  I've held off posting a Mantis bugreport until testing all builds, including the 3.6.9-RC1.

Depends on which glows you are referring to, but the tertiary glows have changed.  It's not a bug though, it's a bug fix.  The original code was wrong and when I went through fixing the batching code I noticed it.  The primary and secondary thruster glows should be unchanged.  The tertiary glows on the other hand were using the value for the angle as the value for the radius and vise-versa.  So, the computed radius was never used right and the angle was also set way wrong.

We can probably tweak it a little, but it's actually working the way it was supposed to all along.  Several people have already noticed the change but everyone will just have to get used to it.  I'm not going to put the bug back just because it looks different now that the bug is fixed.

[DaBrain]

Well... I *think* all thrusterglows got bigger for me. I'll check it later to make sure.

Anyway, there is something about the trails, that has been bothering me for quite a while now. The end of the trails looks sweet. I'd even dare to say perfect. But the other end to the trails (when you stop using your AB) is cut off pretty sharp. I guess that's how the system works. The trail keeps the alpha values it 'spwaned' with (It's spawning in pices, right?). Well, would it be possible to have it come out of the thrusters a bit longer, after you stopped using the AB? And make it fade out smoothly?

I hope this is not a too hackish way of doing this.

[Wanderer]

If you are on the modding side you should be able to get the older thrusterglow appear larger again..

Check FSwiki, ships.tbl and then use $Thruster03 Radius factor: to enlarge the tertiary thruster effect.