All these lines were pasted into the ship tbl entry for the Ulysses. It went after the 'score' entry, and before the trails bit for the trail effects in nebulae.
This chunk worked, and displayedthe expected effect when the ship was not using burners...
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: test.ani
$Min Radius: 3.5
$Max Radius: 10.5
$Min created:2
$Max created:5
$Variance:0.3
The next chunk was put in, and did nothing when the burners were activated.
$Thruster Particles:
$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: test.ani
$Min Radius: 3.5
$Max Radius: 10.5
$Min created:2
$Max created:5
$Variance:0.3
No error messsages were displayed, and the game ran OK.
Next, I tried putting in the following:
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: test.ani
$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: test2.ani
$Min Radius: 3.5
$Max Radius: 10.5
$Min created:2
$Max created:5
$Variance:0.3
Both .ani files were placed in the same effects folder and were stock files. I tested both with the first, known to work thruster particles bit, so I know they will both display. The game displays an immediate error when you load it up. Presumably, it is parsing the ships tbl at this point. The following error message occurs:
Error: ships.tbl(line 212:
Error: Missing required token: [$Min Radius:]. Found [$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: te]
in ship: GTF Ulysses instead.
File:J:\src\cvs\fs2_open_3_6_9.rc7dot9x\code\Parse\PARSELO.CPP
Line: 656
[This filename points to the location of a file on the computer that built this executable]
Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
Thinking that it might need a full set of parameters for each type of trail, I tried the following:
$Thruster Particles:
$Thruster Particle Bitmap: test.ani
$Min Radius: 3.5
$Max Radius: 10.5
$Min created:2
$Max created:5
$Variance:0.3
$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: test2.ani
$Min Radius: 3.5
$Max Radius: 10.5
$Min created:2
$Max created:5
$Variance:0.3
This crashes with the error message:
Error: ships.tbl(line 217:
Error: Required token = [#End], [$Subsystem:] or [$Name], found [$Afterburner Particle Bitmap: te].
File:J:\src\cvs\fs2_open_3_6_9.rc7dot9x\code\Parse\PARSELO.CPP
Line: 656
[This filename points to the location of a file on the computer that built this executable]
Call stack:
------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------
Which says to me that the game has read the first parameter block, and was not expecting to find a second one!
Unknown Target.... I am simply using an old, stock Ulysses model because I know it will not have anything in it to confuse the issues. If I start making a model of my own and throwing in lots of other complexities I don't fully understand, it will make it harder to pin down issues. I have no clear idea or guidelines for any of these effects, if you are referring to the 'green light' on the afterburners compared to the bluish ordinary engine glows....well...thats not the effect I want! Afterburners, in my opinion, work by throwing lots of raw fuel into the engine exhausts, and igniting it. It should look like the Colonial Viper engines in the original BSG series. That's what I want to get to ... and I don't care how
