Engine Emission

[kiyoshisaotome]

Hello fellow space adventurers

I have just started to mod KSP after 2 years of playing. I understand most of CFG lines, however, I'm completely stuck at MODEL_MULTI_PARTICLE. I've google every possible answer i could think of, but most of the site only breeze over the detail and not exact. Can someone help me with this line.

 

            MODEL_MULTI_PARTICLE
            {
                name=flamethrust3
                modelName=Squad/FX/shockExhaust_blue
                transformName= fxTransform3
                emission=0.0 0
                emission=0.1 20
                emission=0.9 25
                emission=1.5 30
                emission=2.75 35
                speed=0.0 0.4
                speed=1 0.7
                speed=2.75 2
            }

 

No idea how this line of code work, please help me ;(

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

1 hour ago, kiyoshisaotome said:

MODEL_MULTI_PARTICLE

= a unity FX model that is accessible in a folder somewhere  as opposed to the PREFAB_PARTICLE type which is usually baked into a unity Asset bundle.  The main difference being ( as a tweaker ) is that you can mess with the textures/colors  in the former case and cannot in the latter.

If you follow that file path you will find a model and texture relating to it,  you will not find the same for a PREFAB_PARTICLE

Edited October 20, 2017 by SpannerMonkey(smce)

[kiyoshisaotome]

Thank you  i guess i can give up on it.............. for now.....

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Just now, kiyoshisaotome said:

Thank you  i guess i can give up on it.............. for now.....

you can also swap one for the other with no real problems, so plenty of room for experimentation

 

[Ser]

9 hours ago, kiyoshisaotome said:

Hello fellow space adventurers

I have just started to mod KSP after 2 years of playing. I understand most of CFG lines, however, I'm completely stuck at MODEL_MULTI_PARTICLE. I've google every possible answer i could think of, but most of the site only breeze over the detail and not exact. Can someone help me with this line.

No idea how this line of code work, please help me ;(

Never used that myself but as I understand:

transformName= fxTransform3 - is the name of the part's defined transform to which emitted particles will be bound.

emission values, as you can see, form two columns. The first is power of effect (don't know what it might be, for engines it is usually thrust value between 0 and 1). The second column defines corresponding number of particles emitted per second. All together they define a curve interpolated for the given values.

speed is the same, all the lines define a curve. First column is a power of effect, the second one is corresponding particle speed.

[kiyoshisaotome]

1 hour ago, Ser said:

transformName= fxTransform3 - is the name of the part's defined transform to which emitted particles will be bound.

emission values, as you can see, form two columns. The first is power of effect (don't know what it might be, for engines it is usually thrust value between 0 and 1). The second column defines corresponding number of particles emitted per second. All together they define a curve interpolated for the given values.

speed is the same, all the lines define a curve. First column is a power of effect, the second one is corresponding particle speed.

This make much more sense now, thank you  this is the exact answer i'm looking for....now to spend my days in a dark corner perfecting the FX trail......

[Ser]

25 minutes ago, kiyoshisaotome said:

This make much more sense now, thank you  this is the exact answer i'm looking for....now to spend my days in a dark corner perfecting the FX trail......

Good luck and good patience to you

[Nightside]

You might  also be interested in using the Smokescreen mod. It has an ingame plume editor. 

[JadeOfMaar]

On 10/20/2017 at 2:41 AM, kiyoshisaotome said:

Can someone help me with this line.

 

            MODEL_MULTI_PARTICLE
            {
                name=flamethrust3
                modelName=Squad/FX/shockExhaust_blue
                transformName= fxTransform3
                emission=0.0 0
                emission=0.1 20
                emission=0.9 25
                emission=1.5 30
                emission=2.75 35
                speed=0.0 0.4
                speed=1 0.7
                speed=2.75 2
            }

 

No idea how this line of code work, please help me ;(

Howdy.  Here's the breakdown.

• name = is an identifier. It's only necessary if you have more than one under the same EFFECT sub-node (such as power_open, running_closed, running_turbine). if you have > 1 MODEL_MULTI_PARTICLE node and no name, some or all of them will not register in-game.
• modelName = is the path to a Unity FX model somewhere about. Any mod whose engine uses fancy particles likely has its own .mu files for these particles in its own FX folder in that mod.

Now here's the great stuff, curve-centric entries. All of the following FX-related keys have this structure:

• emission, speed, energy, volume, pitch
• volume = , pitch = only apply in AUDIO {} nodes, and allow you to same levels of creativity with sound clips as the particle nodes.
• The first number in the array is the thrust multiplier. The final value of this is the product of the thrust multiplier value in the atmosphereCurve {} (thrust affected by atmosphere pressure) and velCurve {} (thrust affected by speed in atmosphere)
• The second number is how much the key's effect is applied to the particle when the thrust multiplier has this final value.
• emission = is how much* of the particle is emitted (particle density) given the throttle setting and thrust multiplier.
• speed = is how fast* the particle travels (particle trail length) away from the emission point
• energy = (you'll find this in the Panther's config) is how ecstatic* the particles are. Setting this high can make the particle emit in various directions, and behave in ways that'll be hard to grasp or expect.

* There is no fixed unit of measurement. The result depends on how the modder made the particle.

To know how high an engine's thrust multiplier can actually go when writing its effects (especially for jet engines), you'll have to know what the maximum thrust multiplier is (in its velCurve {} node), and how much it would be limited by the drag produced by a craft, and thin atmosphere as in its atmospereCurve {} node). The RAPIER's velocity multiplier goes up to 8, but the best place in atmosphere tends to be where atmosphere pressure is < 20% so the thrust is then divided by 4  or 5. Therefore, the highest the first value in your FX keys needs to go is probably 3.

For most other engines, you only need to cater for a maximum thrust multiplier of 1.

Some FX combinations I've done:

Spoiler

 Panther flame + OPT blue light

 Twin-boar alone (2 instances, each configured differently, 1 of which has high energy...high enough that particles emit in the wrong direction)

 Vector engine flame (lots of speed, emission and energy for spread, think ISV Venture Star)

 Unknown stock purple flame (large version to Rapier's closed cycle) + Vector flame

 Two particles from Mk2 Expansion

 

Edited October 24, 2017 by JadeOfMaar