There are two major 'effects' you notice with weapons...

First is the 'beam_effect'. You can create ball or star shaped effects with or without a wide or thin trail...
Second is the actual effect. These are the more complex effects, and are manipulated in .ale files. (look for tutoials on weapon effects)

As far as I know, no one knows how .ale's work, nor how to create new ones.

The best you can do for now however, is replace (or copy and rename) an engine and use a weapon effect in place of the normal engine effect... You can get some pretty awesome engine effects using the current ingame effects, especially the weapon ones.

For example, let's take the Lib Patriot engine.

In engine_equip.ini (data\equipment) , do a search for ge_lf_engine_01. You'll find this block.
[Engine
nickname = ge_lf_engine_01
ids_name = 263687
ids_info = 264687
volume = 0.000000
mass = 10
max_force = 48000
linear_drag = 599
power_usage = 0
reverse_fraction = 0.200000
flame_effect = gf_li_smallengine01_fire
trail_effect = gf_li_smallengine01_trail
cruise_disrupt_effect = gf_li_cruisedisruption
trail_effect_player = gf_li_smallengine01_playtrail
cruise_charge_time = 5
cruise_power_usage = 20
character_start_sound = engine_li_fighter_start
character_loop_sound = engine_li_fighter_loop
character_pitch_range = -50, 25
rumble_sound = rumble_fighter
rumble_atten_range = -5, 0
rumble_pitch_range = -25, 25
engine_kill_sound = engine_li_fighter_kill
cruise_start_sound = engine_li_cruise_start
cruise_loop_sound = engine_li_cruise_loop
cruise_stop_sound = engine_li_cruise_stop
cruise_disrupt_sound = cruise_disrupt
cruise_backfire_sound = cruise_backfire
indestructible = false
outside_cone_attenuation = -3
inside_sound_cone = 60
outside_sound_cone = 180

Look at flame_effect = gf_li_smallengine01_fire.

You'll find this in the Data\FX folder, effects.ini

[Effect
nickname = gf_li_smallengine01_fire
effect_type = EFT_ENGINE_FIRE
vis_effect = gf_li_smallengine01_fire
vis_generic = gf_min_smallengine02_fire

You can replace 'vis_effect =' with almost any effect in the weapons_ale.ini, or in any of the *_ale.ini's.

For example try this:
[Effect
nickname = gf_li_smallengine01_fire
effect_type = EFT_ENGINE_FIRE
vis_effect = ku_plasma_02_proj
vis_generic = gf_min_smallengine02_fire

(Make sure you have both the brackets, TLR Forums doesn't allow them for some reason)

That'll give you an interesting flame effect for the Liberty Patriot. ku_plasma_02_proj is actually an unused Kusari Plasma effect (much like the Lavablade, but more fiery yellow)

Edited by - Shadow51689 on 7/24/2006 10:54:56 AM

No no no, what I mean is make my very own sprite. How do I interpret that into the game data after I made it?

the sprites are in the .txm files specified after an ale file location, and can be exported/imported with utfedit - they're targa files with alpha channels

the ale's details like filename,nickname,and signed CRC can't be changed easily- so you will have to use existing viseffects; there are quite a few viseffects(ALEs) that were never used, and if you know how to look for them(they have no corresponding effect entries) you can use those, without fear of changing effects that are already in use

Edited by - Cold_Void on 7/24/2006 9:57:49 PM

Well, I've looked at all your suggestions here but am not finding a solution to my problem.

I want the Starblazer engine (ge_gf3_engine_01) to display the Liberty Dreadnought engine Flame Effect (gf_li_largeengine03)

The Liberty Dreadnought engine (ge_lbd_engine_01) can be placed on a fighter ship with a few modifications but the top engine speed is 235, not 80, top thruster speed is 5, not 120, strafe is eternally slow, and cruise speed is at 1000. I can't figure out how to make the Liberty Dreadnought engine have the correct speeds so I decided to try to make the Starblazer engine which is not apparently used by anything have the Dreadnought Flame Effect.

Here's my mod script.

<data file="data\equipment\engine_equip.ini" method="sectionreplace">
<section>
[Engine
nickname = ge_gf3_engine_01
</section>
</dest>
flame_effect = gf_li_smallengine01_fire
</dest>
<source>
flame_effect = gf_li_largeengine03
</source>
</data>

The problem is that when you put that engine on a ship it still shows the Liberty Small Engine Flame Effect (gf_li_smallengine01_fire).

I can't edit the flame effect gf_li_smallengine01_fire because then every ship in the game that uses that flame effect will have a dreadnought engine including the starflier, defender, eagle, etc.

So, what am I missing?

Also, when mounting a Nomad Fighter engine on a fighter it works just fine but you have no cargo hold anymore. Volume on the engine has been set to zero but the hold still cannot accept cargo.

I know there's another thread on this (started by me) but you sound as though you're familiar with editing engines so I figured I'd drop this in here.