Yes Engines. Those mighty engines we could never get working. They are actually quite simple. This will be one of the shortest tutorials,but first of all you have to learn what is going on. The engine effects are weird. They are not particle effects, in fact we still dont konw exacly what they are. The way it works in EAW is as follows.
1-The model has a helper. One for each engine that should be shown.
2-For each helper there is also a bone that specifies location of this effect.
3-Each helper has a name that corresponds with a certain pre made engine effects file. These files are ALO files but they do not contain normal data, or so mike says. When a helper is named after this effect (with no alo extention) the game calls up this file for placement with the model
4-The helper and the bone are linked.
As a note I do not think the way the helper faces changes the way it comes out since its linked to a bone anyway. Also you may wish to re center the pivot point to the helper to make it easier to move.I think its optional since its liked to a bone but we never know.
To start load up a model in 3ds max 6. For the pourposes of this tutorial I will be using the Tie Interceptor. The tie might not need the engines, but it was the only readiliy avaliable model I had with me. You may use this with any type of ship but right now we focus on a fighter.
To start out we need a tool from our ALO tool box. Go to the helpers tab then go to Alamo Proxy.
Place one near where you want each engine to be.
My Tie interceptor remains without a skinned cockpit :P
So once you have 2 helpers near where you want the engine to be, place a bone in each "nozzle" or in each place you want an engine particle to come out of.
Now link the alamo proxy object to the bone, do not do it the other way around it does not work. So remember Proxy-linked to-bone not bone linked to proxy.
Screen shot of how to link- Hmm my cursor did not show up.. but notice the line between the helper and the bone.. remember always link from "slave" to "master" click on slave.. and drag to master.. and when you move the master.. everything moves :P but that is a side note..for this tutorial we need it to be linked just for the engine glow
Now Each Proxy object should be named according to which particle effect you want coming out of that bone. All proxy objects start with P_ or in some other half of the cases PE_
So a sample name could be PE_Stardestroyerengines but name them all the same thing.. dont name it PE_stardestroyerengines01.. They must all be the same
Later on i might list all the engine names, but for now you have to find them your self by looking with any tool that can open meg files. (remember look for alo files that start with P or PE and have the word engines in the file name)
Before you export make sure that you export geometry on those bones but hide them. I have not tried it without exporting geometry but my guess is that it will also work.
An update before release: Seems to be that it places the engine texture on every verticies' point on the bone.. so if you accidentally link it to the main mesh.. you might have thousands of glows. I might be able to do something with this, ill work on it