Modding lighting on vehicles

[William Stapleford]

Ok i know that there are some new mods that change the lighting on the vehicles.  I have been trying to figure out how to add new lights to the vehicles and mod the existing lighting.  The editor is very confusing and the tutorial that has subtitles only covers the basics.  I was hoping that someone who fully understands the language in the video will continue to translate with subtitles but until that happens I'm trying to simply edit and play with simply things.

 

I know how to get a vehicle and get it place it in the editor and then to change the property of the lights and the lighting animation and action however that where it stops for me.  I will give a simply example of using the medic vehicle and changing the left light bar light to a RED light flashing.  I have gotten that far but have no idea how to save those changes and to add that to the game just as a test.  I have also created other lights that sit in the tail lights and flash a random code 3 strobe pattern but these also do not seem to be attached to the vehicle and also appear to shine through the vehicles at all angles.

 

could someone please explain how to mod the lights and get those changes into the game etc.

 

I know the RED and BLUE lightbar on these vehicles is silly as the cover of the mesh model skin shows it as blue but it is a start and also easy to see the changes and what each change does to the light.  Also if you create a LED strobe for the LEFT side of the car, can you simply copy and paste this to the RIGHT?

 

Simply things that i just cant figure out yet.

 

Thank you for your time and help.

 

Bill

[TheVolume]

I'll say this currently occupies the EM4 lighting, that is, to my own mod

 

What do you want to learn ?

 

1 light you have himself set so they do not protrude beyond the vehicle

 

2 Light is a simple thing - but it is time consuming

 

3 to get the best results you need to use something called polygons

 

4 If you is not the point - that explain all but one sentence I greet !

[PaganiZonda760]

so you have the white placment tool. thats your biggest friend. you have to move the truck in different positions (front,side,top) to get the light placed perfectly. you can use the button in the middle of the mouse. sometimes you have to add more than one flare to the same light zo get a LED Light flash pattern. E.g. one of my strobes: first number 2.50 second number 1,50 , size 31. And the flashing setting on the right with 0.97. and the second one is 2,50/1,00/size31/flashing 80. this is were to start first. the best idea is to start with the headlights, blinkers, taillights and brakelights. these use simple patterns. polys are alot more complicated, j wouldn't try taht in the beginning

if you have more questions ,feel free to ask!

[mariuswww]

 

I'll say this currently occupies the EM4 lighting, that is, to my own mod

 

This is an Em5 topic.

[TheVolume]

This is an Em5 topic

I'm sorry I did not notice

[PaganiZonda760]

oh sry

[C.F.D]

Bill I'll make a short video explaining the basics of light editing in EM5 editor. I'll post the video in this topic when I'm done. Make sure you subscribe to this thread to recieve notifications of new replies.

[William Stapleford]

Thanks a lot for the replies.  I think this game has awesome potential when some modders really start getting into it like EM4.  Here is what I have so far.  I opened the builder and chose to see the prefab browser.  I choose my vehicle that I want to modify and find the simple police car or emergency medical vehicle.  Over on the right after I place the unit I see the properties of all the points on the car.  I find the point that shows as a left blue light and go through all the different options to change the color and timing.  I can see the changes and then find the associated flare points and modify them to be the same time and color as the light.  It shows good on the preview or live view window.  I then saved it as a new group or object and called it TEST_(original veh name).  Now the part that i cant figure out.  I go back into prefab browser and find the light section.  I chose the rear left blue light.  I drag it over and position it on the rear left tail light of the car.  I change its properties to be red and and the flare as well to the same point.  It looks good on the live view but i can not attach it to the car.  I see that you can detach from parent but i cant get the light to become part of the vehicle.  If i chose the vehicle and move it the lights I added will stay in the same position but the light that were on the model and modified are fine.

 

I'm lost as to what i need to do to make the lights stay with the vehicle. Any help would be great thanks.

 

Bill

[godra]

Prefab and light editing is explained in this video. Unfortunately there are no english subtiltles at the moment - in a few weeks from now, I will have some more time, maybe I'm able to create them then.

 

You can link objects, lights, particel effects etc. to other objects. If you want to do that, you'll have to place both the car and the light in the editor on the right position. If you activate the debug boxes of the light you can grab it much easier. When the positions are okay, select the light and hover over your vehicle. You'll see some kind of green circle around the vehicle. Press the right mouse button and go to the option "Linkage". Here you can select different linkage options, "Hard link selected", "Soft link selected" and "Link selected to slot". If you edit an existing vehicle, the components are already edited. If you create a new vehicle, you'll have to add the right light component to the prefab of the vehicle before you can link the light. If you want to link the light to the vehicle, follow the steps I mentioned and select "Link selected to slot" -> "VehicleLight". Now you have attached the new light to your vehicle and you've placed it into the right component to. If you want to save your vehicle you'll have to chose "Prefab" -> "Save Prefab".

[William Stapleford]

Thanks for taking the time to explain. So what I did was take a ambulance from prefab browser. The larger transport. I did not edit aambulance existing lights on it but added my own. I grabbed a flashing blue flare from prefab browser and possitioned it as close as I could to the rear upper left corner round light that EM5 seemed to forget. Figured it was easiest to do that as it was already colored on the model. I changed the flare strobe color to red. I then went through all the options of the and found the light controler tab. Changed the timing and made it more of a strobe POP insread of a blinking.

After this renamed the prefab part. Right clicked and selected to link it to the vehicle lighting. A large blue box appeared around the ambulance. Then when I clicked my newly labled part from the layers tab it showed a green line to this large blue box. Selecting the ambulance and moving it now takes all the new stuff with it.

I saved my prefab as a new prefab and then found it in the prefab browser and placed a second one in the map. Both worked correctly.

So now we come to the fun part could someone please explain the different parts of the lighting tabs. Some make sence ie color. But others make no sense to me at all.

Lighting control shows a custom pattern with a ton of 1s and 0s. Im assuming this is binary on and off but I just dont understand how to make a better flash pattern like you stated above for your strobes.

What controls the shape of the lights. There is a directional option too but I did not see much change when playing with that.

There are lights in the prefab browser that are square and grouped, I think they are for the fire truck but I cant get these to work correctly. Im trying to add directional lights to the rear of the amb and side marker strobes etc. Doesnt have to be exact but just playing around.

Of course only one editor video is translated so I have to guess at what all the others are saying.

Finally how do I take my test copy and see it in game?

Thanks for any help anyone can give im happy to finally see some things working correctly. Long ways off from ever being as good as other light packages but its fun to try.

Thanks

Bill