What makes gauges illuminate?

iheartmods · Mar 13, 2017

Yo,

So, I'm trying to find a way to make a custom gauge glow when you turn the lights on. It's for an ETK 800 mod if that helps.

Any direction would be massively appreciated.

Cheers!

Y4123 · Mar 13, 2017

the Illuminate-i?

Godzilla! · Mar 13, 2017

Glowmaps I believe, they are also used to make the lights glow.

iheartmods · Mar 13, 2017

Godzilla! said: ↑

Glowmaps I believe, they are also used to make the lights glow.
Click to expand...

I guess my main question is where do I find them (files)

Godzilla! · Mar 13, 2017

They would be in the main jbeam file, this is what they look like (used Coupe.jbeam for example):

Code:

    "glowMap":{
            "coupe_signal_L":{"simpleFunction":{"lowhighbeam":0.49,"parking":0.49,"signal_L":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_signal_R":{"simpleFunction":{"lowhighbeam":0.49,"parking":0.49,"signal_R":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_taillight_L":{"simpleFunction":{"brake":0.49,"lowhighbeam":0.49,"signal_L":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_taillight_R":{"simpleFunction":{"brake":0.49,"lowhighbeam":0.49,"signal_R":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_trunklight":{"simpleFunction":{"brake":0.49,"lowhighbeam":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_chmsl":{"simpleFunction":{"brake":100}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_headlight":{"simpleFunction":{"lowbeam":0.49,"highbeam":1}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_headlightlens":{"simpleFunction":{"lowbeam":0.49,"highbeam":1}, "off":"coupe_headlightlens", "on":"coupe_headlightlens_on", "on_intense":"coupe_headlightlens_on"},
            "coupe_reverselight":{"simpleFunction":{"reverse":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},

            "coupe_gauges":{"simpleFunction":"lowhighbeam", "off":"coupe_gauges", "on":"coupe_gauges_on"},

            //gauge lights
            "signal_L":{"simpleFunction":"signal_L", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "signal_R":{"simpleFunction":"signal_R", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "checkengine":{"simpleFunction":"checkengine", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "hazard":{"simpleFunction":"hazard", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "battery":{"simpleFunction":"battery", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "highbeam":{"simpleFunction":"highbeam", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "parkingbrake":{"simpleFunction":"parkingbrake", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "lowfuel":{"simpleFunction":"lowfuel", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "lowpressure":{"simpleFunction":"lowpressure", "off":"invis", "on":"invis"},
            "abs":{"simpleFunction":"abs", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
    }
},

iheartmods · Mar 13, 2017

Godzilla! said: ↑

They would be in the main jbeam file, this is what they look like (used Coupe.jbeam for example):

Code:

    "glowMap":{
            "coupe_signal_L":{"simpleFunction":{"lowhighbeam":0.49,"parking":0.49,"signal_L":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_signal_R":{"simpleFunction":{"lowhighbeam":0.49,"parking":0.49,"signal_R":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_taillight_L":{"simpleFunction":{"brake":0.49,"lowhighbeam":0.49,"signal_L":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_taillight_R":{"simpleFunction":{"brake":0.49,"lowhighbeam":0.49,"signal_R":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_trunklight":{"simpleFunction":{"brake":0.49,"lowhighbeam":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_chmsl":{"simpleFunction":{"brake":100}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_headlight":{"simpleFunction":{"lowbeam":0.49,"highbeam":1}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},
            "coupe_headlightlens":{"simpleFunction":{"lowbeam":0.49,"highbeam":1}, "off":"coupe_headlightlens", "on":"coupe_headlightlens_on", "on_intense":"coupe_headlightlens_on"},
            "coupe_reverselight":{"simpleFunction":{"reverse":0.49}, "off":"coupe_lights", "on":"coupe_lights_on", "on_intense":"coupe_lights_on_intense"},

            "coupe_gauges":{"simpleFunction":"lowhighbeam", "off":"coupe_gauges", "on":"coupe_gauges_on"},

            //gauge lights
            "signal_L":{"simpleFunction":"signal_L", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "signal_R":{"simpleFunction":"signal_R", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "checkengine":{"simpleFunction":"checkengine", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "hazard":{"simpleFunction":"hazard", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "battery":{"simpleFunction":"battery", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "highbeam":{"simpleFunction":"highbeam", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "parkingbrake":{"simpleFunction":"parkingbrake", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "lowfuel":{"simpleFunction":"lowfuel", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
            "lowpressure":{"simpleFunction":"lowpressure", "off":"invis", "on":"invis"},
            "abs":{"simpleFunction":"abs", "off":"invis", "on":"decals_gauges"},
    }
},

Click to expand...

Hmm, I feel like this is missing something to be editable. I think I may be talking about finding a glowmap 'texture'. I'll show what I'm trying to say.

Off:

On:

I want the three colors to illuminate. How can this be accomplished?

iheartmods · Mar 13, 2017

Darren9 said: ↑

In the jbeam they're in the "glowmap" section in the main jbeam, this one turns the backlight on when the lights are on if that's what you're after. Look in the material.cs to find the two materials it switches between in the off and on states, and that'll point you to the textures. Typically the "gauges_on" material has emissive and/or glow and the "gauges" doesn't.

"etk800_gauges":{"simpleFunction":"lowhighbeam", "off":"etk800_gauges", "on":"etk800_gauges_on"},
Click to expand...

I'll check out materials.cs

Godzilla! · Mar 13, 2017

iheartmods said: ↑

Hmm, I feel like this is missing something to be editable. I think I may be talking about finding a glowmap 'texture'. I'll show what I'm trying to say.

Off:
View attachment 244920

On:
View attachment 244921
I want the three colors to illuminate. How can this be accomplished?
Click to expand...

You have to change the color in Material Editor (in the World Editor mode, key F11). You can change the color there, but the process isn't easy and can conflict the original instrument panel.

Materials.cs doesn't have the code to change the illumination color.

iheartmods · Mar 13, 2017

Godzilla! said: ↑

You have to change the color in Material Editor (in the World Editor mode, key F11). You can change the color there, but the process isn't easy and can conflict the original instrument panel.

Materials.cs doesn't have the code to change the illumination color.
Click to expand...

This is a pain. I'm getting nowhere. Someone should create a tutorial on this.

iheartmods · Mar 14, 2017

Darren9 said: ↑
You don't need to touch the world editor for a vehicle (it can save things in strange places and not work how you might expect ). Better to just edit the jbeam, material.cs and textures by hand in notepad++/GIMP and re-load the car to see the changes.

If you've got the non-glow texture to work it should have a material similar to the original ETK800's one. This is the material used in the off state.
Code:
singleton Material(etk800_gauges)
{
    mapTo = "etk800_gauges";
    diffuseMap[0] = "vehicles/etk800/etk800_gauges_d.dds";
    specularMap[0] = "vehicles/etk800/etk800_gauges_s.dds";
    normalMap[0] = "vehicles/etk800/etk800_gauges_n.dds";
    diffuseColor[0] = "0 0 0 1";
    specularPower[0] = "32";
    pixelSpecular[0] = "1";
    useAnisotropic[0] = "1";
    materialTag0 = "beamng"; materialTag1 = "vehicle";
    cubemap = "global_cubemap_metalblurred";
};
You'll need to add a new material for the on state (the glow), if you look at the stock one you'll see it's the same on layer 0 but adds a new layer 1 on top that's the glow map (literally you see the glowmap image on layer 1 and then the original non-glow image underneath it on layer 0). With emissive set to 1 on that top layer to make it glow (emissive[1] = "1"; ).
Code:
singleton Material(etk800_gauges_on)
{
    mapTo = "etk800_gauges_on";
    diffuseMap[1] = "vehicles/etk800/etk800_gauges_g.dds";
    specularMap[1] = "vehicles/etk800/etk800_gauges_s.dds";
    normalMap[1] = "vehicles/etk800/etk800_gauges_n.dds";
    diffuseMap[0] = "vehicles/etk800/etk800_gauges_d.dds";
    specularMap[0] = "vehicles/etk800/etk800_gauges_s.dds";
    normalMap[0] = "vehicles/etk800/etk800_gauges_n.dds";
    diffuseColor[0] = "0 0 0 1";
    specularPower[0] = "32";
    specularPower[1] = "32";
    pixelSpecular[0] = "1";
    useAnisotropic[0] = "1";
    materialTag0 = "beamng"; materialTag1 = "vehicle";
    cubemap = "global_cubemap_metalblurred";
    emissive[1] = "1";
    diffuseColor[1] = "0 0 0 0";
    useAnisotropic[1] = "1";
};
The glow image is "etk800_gauges_g.dds", if you open that in GIMP you'll see it's transparent with just semi-transparent red where the glow will be (the amount of transparency effects the strength of glow) . You'll need to make one of those for your new gauge, it'll just have semi-transparent red, blue, green and the orange writing on a clear background and use that new image on the diffuseMap[1] layer.

There's an easy way to make the glow image. Take your original gauge texture, in GIMP use the colour picker to find the colours of the background, then use Colour>Colour to Alpha to change that colour to transparent, you'll be able to remove all of the other colours except the bit's you want to glow.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I'll give this a shot later. I think one of things I was missing was the emissive code plus, I wouldn't have thought the diffuse map was where to go.
--- Post updated ---
Finally some progress! Anybody have thoughts on making this more smooth/circular?

iheartmods · Mar 15, 2017

Finally some progress!

Darren9 said: ↑

I do, but it would be a huge long post to explain it, I'll do a full explanation if you want me to. I made a circle in white on a transparent background, cut away the bits I didn't want, feathered the edges of the three segments left so they're nice and smooth and then coloured each one to match yours. You should be able to scale, rotate and paste it in if you paint over yours with background colour if you want to.

View attachment 245308
Click to expand...

This is sexy. Thanks! You'll be credited.

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