What in the engine calls the JBEAM files for a vehicle? Is it the DAE file? Something else, lua file? I am just trying to understand the flow. I am new to all of this. but quite interested. Thanks
Well according to the Wiki JBeam is the file format that defines the physics skeleton in the BeamNG engine. It is called JBeam as it is based on JSON (with some exceptions) in order to define node/beam constructs. So to answer my original question it already compiled into the Beamng engine to look under the Vechicle\"vehicle name" folder for the jbeam files. I figure somewhere functions need to be declared, I guess its in the source. Again, I am new to all of this, and just trying understand. Thanks.
Yep, and then the .jbeam will call any other files it needs, be it .lua or .dae. The .dae then calls whatever your texture is through Torque. At least that's how I understand it.
I'm not sure what you're need this for, but I'll tell you what I know Take a look in lua/vehicle, it basically explains everything The jbeam is parsed out by lua, the parts hierarchy is created, starting with the "main" slot as the root. Raw nodes, beams, wheels and other physical BeamNG structures are 'compiled', sent to the engine through lua. (vehicle/beamng.lua:26) and the model is loaded by the engine, not lua, which is why you need the model (.dae) file the same name as the folder
Thanks, I will take a look. I just want to learn as much as I can, for the fun of it I deleted a few jbeam files, thinking it would affect the softbody physics. I quess it did but was surprised when it also removed the entire item. For example, if I removed vehicle_hood.jbeam the hood itself was gone.