.ebg FAQ?

[ADUN]

Could anyone point me to a full ebg. FAQ? gonna try to start makeing my own hit/death and bullet effects.

[ADUN]

Ok, its been a day, could isnt there ANY ebg FAQ in the world that someone could point me to???

[Delphy]

The only thing I can really suggest is going to SvKs page and looking at the pre-made EBGs they have done.

Learn by example in other words.

Regards
Delphy

[Crook]

There are no ebg tutorials out there to find. As each is specific, most of it is a learning curver for whoever is doing it - find some mods with effects and learn by example - I'll see if I can write a short intro tutorial sometime soon.........

[MaSaKaRi]

Yeah, but there could be a FAQ that explains some basic stuff. Like, i had to email SvK to learn how to scale a beam. That's something very generic that could be covered in a ebg faq. There are lots of others also, what do all those numbers do at the heading of a bullet effect, concepts (what is floatdamage, floatvelocity, setlifespan, setdepthwrite, etc), what are the numbers after subTextureDWORD, etc. Lots of stuff that would clear many ppl's doubts while being generic to EBG files (i think).

[Ghent]

i'll try to help a bit. General ion beam .ebg file here: My notes on it will be preceeded by // You should be able to just copy paste this into a .ebg file and use it.

//T-MAT Dark Matter Ion Cannon, very large
//by Ghent
//these first lines with #'s in them are probably nonsense.  I
// just leave them alone when editing.  SvK I believe edits them
// out and still gets the file to work
#line 1 "d:\\homeworld\\DataSrc\\ETG\\bullet\\BulletIonRayR1.etg"
#line 1 "d:\\homeworld\\dataSrc\\ETG\\etg.h"

#line 112 "d:\\homeworld\\dataSrc\\ETG\\etg.h"

#line 1 "d:\\homeworld\\DataSrc\\ETG\\bullet\\BulletIonRayR1.etg"
#line 1 "d:\\homeworld\\src\\game\\specialeventdefs.h"

#line 1 "d:\\homeworld\\DataSrc\\ETG\\bullet\\BulletIonRayR1.etg"
eventStart(float damage = 10, float velocity = 20, float length = 10)

// I have no clue what this does.  Use the default for the original
// weapon
particleBlocks([10 * (1 / 0.1)])

#line 1 "d:\\homeworld\\dataSrc\\ETG\\meshanims.etg"

// This is the "name" for a MESH Animation.  Mesh Animations are
// used to link several different .peo files together such as for a
// hyperspace gate, slipgate, ion beam, plasmabomb, or
// twisting/moving hit effect of some sort.  Make the name easy,
// you WILL use it later.

label(beamMesh)         //you can change the label name
// These below declare the pathname or location of the .peo files
//to use.  You can call them .geo or .peo there is no
//difference.  "1" declares the first part in the animation, i
//think.  "2" declares the final part of the animation.
    morphAnimDWORD(ETG\meshes\misc\beamRibbon.geo, 1)
    morphAnimDWORD(ETG\meshes\misc\beamRibbon01.geo, 0)
    morphAnimDWORD(ETG\meshes\misc\beamRibbon01.geo, 0)
    morphAnimDWORD(ETG\meshes\misc\beamRibbon01.geo, 2)
int 4294967295  //no clue
#line 12 "d:\\homeworld\\dataSrc\\ETG\\meshanims.etg"

#line 14 "d:\\homeworld\\DataSrc\\ETG\\bullet\\BulletIonRayR1.etg"
#line 1 "d:\\homeworld\\dataSrc\\ETG\\texanims.etg"

//another label, this time for a TEXTURE Animation.  See the difference?
label(R1beamDummy)    // you can change the label name
  subTextureDWORD(ETG\textures\bullets\beamtest,[64 * 16777216 + 64 * 65536 + 0 * 256 + 0], 1)
  subTextureDWORD(ETG\textures\bullets\beamtest01,[64 * 16777216 + 64 * 65536 + 0 * 256 + 0], 0)
  subTextureDWORD(ETG\textures\bullets\beamtest02,[64 * 16777216 + 64 * 65536 + 0 * 256 + 0], 2)
//the numbers there after the pathname deal with color in the
// form of Alpha, Blue, Green, Red ... ABGR, as opposed to the
// standard format ot RGBA.  1, 0, and 2 appear to be the same
// function as the above MESH Animation... ie - 1 = start, 2 = end.
int 4294967295
#line 119 "d:\\homeworld\\dataSrc\\ETG\\texanims.etg"

#line 15 "d:\\homeworld\\DataSrc\\ETG\\bullet\\BulletIonRayR1.etg"

variable   //no clue, it's just in all the files.  I think this is a variable
               //declaration segment of the file.  Keep the same things
               // as default.
{
float wispSize
float lifeSpan
float tLength
int line  //ok, THIS however seems to set up or initialize some
            // object called "line"

float beamLength  //this is used later, when "beamLength" is
                              //altered.  I'm not sure.  beamLength may
                              //later be called by other .ebg files?[/i]
}
startup
{
    setDefaults()     //zeros out the variables?

    setLength(length) //length comes from the .shp file, or you can
                                  // manually set this to a number
    setScale(2000)      // you can set this manually, or use a
                                  // variable here too.  Changes WIDTH

//format     setMeshAnimation(label,rate,lifetime)
//rate is in frames per second or cycles per second i think.
// ie - it will run this animation ## times per second.
// Smaller number = slower , larger number = faster

    setMeshAnimation(beamMesh,0.01,0)   

// above declares what MESH anim to use.  Use one.  Muliple
// Mesh Animations are done with seperate entries... like
// duplicating everything after "SetDefaults()" until 
// "line <-- createMeshes(1,0)"  You probably need to add above
// in the variable section "int line2" and  then change
// "line2 <-- createMeshes(1,0)"

    setMeshStartFrame(1)      

// setMeshStartFrame = what frame to start on, whatever is  "1"
// above in the subTextureDWORD parts

// below format     setAnimation(label,rate,lifetime)
// this cycles 15 frames of animation per second, for 1000
// seconds, i think.
// declares what TEXTURE Animation to use

    setAnimation(R1beamDummy, 15, 1000)    
   
    setPseudoBillboard(1)                // no clue, leave it
    setDepthWrite(0)                       // no clue, leave it
    setVelocityInWorldSpace(1)       // no clue, keep default again
    setLifespan(10)                          // lifespan in seconds, i think

//ok THIS one means business.  "line" is the object name created,
// i think.  createMeshes is a command, that makes the object
// "line" using all the above information since that opening { mark

    line <- createMeshes(1,0)
}
eachFrame             // it does the following each frame of animation
{
    beamLength <- fadd(length, 100)
// random variance, i think.  i keep default values.

    modifyLength(line, beamLength)
// some command to add in random variance to the object 
// "line" using the value "beamLength" which was floated earlier.
// no clue wtf floating is
}