Additional lights for traffic vehicles and more.

[JigSaw]

Hello,there

How can I add an additional light to an AI traffic vehicle, for example, like those found in taxis or emergency vehicles

I'm wondering if there's a light in the "unit/hookup/vehicle/flare" folder that would glow white and activate when it's dark or when the vehicle turns on its lights.

[KrysEmlyn]

If you want a flare that activates once it's dark/vehicle lights are on, you are going to be looking for flare hookups that have "light_type: parking" set in their definitions.
Flare hookup files with "noflr" in their file name will cast light without a visible flare model and flare hookup files with "nolgh" in their file name will display a flare model with no light cast from them.

For flashing lights, you are looking for flare hookups that have "light_type: beacon" or "light_type: police_hooter" in their definitions.
Flare hookups using "light_type: beacon" will operate at all times that the vehicle is actively driving, like the orange beacons on the harvesters in farming areas.
The flare hookups using "light_type: police_hooter" will only be active if the vehicle is spawned in a vehicle hookup that has the property "forced_flare_hooter: true" set.
This is what allows the emergency vehicles you see at detours/random events to have flashing lights active on them. See the hookup file "special_vehicles.sii" for these special cases.

If you can't find a suitable flare hookup for your mod's purpose among the game's files, you can always create your own so they will work exactly as you want them to.
Just be sure to include the flare definition files for your custom flares or the game won't display them at all.

[JigSaw]

As usual, You're a wealth of useful information. Thank You for this.

And if I add a new locator in Blender and select the lights I'm interested in from the appropriate options, do I need to give this added locator a special name for it to work, or can I name it whatever I want, while keeping the character count to a minimum so it doesn't get too long

[KrysEmlyn]

Keeping the unit names within the character limit counts is enough.
You don't need a special naming convention for the flare hookups that you make.
Just make sure you name them something that you will easily identify when looking for them in Blender when you go to attach them to your models.

[JigSaw]

Okay, I managed to create my own flare and it works, but I have one question: is it possible to change the width of the light and the range of light in this post so that it shines a little further than it does in the picture

Code: Select all

SiiNunit
{
flare_vehicle: flare.vehicle.tablica
{
	dir_type: narrow
	light_type: parking
	
	default_scale: 0.225
	scale_factor: 2
	visual_offset: 0.075

	state_change_duration: 0.083	
	
	type: spot
	setup: candela_hue_saturation
	
	diffuse_color: (75, 0, 0)
	specular_color: (75, 0, 0)
	range: 0.28
	forward_distance: false
	inner_angle: 5
	outer_angle: 100
}
}

[ external image ]

[KrysEmlyn]

To make the light shine further in distance, you need to change the "range" parameter
To change the width of the light's coverage, you need to change the angle set in "outer_angle"

Here's a what I have for a side lamp for lighting up license plates:

Code: Select all

	dir_type: wide
	light_type: parking

	model: "/model/flare/uniform_cold_white.pmd"
	default_scale: 0.229
	scale_factor: 2
	visual_offset: 0.075

@include "vehicle_bulb_type_incandescent.sui"	

	type: spot
	setup: candela_hue_saturation
	diffuse_color: (80, 0, 0)
	specular_color: (80, 0, 0)
	range: 0.75
	forward_distance: false
	inner_angle: 0
	outer_angle: 20
	fade_distance: 100
	fade_span: 50

The "fade" settings control the distance at which the light is visible.
The "include" line is doing the same thing as the "state_change_duration" property in your code snippet. I'm directly referencing SCS Software's own light bulb type which has the same 0.083 value for that property.
You can skip the model definition settings if you are planning to not have a visible flare model present for your hookup.

My particular flare here is used in pairs, with one on each side of the license plate, because this one is what I use on trailers which have 2 light fixtures modeled on the rear bumper for the license plate lights.
I get a mildly brighter spot near the center of the license plate from having the light of two flares overlap each other with the range of 0.75. If you intend to use only one flare hookup to light up the plate, set the range to a bigger number.
Feel free to borrow this code block and adapt it to your projects.

[JigSaw]

I didn't really want to light only from one side (that photo was taken for testing purposes, so if I only had light from one side, would it be enough to illuminate the license plate, Plus, the light was in a bit of the wrong spot ). Even though I did light on the left and right sides, as You can see in the photo, the light doesn't reach the center of the license plate. Hence the question of extending the range a bit so it reaches just beyond the center of the license plate.

Thanks, as always, for the useful information. I'll keep experimenting until I achieve the desired effect.

[ external image ]

[JigSaw]

I have a question about the beam angle, because normally the beam angle is from a point like in No. 1 in the picture, but is it possible to adjust it somehow to be something like in No. 2

[ external image ]

[KrysEmlyn]

Given the way the lighting system is at the moment, I don't believe that No. 2 in your picture can be done.
If one of the SCS devs that knows more about the lighting system wants to chip in and correct me, feel free to do so.

[JigSaw]

I suspected it wouldn't be possible to do something like this, but I wanted to ask, so I'll leave the question open for someone who might know.

I have other questions related to vehicles and AI movement, so I'll ask them here to avoid creating another thread.

1. When importing a vehicle model from another game, what exactly is needed (besides the vehicle model, of course) to add a new vehicle to AI movement Is there a way to see in Blender the scale of a given vehicle being imported/exported, and what scale is needed for ETS 2 so that the vehicle isn't too small or too large
Looking at vehicles made by SCS or other creators, I saw that the model is made of several pieces, and I know I'll probably need to add many locators for lights, drivers, etc.

2. Does a vehicle in AI movement have to be made of several pieces, or can it be, for example, a single piece for the body of the car and separate wheels for the vehicle
I'm asking because I want to add a new vehicle to the AI ​​movement and I'm importing it from another game where the vehicle is just made, that the piece called body is the entire body of the vehicle, only the wheels are separate and the scale of the vehicle is probably smaller than in Ets 2 because I'm importing the vehicle from a game where these are remote-controlled cars.