Released Tutorial: how to place flares using blender/desmos

flip889

local ror driver

flares are lights on vehicles that rotate with the camera & are placed on them using a chosen triangle of nodes;​

your chosen nodes should form a right (L shaped) triangle with the ref node

flexbodies/props share the same principle

the flares2 syntax should be as follows:

ref node, X node, Y node, decimal percentage to X node (left right), percentage to Y node (up down), Z distance from ref node (back forth), type, control number (ctrl + number if applicable), blink/flash delay in milliseconds, size, tracks/your material​


1749515529106.png


since your x & y offsets are percentages, you could pull this off in blender with a bit of mathematical help; so using an example, here’s a step by step text tutorial on how to do that using desmos & blender 2.79

1749604811311.png


on your mesh display (N menu) check length & visualize indices; if you don’t have that [index visualizer addon], just check indices, although blender’s built in index viewer isn’t that easy to see

1749604855276.png


1st, we have to pick our nodes; remember our nodes should preferably form an L shape & encompass or be closest to where your flare or mesh should be (this applies to flexbodies/props too)

we’ll of course fill out our flares section in our text editor per the syntax

1749604915043.png
1749604918406.png


1749604928964.png


on our n/b, it’s 106, 108, & 110.

1749604946329.png


duplicate the selected triangle of nodes & keep it close by; these will be used for measuring

1749604960482.png



duplicate a singular vertex as well; this will help pinpoint your flare or mesh.

(if mesh placement/flare placement on object origin)​

tab out of edit mode & select your mesh
1749605000400.png



snap the cursor to your object, which will snap it to its origin

then go back into edit mode for your n/b



(if flare placement on a mesh but not on an origin)​

[in object mode]​


select the mesh you want to snap a flare to & enter edit mode

select that whole mesh or an edge loop & snap the cursor to it
1749605032471.png


back to main tutorial​

snap your singular vertex to your cursor, which should be exactly where your mesh is
1749605081827.png


if you don’t want to snap your cursor/snap to your cursor, move your vertex roughly to where you want the flare/mesh



now for your measurement triangle, move the outer vertices by their corresponding axis (g + your axis) while holding ctrl for snapping to the lone vertex

1749605106027.png



to find your Z offset, just take your ref node & extrude it on your back n’ forth axis while of course snapping to your lone vertex; the length of that should be your Z offset

in our case that’s 0.01909

1749605135018.png


in desmos, fill out our blender info accordingly;​


X/Y variables (& thus our big/b variables) are the lengths from the node triangle

our s or small variables are the lengths from the measuring triangle

& the fractions are the small over bigs which will get us our X/Y offsets

when you get those nailed down, copy the outputs from the fractions to fill out our flares/props line



it should now look like this:
106, 108, 110, 0.505496453901, 0.196960926194, .01909, l, -1, 341, 1.0 default

feel free to use a custom flare material at the end, or use a blink delay

1749605166061.png


and there's your flare!

happy modding, & if you want more information, you could always use voulk's video tutorial from 2011:​



the basic principle is small divided by BIG


if i got any information wrong, please feel free to correct me

i might make a part II of this where we cover tricky stuff like diagonals
 
Last edited:

flares are lights on vehicles that rotate with the camera & are placed on them using a chosen triangle of nodes;​

your chosen nodes should form a right (L shaped) triangle with the ref node

flexbodies/props share the same principle

the flares2 syntax should be as follows:

ref node, X node, Y node, decimal percentage to X node (left right), percentage to Y node (up down), Z distance from ref node (back forth), type, control number (ctrl + number if applicable), blink/flash delay in milliseconds, size, tracks/your material​


View attachment 26100

since your x & y offsets are percentages, you could pull this off in blender with a bit of mathematical help; so using an example, here’s a step by step text tutorial on how to do that using desmos & blender 2.79

View attachment 26108

on your mesh display (N menu) check length & visualize indices; if you don’t have that [index visualizer addon], just check indices, although blender’s built in index viewer isn’t that easy to see

View attachment 26109

1st, we have to pick our nodes; remember our nodes should preferably form an L shape & encompass or be closest to where your flare or mesh should be (this applies to flexbodies/props too)

we’ll of course fill out our flares section in our text editor per the syntax

View attachment 26110View attachment 26111

View attachment 26112

on our n/b, it’s 106, 108, & 110.

View attachment 26113

duplicate the selected triangle of nodes & keep it close by; these will be used for measuring

View attachment 26114


duplicate a singular vertex as well; this will help pinpoint your flare or mesh.

(if mesh placement/flare placement on object origin)​

tab out of edit mode & select your mesh
View attachment 26115


snap the cursor to your object, which will snap it to its origin

then go back into edit mode for your n/b



(if flare placement on a mesh but not on an origin)​

[in object mode]​


select the mesh you want to snap a flare to & enter edit mode

select that whole mesh or an edge loop & snap the cursor to it
View attachment 26116

back to main tutorial​

snap your singular vertex to your cursor, which should be exactly where your mesh is
View attachment 26117

if you don’t want to snap your cursor/snap to your cursor, move your vertex roughly to where you want the flare/mesh



now for your measurement triangle, move the outer vertices by their corresponding axis (g + your axis) while holding ctrl for snapping to the lone vertex

View attachment 26118


to find your Z offset, just take your ref node & extrude it on your back n’ forth axis while of course snapping to your lone vertex; the length of that should be your Z offset

in our case that’s 0.01909

View attachment 26119

in desmos, fill out our blender info accordingly;​


X/Y variables (& thus our big/b variables) are the lengths from the node triangle

our s or small variables are the lengths from the measuring triangle

& the fractions are the small over bigs which will get us our X/Y offsets

when you get those nailed down, copy the outputs from the fractions to fill out our flares/props line



it should now look like this:
106, 108, 110, 0.505496453901, 0.196960926194, .01909, l, -1, 341, 1.0 default

feel free to use a custom flare material at the end, or use a blink delay

View attachment 26120

and there's your flare!

happy modding, & if you want more information, you could always use voulk's video tutorial from 2011:​



the basic principle is small divided by BIG


if i got any information wrong, please feel free to correct me

i might make a part II of this where we cover tricky stuff like diagonals

is that a new flip bus i see?!
anyways good tutorial
 
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