[Tutorial] Porting Engines (and other parts) inbetween vehicles

Dealercrash · Sep 23, 2016

wrinkle345 said: ↑

Any errors in the console?
Click to expand...

sorry for super late reply, just now saw this. and it seems like its a flexbody error, so i guess i should not have done that :/

KennyWah · Sep 24, 2016

Dealercrash said: ↑

sorry for super late reply, just now saw this. and it seems like its a flexbody error, so i guess i should not have done that :/
Click to expand...

Maybe post the error..

Dumber7 · Oct 6, 2016

How could I port parts from one vehicle to another

Dealercrash · Oct 6, 2016

SkepticalYeroc said: ↑

Maybe post the error..
Click to expand...

it just says flexbody error, i got it working

CaptainZoll · Nov 12, 2016

Is it possible to offset, rotate, and scale a model at the same time? if so, How would one do so?

TomArne02 · Mar 11, 2017

This was very confusing for an idiot like me, can you be a little bit more specific on what I`m changing?

KKG Clan · Mar 22, 2017

Is there a way to package it so it wouldn't replace the cars original engine (I wanna use it for my personal use)

wrinkle345 · Mar 22, 2017

KKG Gaming said: ↑

Is there a way to package it so it wouldn't replace the cars original engine (I wanna use it for my personal use)
Click to expand...

Yeah, just rename it.

"midsize_engine_v6" is an original engine name for the v6 in the new pessima and can be changed to literally anything else. "fart_nugglet" can even be used.

BannedByAndroid · Mar 23, 2017

When I did a ETK 800 V8 (from DPMP) to a S-Series it works, but using a race LSD makes the fromt driveshaft broken. Any fixes?

wrinkle345 · Mar 23, 2017

The F12 of Maranello said: ↑

When I did a ETK 800 V8 (from DPMP) to a S-Series it works, but using a race LSD makes the fromt driveshaft broken. Any fixes?
Click to expand...

I dunno. I don't know how the jbeam of the s-series is.

TomArne02 · Mar 31, 2017

Is it possible to get a video tutorial on this?

wrinkle345 · Mar 31, 2017

Tom Arne Grosberghaugen said: ↑

Is it possible to get a video tutorial on this?
Click to expand...

If someone can make a video, sure. I don't know how to make videos, nor do I have the horsepower to do it.

KKG Clan · Mar 31, 2017

wrinkle345 said: ↑

If someone can make a video, sure. I don't know how to make videos, nor do I have the horsepower to do it.
Click to expand...

I could make a video, I have the horse power but I need much more clear defence to do it

Mili123 · May 11, 2017

Hi Can You help me.When i copy material.cs and dae the car is all orange and writet No Material

Kuthlive · May 21, 2017

wrinkle345 said: ↑
After posting some pictures of my default vehicle; an ETK I with 3.0L I6 from the ETK 800, people asked me if I could give a tutorial on how to do this, so I am.

Note: while this tutorial focuses on porting engines specifically, the same concept can be applied to any part that you want to port.

For this, while only optional, I highly recommend using the following applications:

Blender (for measuring offsets or mesh correcting)

Notepad++ (for editing the jbeams)

So, let's get to it.

Step 1; Finding your engine and your vehicle

'Tis very hard to port if you don't know what you're porting, so figure out what you want to port and what vehicle you want to port to. In this tutorial I'll be using the ETK 800/K for the engine and the ETK I for the vehicle target (since I already have it done and ready to show)

Step 2; Finding your engine files

Depending on what engine you're going to port, the files will be in one of two places;

ETK 800/K engines can be found in the "common.zip" file as "etk_engine.jbeam"

Pickup/Roamer engines can be found in the "pickup" folder in the "common.zip" file as either "pickup_engine_i6.jbeam" for the i6 or "pickup_engine_v8.jbeam"

The rest of the engines can be found in their respective vehicle's folder (usually) as "vehiclenamehere.jbeam"

If you wish to have the engine model's .dae for more precise editing, they can be found in the same directory as their respective jbeam's.

For this tutorial, the files you mainly need are the target vehicle's engine jbeam and the port engine's jbeam

Note: For any engine other than the ETK 800/K or the Pickup/Roamer, you must also copy the vehicle's .dae and materials.cs files to the folder/directory where you will be porting your engine, otherwise your engine will be invisible. (explanation at the end).

Step 3; Getting the engine in-game

Before we go too deep, we want to get the engine to at least appear in-game, so we have something visual to go off of when we work on placement. (for now I recommend you remove the hood from your vehicle until you're sure it fits properly)

First, we want to change all vehicle references from the ported engine's vehicle to the target vehicle, that way the engine will deform and such with the vehicle.

Depending on which apps you want to use, there are two ways of doing this;

The Easy way: using Notepad++, press Crtl+F, click on the "Replace" tab, under "Find what"; enter in the name of the ported vehicle which is referenced in the jbeam, then under "Replace with"; enter in the references to the target vehicle, then press the "Replace All" button. (for this tutorial, we want to replace "etk" with "etki", but the same principle applies to all vehicles)

The Hard way: using Window's notepad, same principle, but instead you need to manually replace each instance of the old reference with the new

Once you finish that, you want to replace the "slot type" of the engine to match the default engine's slot to the target vehicle (this is where the target vehicle's engine jbeam comes in)

for this, we'll be changing "etk_engine" to "etki_engine"

If you've done this correctly, you should see (or at least kind of see) the newly ported engine!

View attachment 161904

But! Under further inspection, you can see that it doesn't quite "fit". It'll usually be too far back, forward, or up. (if it's too big then that's a whole new set of issues).

View attachment 161903

As you can see, it doesn't quite line up with the transmission or the exhaust, and looking from the top you can see various meshes clipping into each other in the wrong places. Let's fix that.

Step 4; Offsets

BeamNG has a feature in jbeams that allows you to modify the dimensions, position, and rotation of a mesh without taking it to a modeling program.

Offsetting is used a lot when it comes to "common" parts of vehicles (Spoilers, Wheels, Light Bars, etc). It can be found in jbeams in the "flexbody" category.

Code:

["etk_engine_i4", ["etki_engine","etki_transmission"],[]{"pos":{"x":0,"y":0.2,"z":0.1}}],

Most flexbodies/meshes don't have this modifier, and instead look like this:

Code:

["etk_engine_i4", ["etki_engine","etki_transmission"]],

You can simply paste it onto the end, starting the copy at "],[],{"pos"..." and pasting at the "]],"

If you wish to scale instead of moving, simply replace "pos" with "scale". Same applies to rotation, replace "pos" with "rot".

Note: When changing positions, to move towards the front of a vehicle, you need to lower the Y value (negative Y values are at the front of vehicles), to move towards the right of a vehicle, to need to lower the X value (negative values are to the right of vehicles). When changing scale, use "1" as the base scale, using values less than 1 will shrink while using values greater than 1 will grow. Do not use negative values.

Now, this step doesn't really have a correct answer, you just have to eyeball it as you change it's position/scale/rotation. Change it until you think it looks "right".

If you have a 3D modeling program, you can import the engine and the rest of the models to align them manually and export them to avoid the offsetting. Or, you can use the modeling program to align the meshes, then use the X, Y, and Z values in the offset, to save the trouble.

For the ETK 800>I conversion, I used the following:

Code:

["etk_engine_i4", ["etki_engine","etki_transmission"],[]{"pos":{"x":0,"y":0.02503,"z":-0.12937}}],

If done right, the mesh should be a bit more "snug"

View attachment 161907

(i know the exhaust is still off, we'll get to that later)

Step 5; Replacing Nodes/Beams

I know it might sound a bit complicated, but it's really easy.

Simply copy the "nodes" and "beams" (and "triangles", if applicable) sections from the target vehicle's engine jbeam and paste them over the ported engine's sections. This should fix any deform problems.

Step 6; Mesh Editing (optional)

For the exhaust alignment issue, the only real fix is to manually edit the mesh of the Target vehicle's exhaust so it aligns with the exhaust exit of the engine.

View attachment 161911

Once you edit the mesh, copy all of the jbeam for the exhaust and rename the flexbody to the new exhaust (Basically just making a new part with an existing jbeam. There should be a tutorial for that out there)

But this is just a visual change; the exhaust will work even if it doesn't look like it lines up.

The same applies to the rest of the engine meshes. Things such as radtubes, turbos, intakes, etc will still work even if they are not visually aligned. But they won't be really "show worthy".

Step 7; Sorting Jbeams (optional)

When editing meshes (like an exhaust), the resulting part will be usable on the original engine, which will (as you can probably guess) cause clipping.

The solution is to just change slot names to something more "unique", so the new parts can't be cross-mountable.

For the ETK 800/I conversion, I changed the exhaust from "etki_exhaust" to "etki_exhaust_modern"

Note: When changing the names of "slots", you must also change the part's "slotType" to match, or the part will not be mountable.

If you followed all of these steps, you should now have a working engine, that (for the most part) fits into your vehicle of choice!

View attachment 161902 View attachment 161908
Click to expand...
hey, i'm not really that big into the DIY modding stuff, but is this easy? i just don't wanna F my game up doing this.

Dealercrash · May 21, 2017

Kuthlive said: ↑

hey, i'm not really that big into the DIY modding stuff, but is this easy? i just don't wanna F my game up doing this.
Click to expand...

Its easy if you closely follow the directions, and make sure to make backups. even if you give up and mess up your game, its easily reversible. once you do this a few times you can do this as a quick 5 minute job. and remember, when doing it the first time and it doesn't work, don't give up that fast.

Kuthlive · May 21, 2017

Dealercrash said: ↑

Its easy if you closely follow the directions, and make sure to make backups. even if you give up and mess up your game, its easily reversible. once you do this a few times you can do this as a quick 5 minute job. and remember, when doing it the first time and it doesn't work, don't give up that fast.
Click to expand...

Alright. Thanks.

DavidTheWild150 · May 31, 2017

Whenever i open up a vehicle file, nothing shows up.

TandM Bros · Jun 11, 2017

wrinkle345 said: ↑
After posting some pictures of my default vehicle; an ETK I with 3.0L I6 from the ETK 800, people asked me if I could give a tutorial on how to do this, so I am.

Note: while this tutorial focuses on porting engines specifically, the same concept can be applied to any part that you want to port.

For this, while only optional, I highly recommend using the following applications:

Blender (for measuring offsets or mesh correcting)

Notepad++ (for editing the jbeams)

So, let's get to it.

Step 1; Finding your engine and your vehicle

'Tis very hard to port if you don't know what you're porting, so figure out what you want to port and what vehicle you want to port to. In this tutorial I'll be using the ETK 800/K for the engine and the ETK I for the vehicle target (since I already have it done and ready to show)

Step 2; Finding your engine files

Depending on what engine you're going to port, the files will be in one of two places;

ETK 800/K engines can be found in the "common.zip" file as "etk_engine.jbeam"

Pickup/Roamer engines can be found in the "pickup" folder in the "common.zip" file as either "pickup_engine_i6.jbeam" for the i6 or "pickup_engine_v8.jbeam"

The rest of the engines can be found in their respective vehicle's folder (usually) as "vehiclenamehere.jbeam"

If you wish to have the engine model's .dae for more precise editing, they can be found in the same directory as their respective jbeam's.

For this tutorial, the files you mainly need are the target vehicle's engine jbeam and the port engine's jbeam

Note: For any engine other than the ETK 800/K or the Pickup/Roamer, you must also copy the vehicle's .dae and materials.cs files to the folder/directory where you will be porting your engine, otherwise your engine will be invisible. (explanation at the end).

Step 3; Getting the engine in-game

Before we go too deep, we want to get the engine to at least appear in-game, so we have something visual to go off of when we work on placement. (for now I recommend you remove the hood from your vehicle until you're sure it fits properly)

First, we want to change all vehicle references from the ported engine's vehicle to the target vehicle, that way the engine will deform and such with the vehicle.

Depending on which apps you want to use, there are two ways of doing this;

The Easy way: using Notepad++, press Crtl+F, click on the "Replace" tab, under "Find what"; enter in the name of the ported vehicle which is referenced in the jbeam, then under "Replace with"; enter in the references to the target vehicle, then press the "Replace All" button. (for this tutorial, we want to replace "etk" with "etki", but the same principle applies to all vehicles)

The Hard way: using Window's notepad, same principle, but instead you need to manually replace each instance of the old reference with the new

Once you finish that, you want to replace the "slot type" of the engine to match the default engine's slot to the target vehicle (this is where the target vehicle's engine jbeam comes in)

for this, we'll be changing "etk_engine" to "etki_engine"

If you've done this correctly, you should see (or at least kind of see) the newly ported engine!

View attachment 161904

But! Under further inspection, you can see that it doesn't quite "fit". It'll usually be too far back, forward, or up. (if it's too big then that's a whole new set of issues).

View attachment 161903

As you can see, it doesn't quite line up with the transmission or the exhaust, and looking from the top you can see various meshes clipping into each other in the wrong places. Let's fix that.

Step 4; Offsets

BeamNG has a feature in jbeams that allows you to modify the dimensions, position, and rotation of a mesh without taking it to a modeling program.

Offsetting is used a lot when it comes to "common" parts of vehicles (Spoilers, Wheels, Light Bars, etc). It can be found in jbeams in the "flexbody" category.

Code:

["etk_engine_i4", ["etki_engine","etki_transmission"],[]{"pos":{"x":0,"y":0.2,"z":0.1}}],

Most flexbodies/meshes don't have this modifier, and instead look like this:

Code:

["etk_engine_i4", ["etki_engine","etki_transmission"]],

You can simply paste it onto the end, starting the copy at "],[],{"pos"..." and pasting at the "]],"

If you wish to scale instead of moving, simply replace "pos" with "scale". Same applies to rotation, replace "pos" with "rot".

Note: When changing positions, to move towards the front of a vehicle, you need to lower the Y value (negative Y values are at the front of vehicles), to move towards the right of a vehicle, to need to lower the X value (negative values are to the right of vehicles). When changing scale, use "1" as the base scale, using values less than 1 will shrink while using values greater than 1 will grow. Do not use negative values.

Now, this step doesn't really have a correct answer, you just have to eyeball it as you change it's position/scale/rotation. Change it until you think it looks "right".

If you have a 3D modeling program, you can import the engine and the rest of the models to align them manually and export them to avoid the offsetting. Or, you can use the modeling program to align the meshes, then use the X, Y, and Z values in the offset, to save the trouble.

For the ETK 800>I conversion, I used the following:

Code:

["etk_engine_i4", ["etki_engine","etki_transmission"],[]{"pos":{"x":0,"y":0.02503,"z":-0.12937}}],

If done right, the mesh should be a bit more "snug"

View attachment 161907

(i know the exhaust is still off, we'll get to that later)

Step 5; Replacing Nodes/Beams

I know it might sound a bit complicated, but it's really easy.

Simply copy the "nodes" and "beams" (and "triangles", if applicable) sections from the target vehicle's engine jbeam and paste them over the ported engine's sections. This should fix any deform problems.

Step 6; Mesh Editing (optional)

For the exhaust alignment issue, the only real fix is to manually edit the mesh of the Target vehicle's exhaust so it aligns with the exhaust exit of the engine.

View attachment 161911

Once you edit the mesh, copy all of the jbeam for the exhaust and rename the flexbody to the new exhaust (Basically just making a new part with an existing jbeam. There should be a tutorial for that out there)

But this is just a visual change; the exhaust will work even if it doesn't look like it lines up.

The same applies to the rest of the engine meshes. Things such as radtubes, turbos, intakes, etc will still work even if they are not visually aligned. But they won't be really "show worthy".

Step 7; Sorting Jbeams (optional)

When editing meshes (like an exhaust), the resulting part will be usable on the original engine, which will (as you can probably guess) cause clipping.

The solution is to just change slot names to something more "unique", so the new parts can't be cross-mountable.

For the ETK 800/I conversion, I changed the exhaust from "etki_exhaust" to "etki_exhaust_modern"

Note: When changing the names of "slots", you must also change the part's "slotType" to match, or the part will not be mountable.

If you followed all of these steps, you should now have a working engine, that (for the most part) fits into your vehicle of choice!

View attachment 161902 View attachment 161908
Click to expand...
I put the Barstow engine in the pickup but its not showing up I need help thanks I also will include the file so you can help if possible

StarredKing101 · Jun 26, 2017

is this still relevant to the game? (from the updates and all that) thinking about doing this for myself.

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[Tutorial] Porting Engines (and other parts) inbetween vehicles

Dealercrash
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