Question about Multi DAE

Good day, folks.

I have been doing some fiddling about with some of the original DAE's (not saving anything yet so as not to break smoothing groups or anything like that). I want to simply add the Sunburst Turbo I4 into the Covet, maybe scale it donw and once it fits, adapt the frame and subframes so that the Covet looks legit with the Turbo 4 cylinder setup. Maybe even once I figure all this out I will attempt to model the actual AWD system into the Covet. Simple question with a not so simple answer, I am sure: How do I take advantage of Multi-DAE? I opened the Sunburst DAE in Blender, selected all the parts I want to chuck into the covet engine bay (Turbo setup, engine block, subframe, exhaust and enginebay crap pretty much) so it is all in one group in my blender screen, so I have already identified what parts I want to use. What is it that has to happen to copy these items and import them to the Covet DAE? Do I import to the DAE and fix smoothing groups? Will I have to re-texture all the engine parts? For now, I want to get the model in game and then from there I can mess with the jbeam and stuff. I have a pretty good udnerstanding about the transformations, origins and general jbeam stuff. Any ideas is greatly appreciated (sorry if someone is already trying to do this, but this is more of an exercise on getting more familiar with Multi DAE...is this even considered a Multi DAE project at this point?)

Thanks guys

 

Check pm, can provide more info on it when I'm back at a PC.

 

thanks 6677.....Ill be waiting

Also, here is a pic of what I want to transplant to the Covet.



- - - Updated - - -

heres a pic with the engine in place, need to do some more adjustments....

 

I'm not sure this is all correct but I'll give it a try..

The new parts and the parts you edited will have to be in the new DAE. For example, I changed the Sunburst race exhaust to fit the normal rear bumper so I took the normal DAE and edited the exhaust to my liking. Then I renamed the exhaust so it wouldn't be the same as in the normal DAE and deleted all other parts, so my second DAE only contains the exhaust.

You want to put the Sunburst engine etc. in the Covet which I haven't tried myself but I think this is how you'd do it:
First you import the parts from the Sunburst.DAE that you want to use to the hatch.DAE.
Then you edit them so they'll be in the place you want them to be.
Then you delete the original covet parts because those will still be in the original Covet.DAE and you don't need them twice. Also make sure all your new parts have names you'll remember because you'll need to use them in your jbeam files.
Save the DAE with just the new parts in it.
Now to use the new DAE as extra parts for the Covet, you have to put it in the mods folder. Since you'll most likely be editing the jbeam files a lot you'll be best off not putting it in a zip yet so you put the new DAE in the mods/vehicles/hatch folder you'll have to create.
To be able to use the new parts you'll have to make new jbeam files. For me it was the easiest to simply take a jbeam file from the original car (sunburst in my case) and rename it to something different, and delete the parts you won't use. To just get the engine to show up for example you take the hatch_engine.jbeam file, delete everything in it except for one engine in there (for example the stock 1.4). Then you change the name at the top and the name "Ibishu Covet 1.5L I4 Engine" so it won't interfere with the original engine, and under "flexbodies" you change "hatch_engine" under "mesh" into the name you gave the sunburst engine in the new .DAE to make the new mesh show instead of the old one.

Below there's an example for how the first part of the jbeam file would look. The parts in Italic are the parts I changed.

Code:

{
"hatch_engine[I]_sunburst[/I]": {    "information":{
        "authors":"BeamNG",
        "name":"[I]Hirochi Sunburst 2.0 I4 Engine[/I]",
    }
    "slotType" : "hatch_engine",
    "scalenodeWeight":0.62,
    "scalebeamSpring":0.46,
    "scalebeamDamp":0.58,
    "scalebeamDeform":0.39,
    "scalebeamStrength":0.51,
    "slots": [
        ["type", "default", "description"]
        ["hatch_exhaust","hatch_exhaust", "Ibishu Covet Exhaust"],
        ["hatch_transmission","hatch_transmission_4A", "Ibishu Covet Transmission"],
        ["hatch_enginetuning","", "Ibishu Covet Engine Tuning"],
    ],
    "flexbodies": [
         ["mesh", "[group]:", "nonFlexMaterials"],
         ["[I]sunburst_engine[/I]", ["hatch_engine"]],

Everything below this in the DAE does not have to be changed for the mesh to show up.

Save the jbeam file with a different name from the original jbeam you copied (for example hatch_sunburst_engine.jbeam) in the mods/vehicles/hatch/ folder and now when you go into the game there should be a new engine option for the hatch. It'll still behave like the normal engine and have the original engine options (gearboxes, exhaust and tuning) since you haven't changed that yet but this is just to get you started.

* I don't think the textures will work straight away though since it's from a different vehicle but I'm sure someone else will be able to tell you how to make them work.

I'm no expert so not 100% sure this is all right, but I hoped I could help until someone else will do it better. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I hope this will help you get started.

 

Well that was certainly very helpful for sure. It opened my eyes as to the basic mechanics of this new fangled Multi-DAE. Everything you wrote makes sense to me, at least I could follow it and it all seems logical. I will have to bring my laptop home to work on this tonite, I am at work at the moment and my manager keeps seeing my blender screen open so I shut it down for now lol but that was all very helpful, and 6677 is also PMing me as well so hopefully Ill be able to get something going here. Of course once anything happens I will upload as a mod, but obviously this is super early progress. I got the engine and transmission lined up, and scaled down a bit, although I might try and actually modify the engine bay shape and make the original sized 2.4T fit in there with a bumped up hood or something. I will probably restart the positioning tho, and keep the scale so as not to mess with the original car body, and as you explained, just keep the positioned engine parts as their own DAE.

From what I read also, in super basic terms:

MULTI DAE means you keep an extra part as it's own DAE and basically link that DAE to the car you want it to be a part of through code. Very interesting, and I have a pretty good understanding of it at this point. Maybe I was just block headed and could not grasp the concept but it seems very possible for my newb-ness to make something happen.

Thanks in advance for anyone else's feedback and assistance, it is certainly appreciated!!!!