Funky issue when flying through lava asteroid field

I have created a system that features a large, lava asteroid field, but when I enter it, a strange thing happens. Above my ship, I see a stationary, burning and smoking effect just like the effect you see following dynamic lava asteroids around. Any idea why this is happening and how to get rid of it?

OK, I commented out the lines for the Dust entry in the system's .ini file, but it's still happening. Any other possibilities?

Another issue: I am using the Blackhole_Well object in this same system, and I have managed to get it to spin, however, it only spins for a short period of time and then stops. The slower I set the spin rate, the faster it seems to reach the point when it stops spinning. What is causing this, and is there a way to get it to spin slowly and continuously forever?

Thanks for your help, SWAT.

Here is the related Zone info:

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[zone]
nickname = Zone_PC01_low-densityparticleremnantfield_01
ids_name = 462874
pos = 0, 0, 0
rotate = 0, 0, 0
shape = ELLIPSOID
size = 158420, 3000, 158420
property_flags = 512
visit = 36
spacedust = gf_dynamiclavaast
spacedust_maxparticles = 10
ids_info = 98503
comment = Low density Lava Astroids
sort = 20
toughness = 6
density = 5
repop_time = 20
max_battle_size = 4
pop_type = nonlootable_ast_field
relief_time = 35

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And here is the specific Asteroid.ini info:

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[Field]
cube_size = 1000
fill_dist = 15000
diffuse_color = 255, 200, 200
ambient_color = 255, 200, 200
ambient_increase = 70, 40, 0
empty_cube_frequency = 0.600000

[Exclusion Zones]
exclusion = Zone_PC01_bh_ClearSpace
exclude_dynamic_asteroids = 1

[properties]
flag = lava_objects
flag = Object_density_med

[Cube]
asteroid = lava01_asteroid10, 0.600000, 0.200000, -0.200000, 35, 10, 20
asteroid = lava01_asteroid30, 0.400000, -0.700000, -0.200000, 15, 90, 120
asteroid = lava01_asteroid10, -0.300000, -0.300000, 0.800000, 85, 0, 185
asteroid = lava01_asteroid30, -0.200000, -0.100000, -0.600000, 105, 160, 25

[DynamicAsteroids]
asteroid = DAsteroid_lava01
count = 20
placement_radius = 150.000000
placement_offset = 90.000000
max_velocity = 10.000000
max_angular_velocity = 2.000000
color_shift = 1, 1, 1

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Looking back at your post more closely, you said to edit the Zone entry, but the only "dust" entries there are both necessary to produce the dynamic asteroid effect, aren't they? I definitely want that effect for this field.

Wow, now that's a mind blow. The way that particular entry is set up to be selected in FLE makes it look as though you won't get the dynamic asteroid effect without selecting it. If I hadn't selected that entry to begin with when I created the zone, would FLE still have set up the particular asteroid.ini file to include the Dynamic lava asteroid entries, or is this one of those "catch-22" situations where it was a necessary step, but it comes with unwanted baggage in the end? Speaking of which, what is that particular entry actually doing anyway if not activating the dynamic event for the zone? Just curious to understand the 'whys & wherefores' of the initialization process better.

Thanks again!

BTW, is there a particular Hex Editor you would seggest I use for Freelancer files? If so, where can I find it?

Thanks SWAT, I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

I'm not planning on spending any money on a Hex Editor, so I'll just pick a free one off the Internet.

Are any of the "gf_<effect>" entries actually useful for anything then? I am also working on a Neutron Star in another system, and I noticed the, "gf_neutronstar" entry in the FLE zone creation tool. Can you tell me what the effect is when using this, and whether it makes sense to use it with only certain zone options or not?

Again, I thank you for your time and attention.

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hexedit the common.dll and change the offset 0E698E from 7C to EB

Oy veh!

Sorry to keep pestering you, but the Hex Editor I downloaded presented me with Offsets that didn't quite match up with the Offset you said to modify. The closest Offset Value I could find was, "000E6980". So, the first two #'s in the series of Offsets always starts with "00", and the last digit is also always a zero. At the top of the 16 columns of hex values are the hex column values, "00, 01, 02, ... 0E, 0F", etc. I tried cross referencing the Offest value above with Column 0E, but the hex value in that slot wasn't 7C (it was D9). The closest Offset value to have 7C listed among its slots was, "000E6960", and it had two such values in column's 00 and 03 respectively.
I'm pretty confused by all this. Not sure what to do now. Any suggestions?

I managed to use the Hex Editor's "Goto" Offset Search feature, but when I entered the value, "000E698E", or "0E698E", it takes me to the same slot mentioned above (with the value of D9 in it).

Just FYI.

I installed the 1.1 Patch and sure enough, 7C was right where you said it would be. And changing it to "EB" fixed the spin problem, thanks. Just out of curiosity, what did the change in value actually do, and why was a hex edit the only way to fix it?

Now that I am running Patch 1.1, does that mean that I don't need to use the Quickfix 1.0c anymore? While I was at the Lancers Reactor website looking for 1.1, I also found other unofficial patches labelled as "1.4" (one was simply titled, "Unofficial FL Patch 1.4", while the other was titled, "Advanced FL Patch 1.4") Are these the same thing? Should I use one of these in addition to 1.1?

Now back to my question about gf_effects... What does the gf_neutronstar effect do? I take it that it will only affect the space immediately around my ship, and only when I am within the zone boundaries where it was set, right? But what effect does it produce?

Another issue: I can't get the Neutron Star pulsar effect to be visible at ranges greater than 1200M from my ship. I want it to be visible from any point in the system (system size = 160000). I've set the distance_render = 160000, and the LODranges to 3000, 10000, 20000, 40000, 80000. But it doesn't change the situation any. What should I be doing instead?

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There are various hardcoded values that you can not edit unless you find the correct offset in the compiled program libraries.
That offset completely disabled the spin inertia of the game.

Isn't that like swatting a fly with a sledge hammer? Will a lack of inertia affect other things I might add to my Mod later?

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All other patches are community build and are client side bug fixes. Version 1.4 is the latest version of this community patch but I actually can not really tell you if its really good. Some changes in my eyes are "risky" and some modders also experienced side effects of the so called fixes.

If I use the unofficial patch, will everyone who wants to play my Mod have to have that patch loaded as well? From your response, it sounds like the bug fixes are not worth the risk that the patch may pose to me in my efforts to build a Mod. Could you please confirm if this is your position on the matter?

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My mod is based on the 1.3 SDK that was released earlier. The 1.3 SDK for sure contains less fixes than the 1.4 version but personally i dont care about that since i had more than enough time doing own bug fixes.

I downloaded that SDK, but frankly, I didn't understand how to use it (or why). FLE decompressed all the .ini files for me, and FLDev let's me modify the .dll's, so not sure what to do with it.

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The gf_neutronstar is what the name says.... a neutron star effect that was originally created for the omega 5 neutron star.

I thought the Neutron Star was in Omega-41? Anyway, so what you're saying is that the effect gets listed in FLE's zone creation tool, but it was never intended as a legit entry for the "spacedust=" parameter? Are any of the gf_effect entries supposed to be used with zones, or should I ignore them altogether from now on?

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The neutron star effect is a large effect that is not meant to be used as dust.
All dust entries have a fixed lod definition allowing them to be created only close to the player ship.

I see where you are going with this, but I deleted the zone, so there is no "spacedust = gf_neutronstar" entry in the system.ini file anymore. I am now using just the entries for the Neutron "Planet", and the Neutron Star "Nav Buoy" that creates the Pulsar effect, and it works, but you can only see the effect once your ship closes to extremely close range (<1200M). How do I get it to show the effect from any point/distance in the system? The Neutron Star Object in the SolarArch.ini file contains LOD ranges and an entry for rendering distance (these are the values I mentioned in my last post), but changing these hasn't worked. (Consequently, I was able to successfully change the range at which Nomad jumpgates become visible to the Player by changing its LODrange parameter, so that's why I thought it would work with the Neutron Star effect too.)
So having said all that, is there anything else you can think of that I haven't done to make it visible at long range?

My apologies if I'm becoming a nuisance. It seems like every answer only stirs up more questions. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with all this.
Aloha.

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my neutron star effect has no lods at all

OK, I tried commenting out the LODRanges entry in the SolarArch.ini file, but nothing changed. here is what the whole Solar entry looks like:

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[Solar]
nickname = neutron_star
type = NON_TARGETABLE
DA_archetype = solar\misc\nav_buoy.3db
material_library = solar\Solar_mat_misc02.mat
;LODranges = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 20000 <=(these were the original values supplied by FLE, and changing them didn't do anything, nor has commenting it out for that matter.)
distance_render = 160000 <=(I've tried setting this value to 100,000, 80,000, 50,000, and 25,000. No change observed.)
mass = 10000.000000
loadout = neutron_star
solar_radius = 5000 ;2.443000 <= (I changed this value because of the way it affects the size of the icon being displayed on the Nav Map.)
shape_name = NAV_Waypointcircle ;NNM_SM_NAVBUOY
hit_pts = 999999961690316250000000000000000000.000000

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And here is the System.ini entry:

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[Object]
nickname = EW14_neutron_star_01
rotate = 0, 0, 65
pos = 0, 0, 0
visit = 1
archetype = neutron_star

As far as I can tell, the only other file involved in producing the pulsar effect is the Solar\Loadout.ini file, but the applicable entry there just mounts the lighting effect to the bouy object, so I haven't fiddled with it. If there is more to it than this, I'm not aware of it.

Would you be able to post your own .ini entries for comparison?

Thanks.

SWAT,

May I infer that the lack of response is due to you being busy with more pressing matters at this time? If so, is there anyone else you know in the FL community who might understand these things that could review this thread and continue the conversation with me?

Thanks.

OK, I went and looked at your neutron star entries in the EW03.ini file, and the big differences were:

1) You have no planet_death Zone set up for your planet_neutron_800 (and neither does Vanilla FL). Apparently, FLE creates such zones automatically when placing Planet Objects in a System. As a result, I had assumed that such Zones were required. So I deleted the zone to see if doing that alone would allow my neutron star effect to render at greater distances. It did not.

2) Whereas my system.ini entry for the neutron effect specifies "archetype = neutron_star" directly, yours specifies, "baxter_hazardcf", and you also include a Loadouts entry for "blhazard3". Your modified baxter_hazard also uses the modified "loadout =" entry, "baxter_mission5cf", which in turn refers to the modified entry, "rtc_mis5view_effectcf", and this is where my investigative trail ends because I have no idea what this entry means, or what other file entry it may be referring to. Your modified "blhazard3" entry is set up to point to the neutron_star entry in the Loadouts file, and associates it with the nav bouy's mounting point, "HpFX01". It is important that I reiterate at this point that the neutron effect in my Mod does work, it just doesn't render the effect beyond a very limited range, so I'm not sure what all of this "spaghetti script" you are using is accomplishing. Can you explain to me why the game needs to refer to the baxter_hazard effect (and all related entries/loadouts thereafter) in order to produce a proper rendering of the neutron_star effect, because it just isn't adding up for me right now. What I can see is that you completely bypassed (i.e. did not use) the neutron_star archetype found in the SolarArch.ini file altogether, so my question is, why did you choose to do that, and how did you figure out that a modified baxter_hazard effect would do the job instead? I hope you can appreciate how confusing all of this is to a novice modder such as myself. I really want to understand what is going on here and even more importantly, why. Please forgive me if I am starting to impose upon you too much. I know you're busy with other things, so I really appreciate the time you are taking out of your schedule to address my concerns.

3) the Vanilla FL neutron star uses a gravity ring entry, and you keep that entry intact in CF1.9, whereas my neutron star does not have such a ring. I am only mentioning this because it is an obvious difference between my set up and yours. As far as I can tell, this shouldn't impact anything else, but if I am wrong about that, please enlighten me.