Funky issue when flying through lava asteroid field

I think we've been barking up the wrong tree with this problem, SWAT.

I managed to find the reference to "rtc_mis5view_effectcf", and I included the files it was pointing to. But the same thing is still happening, which tells me the problem I'm facing has nothing to do with the how the effect itself is set up.

Any idea what else could be causing this? Could it be the size of the star system (160,000) or some other system parameter? Just trying to think outside the box now.

Dang. Oh, well, I guess this project is gonna have to be shelved for the time being.

In case your still up for training a newb, can you tell me what the various values used with the "visit =" parameter means? I know that "0" = "Not visited yet, do not display on Navmap", and "1" = "been there, got the T-shirt, display on Navmap", but what does 32, 36, 128, etc. mean? Why does the game need more values beyond the obvious 0 & 1? If you've got the time, I'd love to learn more about how this game is wired.

Thanks SWAT.

Cool, thanks SWAT. Would you happen to know why zones require their own codes, and what each code does for the zone?

I'm also wondering why shipwrecks have their own code.

Well, thanks for answering half of my question (sort of)... You do understand that I'm asking these questions in order to broaden my understanding of how the game engine works, right? Such a short and uninformative answer doesn't really help me with that quest for knowledge. I'm guessing at this point that you are either uninterested in providing a more thorough explanation, or that you are just very busy with other things, both of which I can respect. Is there anyone else you could recommend who knows the game well enough to provide me with detailed answers I'm looking for? I really hate the thought that I'm imposing on you so much.

UPDATE: I managed to discover a reference to the term, "gf_neutronstar" in the effects.ini file in the DATA/FX Folder. I changed the "effect_type =" entry in effects.ini from EFT_EQUIP_ATTACHED, to EFT_EQUIP_ATTACHED_INSANELY_LARGE, and now my neutron star effect begins to become visible at a range of 23K from my ship, and fully visible at 20K. While this is a definite improvement, it still does not allow me to see the effect as I want it to be. I then went and looked in the effect_types.ini file at the entries for EFT_EQUIP_ATTACHED*, and saw that there are two parameters that change depending on which one you choose: "radius =", and "pbubble =". The radius values for each type are 100, 1000, & 5000 respectively, while the pbubble values are (500, 2000), (3000, 7500), & (10000, 20000) respectively. I've attempted to alter these values to higher numbers (i.e. radius=50000; pbubble=80000, 160000), but doing so doesn't change the range at which the effect becomes visible in-game (still ~20K).
At this point, I can think of only three possible reasons why nothing happens when the values are changed: 1) 20K represents a hard-coded limitation of the FL game engine on effects like gf_neutronstar (may require a hex edit to expand?) 2) There are only certain values that these arguments can accept as legitimate, and I haven't stumbled upon one of these yet, or 3) There are other parameters in other .ini files that need to be changed along with the changes I've described above before it will produce a change in the rendering distance of the effect.
Following option #3, I noticed that these EFT_EQUIP_ATTACHED* entries each includes the parameter: "lod_type = EFT_LOD_LARGE", but I couldn't find an .ini file named "lod_type(s)". What I did find is that the first six entries in the effects.ini file are of Type "EffectLOD", so presuming that this is what "lod_type" is referring to, I went and looked at the parameters for EffectLOD entry #3 which includes the parameter: "type = lod_type_large" and found the following three sub-entries: "max_lod_screen_size = 100", "min_lod_screen_size = 7", & "min_screen_size = 5". I tried changing these values to higher numbers (i.e. 1000, 500, 100 respectively), but again, no change in-game was observed, and this remained the case whether I used default, or modified values in the radius & pbubble entries in EFT_EQUIP_ATTACHED_INSANELY_LARGE. I also went and changed the LODRanges and render_distance values in the SolarArch.ini entry for neutron_star back to really high numbers, but this didn't affect the outcome either.

So at this point, I feel that I've exhausted all avenues of troubleshooting this issue that I can think of. Is there anything else you can think of that I may have overlooked, or am I truly at "wit's end" on this?

Hey SWAT,

Sorry I was MIA there for a bit. Real World stuff. Anyway, I went and looked at the server.dll file you mentioned and found the "086AEC" Offset, but wasn't sure where to put the edit value you recommended (start of the line {00}?)

This actually brings up another issue: I've been doing my mod testing in SP rather than MP, which Iknow I'm not supposed to do, but I have never been able to get FLServer to work right for some reason. It starts, and let's me specify a name/port for my server, but then it just says, "....LOADING..." in the Status window, and never changes. I tried going to FL MP after getting that far, but no server option appears.

Since the edit you are recommending is to the server.dll file, does that mean that it will only affect the game while in MP?