ItemGeneratorAsset — Generator Barricade Definition

Advanced10-15 minutesWindowsVisual Studio

Overview

ItemGeneratorAsset extends ItemBarricadeAsset to define fuel-burning power generators. Generators provide electricity to connected electrical items (lights, sentries, traps) within their wire range. They burn fuel over time, have a fuel capacity, and produce a configurable amount of power.

The class is one of the simplest barricade subclasses at 78 lines. It adds three key properties (capacity, wire range, burn rate) and a 3-byte state array for powered status and remaining fuel.

Source code location: Unturned/Bundles/ItemGeneratorAsset.cs (78 lines), inheriting from ItemBarricadeAsset.cs (605 lines), ItemPlaceableAsset.cs (454 lines), and ItemAsset.cs (base).

Inheritance Chain

ItemAsset → IArmorFalloff
  └─ ItemPlaceableAsset
       └─ ItemBarricadeAsset
            └─ ItemGeneratorAsset — fuel, power, wire range

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Class Definition

public class ItemGeneratorAsset : ItemBarricadeAsset
{
    protected ushort _capacity;
    protected float _wirerange;
    protected float _burn;

    public ushort capacity => _capacity;
    public float wirerange => _wirerange;
    public float burn => _burn;

    public override byte[] getState(EItemOrigin origin) { ... }
    public override void BuildDescription(ItemDescriptionBuilder builder, Item itemInstance) { ... }
    public override void PopulateAsset(in PopulateAssetParameters p) { ... }
    internal override void BuildCargoData(CargoBuilder builder) { ... }
}

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Core Properties

Fuel Capacity

.dat Key	Type	Default	Range	Description
Capacity	ushort	Required	0–65,535	Maximum fuel units

_capacity = p.data.ParseUInt16("Capacity");

Fuel capacity defines how many fuel units the generator can hold. A player fills the generator with fuel items (e.g., gas cans) which each provide a certain number of fuel units.

Burn Rate

.dat Key	Type	Default	Unit	Description
Burn	float	Required	Seconds per fuel unit	Time between fuel unit consumption

_burn = p.data.ParseFloat("Burn");

The burn rate determines how quickly the generator consumes fuel. A value of 2.0 means one fuel unit is consumed every 2 seconds. Lower values = faster consumption.

Fuel consumption rate: fuelPerSecond = 1.0 / burn

Burn value	Fuel units per second	Fuel units per hour
1.0	1.0	3,600
2.0	0.5	1,800
5.0	0.2	720
10.0	0.1	360

Wire Range

.dat Key	Type	Default	Unit	Description
Wirerange	float	Required	Meters	Maximum wire connection distance

_wirerange = p.data.ParseFloat("Wirerange");
if (wirerange > PowerTool.MAX_POWER_RANGE + 0.1f)
{
    Assets.ReportError(this, "Wirerange is further than the max supported power range of "
        + PowerTool.MAX_POWER_RANGE);
}

The wire range defines how far the generator can connect to electrical items. The value is validated against PowerTool.MAX_POWER_RANGE — if the wire range exceeds the engine's maximum supported power range, an error is reported.

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State Byte Layout

public override byte[] getState(EItemOrigin origin)
{
    return new byte[3];
}

Byte	Content
0	Powered state (0 = off, 1 = on)
1–2	Fuel amount (ushort, little-endian)

The 3-byte state stores whether the generator is actively producing power and how much fuel remains. The powered state byte allows toggling the generator on/off.

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BuildDescription — Inventory Tooltip

public override void BuildDescription(ItemDescriptionBuilder builder, Item itemInstance)
{
    base.BuildDescription(builder, itemInstance);

    builder.Append(localization.format("ItemDescription_FuelCapacity", capacity), DescSort_Important);

    if (burn > 0.0f)
    {
        const float SECONDS_PER_HOUR = 3600;
        float fuelPerHour = SECONDS_PER_HOUR / burn;
        int roundedFuelPerHour = Mathf.RoundToInt(fuelPerHour);
        builder.Append(localization.format("ItemDescription_FuelBurnRate", roundedFuelPerHour), DescSort_Important);

        float maxRuntimeSeconds = burn * capacity;
        float maxRuntimeHours = maxRuntimeSeconds / SECONDS_PER_HOUR;
        builder.Append(localization.format("ItemDescription_FuelMaxRuntime", maxRuntimeHours.ToString("0.00")), DescSort_Important);
    }
}

The tooltip shows three lines:

Line	Format	Example (capacity=500, burn=2.0)
Fuel Capacity	500	500 units
Fuel Burn Rate	1800	Uses 1,800 units per hour
Max Runtime	0.28	Runs for 0.28 hours (16.7 minutes)

Calculation:

• fuelPerHour = 3600 / burn = 3600 / 2.0 = 1800
• maxRuntimeHours = (burn * capacity) / 3600 = (2.0 * 500) / 3600 = 0.277...

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BuildCargoData — Wiki Export

CargoDeclaration data = builder.GetOrAddDeclaration("Generator");
data.Append("GUID", GUID);
data.Append("Capacity", capacity);
data.Append("Wirerange", wirerange);
data.Append("Burn", burn);

Column	Source
GUID	PK, FK to Barricade
Capacity	_capacity
Wirerange	_wirerange
Burn	_burn

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.dat File Reference — Generator-Specific

.dat Key	Type	Default	Notes
Capacity	ushort	Required	Max fuel units
Wirerange	float	Required	Wire connection range (must be ≤ MAX_POWER_RANGE)
Burn	float	Required	Seconds per fuel unit consumed

All ItemBarricadeAsset, ItemPlaceableAsset, and ItemAsset keys are available.

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Modding Example — Basic Generator .dat

GUID a1b2c3d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6
Type Barricade
Build Generator
Health 200
Range 4
Radius 0.5
Offset 0.1
Capacity 500
Wirerange 16
Burn 2.0

500 fuel capacity, 16m wire range, burns 0.5 fuel/second (30 fuel/minute). Runs for 16.7 minutes on a full tank.

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Modding Example — Industrial Generator .dat

GUID f1e2d3c4b5a69788796a5b4c3d2e1f0a
Type Barricade
Build Generator
Health 500
Range 4
Radius 0.8
Offset 0.1
Capacity 2000
Wirerange 32
Burn 5.0
Armor_Tier High

Industrial generator: 2000 fuel capacity, 32m wire range, burns slowly at 5 sec/unit (0.2 fuel/sec). Full tank lasts 2.78 hours. High armor tier.

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Modding Example — Portable Generator .dat

GUID d4e5f6a7b8c9d0e1f2a3b4c5d6e7f8a9
Type Barricade
Build Generator
Health 100
Range 4
Radius 0.3
Offset 0.05
Capacity 200
Wirerange 8
Burn 1.0
Armor_Tier Low

Portable generator: 200 fuel, 8m wire, fast burn (1.0 sec/unit = 1 fuel/sec). Runs for 3.3 minutes. Low armor.

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Common Issues

1. Wire range too large: Wire range must be ≤ PowerTool.MAX_POWER_RANGE. Exceeding this limit creates an asset error. Reduce the wire range or modify the server's MAX_POWER_RANGE constant.

2. Fuel not burning: The Burn field must be greater than 0.0. A value of 0 would cause division by zero in consumption rate calculations.

3. Capacity overflow: _capacity is ushort (max 65,535). Setting higher values wraps around. Use a spawn table for better fuel items instead of increasing capacity beyond this limit.

4. Runtime calculation confusion: burn is seconds per unit, not units per second. A larger Burn value = slower consumption = longer runtime. This is the inverse of what you might expect.

5. State size: The 3-byte state is fixed — generators always use 3 bytes regardless of capacity or configuration.

Document history

Version	Date	Author	Notes
1.0	2026-07-28	57 Studios	Initial publication. Full generator asset documentation including fuel system, wire range, and modding examples.