So as the title says, I am interested in ideas how to achieve a true lightning effect for a beam-like weapon. The idea is to create something like a beam effect, but without the obvious tiling issues normal beams have which always results in some sort of a sine-wave appearance. So basically, irregular lightning beam.
I considered using a projectile weapon effect with seamless, randomly animated texture segments detached from the emitter and rigged so that they match up as the projectile travels (obviously very quickly), but that idea fell through as soon as I realized that the game engine erases travel particle effects on contact with the target.
Alternatively, I could use a really long texture for a beam effect, but that obviously has texture size problems as well as animation problems (it's static).
As far as I know, one cannot use texture animations for beam effects, right?
Which is the biggest problem with the whole idea, but I am hoping for some resident genius to come up with a nifty solution or suggestion!
This would be very cool. Talk to KrdaxDrkrun. Also, look at the Babylon 5 SoaSE video with Vorlons vs Shadows. The Vorlon frigates there fire a "crooked" plasma type beam.
Textureanimations are a no-go for beams.
The problem with projectiles is that they can become disconnected, but then again, it is my belief that the answer lies in projectile tiling.
Take a look at WeaponPhaseStarbaseChaosBolt_Travel.particle in my Totaleffects Graphical Mod. It produces some plasma that is rather varied as it streams out.
Maybe that could produce some inspiration for you.
I needed this for ships in Black Sun. As beams are a silly hardcoded mess the absolute best you can do is make a missile that spawns lightning textures, preferably animated, in a random sequence that end very fast to avoid that cutoff you speak of. Incidentally, this is one reason why a Black Sun episode 2 is an absolute no-go; a lot of races need those arc-styled weapons, and the missile route always looked terrible in comparison (re: all Xy lightning weapons in ep1).
A possible stratagem to avoid the horrible effect I had going on in Salvation would be to have several hardpoints in the same spot, each slightly angled. Then the weapon fires with a short delay. In theory this may fake a sort of an electric beam with the right particle setup. But, as I discovered, to have a nicely-bodied missile of this nature you need to be spamming many particles due to the update limitation in sins. Their lifespan was anywhere from 0.1 to 0.3. You could try elongating them as well.
http://pastebin.com/ELcTdBVe for the particle file and the weapon details.
textureAnimationName "lightning_simple_pointed.texanim"
This is the projectile type. Maybe interval between bursts can be cut down from 0.1 to 0.05 to quicken things and reduce jaggedness. One thing might be to create your own texture like lightning_animation_pointed.dds, but without the sharp bottom termination so it is jagged at both ends. Then make a modified x.texanim file. I don't like the flat bottom.
Hope this helps a bit, I didn't bother doing muzzle and hit effects.
Watch in 720.
Lol, that looks like the texture and texanim (same name even) I made for the "focus" effect for some of the plasma beam weapons (where flat bottom is so that it looks better when "emanating" from a surface) . Can't be it since I don't remember ever releasing it though (and it doesn't matter anyway).
Thanks for the example code - it's actually a sort of a proof of concept for the kind of effect I have in mind, with seamless animated textures. Turns out it might work out after all!
I'll post videos and how-to's if I manage to do it right.
Sweetness!
Plasma beams--now with more wiggle!
Second go with custom texture.
I liked the second set better I think.
I am gonna have to cut back on replies--to many threads...argh.
Better: I must cut back on debate threads.
Interesting. While not what I was looking for, it has potential if I ever decide to suicide myself in an effort to work with sins again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWlJf3tB7ow
Another Try.
Tried a tiled projectile effect, but it just doesn't look good enough. Ultimately a beam effect with a very long core texture and a high tiling speed produces a relatively good irregular beam effect. Unfortunately it's just an engine limitation... if Ironclad adds texture animation support for beam tiles then awesomeness can occur, until then this is the best that I can do...
I understand the gap between "want" and "can do" but that wasn't bad.
It may not look all that much like lightning... but it does look awesome.
That's gotta count for something, right?
This was what the World Eater's lightning looked like, if anyone was curious. I meant to make the projectiles much faster and such but as it turns out they were never shown in Black Sun, anyways, though there's some smaller versions.
Wow--those are really nice IskatuMesk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJtw7O_8IvI
tested with a poorly made lightning texture 1024h x 128w
if you get the right texture for lightning, it'll look sweet. Love those lightning bursts IskatuMesk.
mansh00ter, I've asked dan to work up some lightning textures -he's got the uber software I don't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH-LYjKsTNw
I use Filter Forge for stuff like lightning, it speeds the process up and the results are pretty awesome.
But whatever you do with the particles, you can't have the kind of effect I had in mind, simply because the game terminates the travel particle effect as soon as it hits the target.
Also, you would need to spread out your lightning texture a bit so it weaves more, then have every frame terminate roughly in the same area (you can achieve that by using the Liquify filter in Photoshop) so that the effect is relatively seamless. If you could tile the animated particles so that they line up without gaps as the projectile travels, you should end up with a rough lightning effect. It won't be a Star Wars force lightning (which I had in mind), but should look nice regardless.
As for me, I tweaked the beam effect and now I like it more than the original idea, it looks more forceful.
must see footage!
Remember Manshooter--these are valuable man hours that could be put into finishing your mod so I can play it.
That's why I asked for opinions here instead of spending hours tweaking stuff myself.
The Xin will be using a relatively small variety of weapon particle effects, both for visual consistency reasons and to save time, so I want to make those effects as awesome looking as possible.
For example, I am making breacher drone effects which hopefully will end up looking something like the squids from the Matrix and will serve as missiles for the Xin, reused across many ship types.
The proton beam is another example - it is supposed to be the standard beam weapon for the Xin, and so I wanted to make something which would stand out from your classic beam look. The current version looks ok though - I have to see what Ironclad will do with the engine and particles for Rebellion, maybe there will be room for improvements.
Cool. I am all for "awesome". Therefore, I approve this use of your time--but hurry.
What and where can I see/find his mod?
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