Beam Cannon

[madcd]

For a game that I am currently developing a neat feature would be to have homeworld/Freespace 2 style beam cannons for some of the vessels, however I have as yet been unable to get anything near what I would like.

I did however hit on the idea of using ribbons to create the beam effect with homing projectiles off so that they kept a *mostly* straight line. Unfortunately I cannot seem to get ribbons to work, even moddign existing blizzard ones, I'm probably missing something obvious, but, can anyone help?

Regards
MadCD

 

[JetFangInferno]

You can only create a beam using geometry (modelling) and or rotated particles.

 

[Rao Dao Zao]

No, ribbons are perfect for this.

Make a fast-fired stream of low-damage projectiles, and a very short-lived ribbon (also, very fast projectile speed).

If you copy an existing ribbon off a real WC3 model and simply modify the material associated with it (plus changing the tint colour and lifespan), you should be fine.

 

[madcd]

That is unfortunately the problem I've been having, I can't seem to modify an existing ribbon becuase I can't find a detailed explanation of how they work in magos' model editor, and when I play with them, they break, but RDZ your right on the spot of what I want to do.

Regards
MadCD

 

[Rao Dao Zao]

They're not actually that difficult; they only require an element of trial and error with their exact specification because nobody outside WC3 renders them.

Colour and alpha work like anywhere else. Visibility, again, like anywhere else; 1 for on, 0 for off (note that 0 just stops the ribbon 'emitting'; existing segments of the ribbon will remain and decay as normal).

Height above and height below control the width, I'm relatively sure.

Texture slot I don't know about; hence mod off an existing emitter and leave it alone.

MaterialID cannot be null or it'll crash the game.

Rows and columns like in a particle emitter, I assume; I've never tested them.

Emission rate: how fast new segments of the ribbon are appended.

Life span: length of time a segment will remain for.

Gravity: never tried this, but I assume it can make the ribbon fall down or rise up.

Note that a ribbon IS a string of geometry; each 'segment' as mentioned above is two triangles forming a square/rectangle that stretches behind the emitter itself.