[0rph3u5]

I've been working a lot with some pretty heavy railgun-sytle primaries (long tail and particles) for something....
but there is that graphical glitch that the tails seen to just start where the bitmap ends... which is pretty bad if there is about a 150 pixels black bit map to either side of the said effect....

someone got an idea how to make primary trails begin "inside" the bitmap?

for those who don't just yet know what I mean

Code: [Select]

$Name: Vasudan Huge Turret
$Model File: none
@Laser Bitmap: Terran_Turret ;mediavps-stuff
@Laser Color: 140, 140, 60
@Laser Length: 20.0
@Laser Head Radius: 6.40
@Laser Tail Radius: 2.60
$Mass: 0.4
$Velocity: 175.0
$Fire Wait: 3.0
$Damage: 100
$Armor Factor: 1.25
$Shield Factor: 0.5
$Subsystem Factor: 0.75
$Lifetime: 12.0
$Energy Consumed: 0.30
$Cargo Size: 0.0
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 111
$ImpactSnd: 85
$Flags: ( "Big Ship" "Huge" )
$Trail:
    +Start Width: 6.4
    +End Width: 0.0
    +Start Alpha: 0.7
    +End Alpha: 0.0
    +Max Life: 0.75
    +Bitmap: VasBeam2Core ;mediavps stuff
$Icon: iconproms
$Anim: disruptor
$Impact Explosion: none

[Aardwolf]

What about using the

@Laser Glow:

entry instead of

@Laser Bitmap:         Terran_Turret ;mediavps-stuff   

[Spoon]

ah yeah I ran into this as well haven't really messed around with it too much though.
I too am interested in how this could be 'fixed'

[0rph3u5]

What about using the @Laser Glow: entry instead of @Laser Bitmap:

I tried, but did not work - same effect

[Wanderer]

Try making very short effects with relatively narrow trails

That is make this smaller...

Code: [Select]

@Laser Length: 20.0

[Getter Robo G]

Silly question, but why not just edit the bitmap?

[Spoon]

Silly question, but why not just edit the bitmap?

even with good editing it will be noticable where the bolt ends and the trail starts.
Unless you make the bolt go at a high velocity

[0rph3u5]

Try making very short effects with relatively narrow trails

That is make this smaller...

Code: [Select]

@Laser Length: 20.0

....well that would work with some other bitmap....

[Wanderer]

Well... Other than making new texture i'm not sure there are any viable alternatives...

Though you could try placing +Faded Out Sections: (perhaps 6 or so (integer)) just after the trail bitmap entry in the weapons.tbl - http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Weapons.tbl#.24Trail:

[Dragon]

Don't forget that you need to use nightly, not RC build for it.

[Droid803]

Urr... looks fine to me when I just do it that way.
You want something like this right? (the streak-like turrets):


You need to use both @Laser Bitmap: and @Laser Glow.
I think @Laser Glow tells which portion of the bitmap is actually part of it and allows the trail to start inside...not sure...

Trails work with the Terran Turret bitmap:

Code: [Select]

$Name: Burst Turret
+nocreate
@Laser Bitmap: Terran_Turret
@Laser Glow:        2_laserglow03
@Laser Length:       10.0
@Laser Head Radius: 12.00
@Laser Tail Radius: 12.00
$Flags: ("particle spew")
$Trail:
+Start Width: 1.0
+End Width: 1.0
+Start Alpha: 1.0
+End Alpha: 0.0
+Max Life: 0.5
+Bitmap: trail-gold
$Impact Explosion: Vapula_Impact
$Impact Explosion Radius: 9.0
$Muzzleflash:                 Cmuzzle
$Pspew:
+Count: 1
+Time: 34
+Vel: 0.4
+Radius: 2.80
+Life: 0.2
+Scale: 4.60  
+Bitmap: Vapula_Particle
$Decal:
+Texture: Huge_Decal
+Radius: 5.0