[DaBrain]

I'd like to create an effect for Death Star-like beam weapons.

Little beams that join into one big beam, well visually at least. I don't care if the little beams are actual beams.
It has to work as primary weapon for the player and other players in multiplayer.


I'd like to avoid scripting at this point, if possible. Well, unless all other solutions are really hackish.

Thanks in advance for any kind of help with this issue.

[Mobius]

You can do that with FREDding...

Place an invisible, undetectable and invulnerable blip armed with a beam cannon where the small beams should merge...

Small beams hit the blip, the blip charges the main beam and fires

Use coordinate-manipulation to make sure that the blip moves alongside the Death Star.

[DaBrain]

Who'd get the points for kills then?
This is still a bit too hackish.

The small beams could also be a mesh with an animated texture, but it would have to appear on weapon trigering...
(Triggered texture replacement, possible somehow?)

[Mobius]

Well, you can get that effect with SEXPs without problems...

"Who'd get the points for kills?" Since when the Death Star is flyable?

[Jeff Vader]

Since when the Death Star is flyable?[/i][/color]

I'd like to create an effect for Death Star-like beam weapons.

No one wants to fly a Death Star. It was merely a question of having weapons that are somewhat similar to the Death Star's Cannon of Ultimate Doomage^TM, but most likely not in the same scale, assuming that fighters can operate it.

[Vasudan Admiral]

Did you fellas totally miss this thread? http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,52935.0.html

[Mobius]

What's wrong with what I said? It should work...

[Jeff Vader]

Did you fellas totally miss this thread? http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,52935.0.html

So... someone actually wants to fly a Death Star? K.

[DaBrain]

What's wrong with what I said? It should work...

Well, you can get that effect with SEXPs without problems...

That is still the problem...
I don't want to add special SEXPs for single ships for each level.

@VA
Right, thanks for clearing that up.
The Deathstar is flyable in Micro Space. And the beam weapon is all that is left to complete it.

If it is possible via scripting, I think we could use some help. Neither of us is a LUA scripter. 

[Mobius]

You might try the effect until you get something to use it in a normal way.

Just to see how it looks, if the effects are ok, etc. etc.

[Snail]

The Deathstar is flyable in Micro Space. And the beam weapon is all that is left to complete it.

The entire mod, or just the DeathStar? (I probably already know the answer)


Anyway, another idea:

Put some beam subobjects on the DeathStar. They are folded into the actual model, so you can't see them. Set them to rotate on some random axis, too. Using the animation code and scripting, set the script to say something when weapon is fired, which triggers the animation. The animation itself would be really fast (so you can't see them folding out of the model), but then it would stay in the position for a while until the beam stops firing... Requires scripting, but still works.

Another idea:

Since the mod is standalone, it can't hurt to simply add in a cue for the texture replacement thing in the tables. When weapon is fired, it changes the texture from invisible to a green texture, then changes back when the weapon stops firing. Not being a coder, I dunno how hard it would be to actually do, but meh...

[Jake2447]

What Mobius said would work, but you would have to make a nnew beam weapon without a collision effect for small beams.  The large beam would also have to fire down normals and be perpendicular to the main ship.

[Snail]

What Mobius said would work, but you would have to make a nnew beam weapon without a collision effect for small beams.  The large beam would also have to fire down normals and be perpendicular to the main ship.

It's a primary weapon, not a turret, BTW.

[Mobius]

I don't know how the player is supposed to use it...in any case, coordinate manipulation and every-time is what you need to make sure that the blip maintains its relative position.

[Snail]

Micro Space is a deathmatch type multiplayer game where all the ships, including the DS, are like fighters.

[DaBrain]

The entire mod, or just the DeathStar? (I probably already know the answer)

Just the DS.
But I really want to start working on the next ship. The conception is already complete.

Put some beam subobjects on the DeathStar. They are folded into the actual model, so you can't see them. Set them to rotate on some random axis, too. Using the animation code and scripting, set the script to say something when weapon is fired, which triggers the animation. The animation itself would be really fast (so you can't see them folding out of the model), but then it would stay in the position for a while until the beam stops firing... Requires scripting, but still works.

I think that would work without scripting. Wasn't there a trigger in the ships.tbl for firing?
If not, it should be added. Sounds like a very useful function to me.

Still, this sounds like a decent approach. Hiding a mesh in the geometry and using the animation code to get it out... could work.

Since the mod is standalone, it can't hurt to simply add in a cue for the texture replacement thing in the tables. When weapon is fired, it changes the texture from invisible to a green texture, then changes back when the weapon stops firing. Not being a coder, I dunno how hard it would be to actually do, but meh...

Well, now that would be the perfect solution. Actually it would be nice for a lot of other stuff too. I instantly had an idea how it could also be used in SoL for something completely different.

Making a mesh visible, or spawning a mesh during firing... That would help with a lot of stuff. 

Micro Space is a deathmatch type multiplayer game where all the ships, including the DS, are like fighters.

Yepp, that is completely correct.

The beam should fire almost instantly, so there is no need for the other beams to appear before it does. At the same time would be more than enough.

[Backslash]

Here's another possibility.  In a funny twist, this only works as a fighter using fighterbeams, not turrets... before now, nobody wanted to fly the Death Star OR the Vorlon planet destroyer

One bank of 8 or however many firepoints arranged in a circle, all aimed towards a center focal point.  This bank is only allowed to have a "short beam", which is a type 4 that in the $BeamInfo has a very short +Range , just enough to get to that focal point and no more (some experimentation required).  +Shots set to 8 (or however many).  No +warmup time.  A +warmdown time equal to the +Life of the next weapon, below:
Now, the second bank has only one 'invisible firepoint' out in the middle of this focal point.  It is only allowed to have the "main beam".  This bigger beam has a nice beamglow and a short +warmup time so there's at least that delay from when the small beams start firing to when the big beam actually fires.

The major downside with this method is that there is currently no "not allowed to UNlink banks" flag (that I know of).  So someone would be able to fire one without the other, which would just look silly.  Other than that, it works surprisingly well with the right tweaks, provided you're dealing with humans doing the firing.  I suspect the AI wouldn't be able to use it without a couple code tweaks to force them to fire the 'small' beams even though they won't hit anything.

Hmm, I wonder if I could tweak the code to allow beams to spawn other beams?

[DaBrain]

That would be most awesome.

Your first method sounds pretty nice, but the unlinking issue is a serious flaw/problem.


Maybe I should mention that we're still looking for a coder to support our small project.

[Snail]

A +warmdown time equal to the...

AFAIK that's not right, since warmdown only has to do with the beamglow, not the beam itself. If you did that it would fire, then stop firing but the origin of the beam would still be there, though no beams would be around (the brief period after the shot in which the beam origin of light sphere thing shrinking down)

[Backslash]

Ah good point.  That's the one thing I tacked on at the end and didn't think through as much.  I guess just +Lifetime would be fine.