Here's my attempted wiki entry for the meantime
if anyone who could work the damn thing could put this on it that would be nice
!Beam Texture Tiling and Translation
!!What It Does
Beam Texture Tiling and Translation adds a few options for beam texturess to make them tile and translate. Examples of such can be seen in the new Media VP's. This allows for beam textures to be tiled rather than stretched the length of the beam as well as allowing them to pan either forwards or backwards creating a nice effect.
!!How do I use it?
In the table file for each beam section these settings can be added at the end of the section definition:
+Tile Factor: *xx.x*, *y*
+Translation: *zz.z*
A definition of these settings follows:
*y* Determines the tiling type, type 0 yeilds in the beam tiling *xx.x* number of times along the beam no matter what length it is, 1 yeilds in the length of each beam tile being *xx.x* and tiling a number of times to match the length of the beam.
*zz.z* determines the speed of translation of the beam, a positive value moves from the impact point to the firing point, while a negative value moves away from the firing point towards the impact point.
By setting *y* to 0 and *xx.x* to a small number, such as _00.1_, an effect of animation can be achived with each vertical column of pixels being represented as one frame of animation repeated along the entire beam. In this cas *zz.z* will determine the rate of animation.
!!Example
$Name: BGreen
$Model File: none ; laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap: laserglow01
@Laser Color: 0, 255, 54
; Pale green R 192 G 255 B 200
@Laser Length: 0.0
@Laser Head Radius: 0.3
@Laser Tail Radius: 0.3
$Mass: 100.0
$Velocity: 1600.0 ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait: 30.0 ;; in seconds
$Damage: 1200 ;; NOTE: for beam weapons this is kind of a "continuous" damage applied every few fractions of a second that the beam is on.
$Armor Factor: 1.0
$Shield Factor: 1.0
$Subsystem Factor: 1.0
$Lifetime: 25.0 ;; How long this thing lives
$Energy Consumed: 0.30 ;; Energy used when fired
$Cargo Size: 0.0 ;; Amount of space taken up in weapon cargo
$Homing: NO
$LaunchSnd: 125 ;; The sound it makes when fired
$ImpactSnd: 88 ;; The sound it makes when it hits something
+Weapon Range: 4000 ;; Limit to range at which weapon will actively target object
$Flags: ("Big Ship" "huge" "beam")
$Icon: icongun05
$Anim: LoadGun07
$Impact Explosion: ExpMissileHit1
$Impact Explosion Radius: 60.0
$BeamInfo:
+Type: 0 ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
+Life: 4.0 ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
+Warmup: 3500 ;; warmup time in ms
+Warmdown: 3500 ;; warmdown time in ms
+Radius: 110.0 ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
+PCount: 20 ;; particles spewed every interval
+PRadius: 1.4 ;; particle radius
+PAngle: 60.0 ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
+PAni: particleexp01 ;; particle ani
+Miss Factor: 1.0 1.1 1.1 1.7 1.4 ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
+BeamSound: 147 ;; the looping beam-firing sound
+WarmupSound: 154 ;; associated warmup sound
+WarmdownSound: 159 ;; associated warmdown sound
+Muzzleglow: beamglow3 ;; muzzle glow bitmap
+Shots: 0 ;; only used for TYPE 3 beams
+ShrinkFactor: 0.0 ;; what percentage of lifetime where beam starts shrinking (0.1 == 10% life left)
+ShrinkPct: 0.0 ;; what percentage of max width we subtract per second
$Section: ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
+Width: 25 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-white3 ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 255 255 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 150 150 150 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.0 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 4.0 ;; hehe
*+Tile Factor: 35.0, 1*
*+Translation: -2.0*
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 30 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green2 ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 160 160 0 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 60 60 0 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.45 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 3.0 ;; hehe
*+Tile Factor: 35.0, 1*
*+Translation: 2.0*
$Section: ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
+Width: 40.0 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 255 255 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 150 150 150 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.4 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 2.0 ;; hehe
$Section: ;; one section of the beam
+Width: 50.0 ;; width of the section
+Texture: beam-green3 ;; texture for this section
+RGBA Inner: 255 0 0 255 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+RGBA Outer: 60 0 0 10 ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
+Flicker: 0.5 ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
+Zadd: 0.0 ;; hehe
; Bright light green R 137 G 252 B 96
; High Energy Green R 102 G 255 B 0
; Puke pale green R 192 G 255 B 200
; Forest Green R 2 G 142 B 18
; White Streek Green Tint R 215 G 249 B 219