[Colonol Dekker]

Qhat is ZaDD ? Its in every beam entry and i ahve abso-flippin-lutely no idea what it is/does/function in life is (bad grammar i know):devilidea

[CP5670]

There was a discussion on this a week ago; I think that the conclusion was that it affects the "thickness" of the beam in the third dimension. Although the beam is a 2D sprite effect, the game somehow renders into into a pseudo-3D effect when viewed at an angle, kind of like with the lasers. I'm not sure exactly how this works though, and someone else here can probably give a better explanation.

[Colonol Dekker]

I understand every aspect of editing the entry and how the engine renders the beam, The engine simply draws a point between the beams generating point (turret etc) and the end as defined by its max length and chance of hit figures, as aptly demonstrated in the AAAF or Ultra Antifighterbeam, I appreciate the answer  but does anyone actually know what ZADD means, Im sure if you're reading this DAVEB    you could offer a little inkling of wisdom on ZADD's purpose.   I would like to note though whilest altering ZADD values i have seen on rare occasions the beam split and hit two different ships at once...  Strange but true. Like vasudans eating hedz..

[Sesquipedalian]

Each section of a beam ought to have a different Zadd value.  Zadd refers to Z-axis addition. Essentially, Zadd causes the section of the beam in question to be rendered "nearer" to the player, and thus on top of the sections with lower zadds.  

The BFGreen, for example, has its widest section, the big green part, with the lowest Zadd value, and each successively narrower layer of the beam at a higher Zadd so that they are "stacked" on top of one another.  If the big green section had the highest Zadd value, it would cover over the rest of the sections, and look bad.

[Colonol Dekker]

OK, i see now, thanks for the answer.

[ZylonBane]

And, as usual, SEARCH IS A-1 SUPAR!

[Nuclear1]

Darn, Zylon. You beat me to it.