[Krallis]

I've m,ade a new beam and the problem is I want it to be untextured and to use the RGBA values instead. I'm running open but whenever I test my beam nothing at all shows up, apart from the muzzle glow and explosion impact. The beam still affects things but I can't see the actual laser.

Here is the beam information . This beam is critical for a mission im making I need it to work.

#Primary Weapons

$Name:                          DBlack
$Model File:                    none ; laser1-1.pof
@Laser Bitmap:                  laserglow02
@Laser Color:               0, 0, 0
@Laser Length:               0.0
@Laser Head Radius:            0.30
@Laser Tail Radius:            0.30
$Mass:                          100.0
$Velocity:                      1000.0          ;; speed of the weapon (initially) -- may or may not change
$Fire Wait:                     10.0            ;; in seconds
$Damage:                        9000            ;; 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:                 2.0
$Subsystem Factor:              1.0
$Lifetime:                      35.0            ;; 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:       200.0
$BeamInfo:
   +Type:                  0            ;; 0 - 4 are valid #'s
   +Life:                    15.0            ;; how long it lasts once the beam is actually firing
   +Warmup:                 10000         ;; warmup time in ms
   +Warmdown:               2500         ;; warmdown time in ms
   +Radius:                 300.0         ;; muzzle glow radius in meters
   +PCount:               100            ;; particles spewed every interval
   +PRadius:               1.0            ;; particle radius
   +PAngle:               180.0         ;; angle of the random "cone" where the particles are generated
   +PAni:                  particleexp01   ;; particle ani
   +Miss Factor:            2.5 1.875 1.25 0.875 0.5   ;; magic # - higher == miss more (only really applicable to type 0 and type 3 beams)
   +BeamSound:               121            ;; the looping beam-firing sound
   +WarmupSound:            122         ;; associated warmup sound
   +WarmdownSound:            123            ;; associated warmdown sound
   +Muzzleglow:            thrusterglow01   ;; muzzle glow bitmap   
   +Shots:                  0            ;; only used for TYPE 3 beams
   +ShrinkFactor:            0.05         ;; what percentage of lifetime where beam starts shrinking (0.1 == 10% life left)
   +ShrinkPct:               50.0         ;; what percentage of max width we subtract per second
   $Section:                        ;; one section of the beam (you can have up to 5)
      +Width:               300.0            ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            -1      ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         0 0 0 255   ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         50 50 50 255   ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.5            ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               2.0            ;; hehe
   $Section:                        ;; one section of the beam
      +Width:               520.0            ;; width of the section
      +Texture:            -1                   ;; texture for this section
      +RGBA Inner:         1 1 1 255   ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +RGBA Outer:         255 0 0 255      ;; rgba values (only for non-textured beam compiles)
      +Flicker:            0.4            ;; how much it flickers (0.0 to 1.0)
      +Zadd:               1.0            ;; hehe

#End
   

[Mobius]

That's strange, you definitely need a texture for that.

Try using a regular one, open the MediaVPs with VPView and find the most appropriate one.

[Krallis]

None are appropriate. How can i make a custom one.

[Getter Robo G]

Hmmm did you ask this in anotehr thread????
(it's better to keep related things in the same thread instead of 4-5 others)

AFAIK BLACK beams are very difficult to make and will be invisible in game (so yes your beam IS working just as it should). You need to pollute the beam to make it visible try dark grey/chocolate/or deep purple).

I posted a few screenies of tinkering with the 2001ish  release of the "gold and Black beams" pack.

Some day I want to go back and mess aroudn more but sicne I don;t know about alpha channels, opacity and otehr image stuff I just use a generic slider like brightness and contrast to get what I wanted.

I'm sure someone who knows what they are doing can refine them better to get as close to "Black" as possible WITHOUT actually BEING BLACK...

Good luck with that!


The Beam is above the "gold" one
Any darker and it will not show up in game.

[Mobius]

The Inferno subspace weapon is some kind of invisible beam. In space black=invisible

[blowfish]

But a black beam would show up against the background stars and ships.  Still a bad idea but a good way to tell if its actually working.

[Getter Robo G]

Well if you can get one to work please post it, I know my vision isn't the greatest, but I've never seen it. 

It's my opinion he will have to tweak an existing one until it's about to cross that threshold of visible and invisible and be happy with that result however it looks.

IF you could see a black effect then obviously you would see black boxes around these torpedo images (they are in the middle of a black box). Obviously black for EFFECTS is transparent as Green is for MAPS...

Clearly you can see other torps and the ship hull as well as stars  through the effect, the BLACK box surrounding the effect is NOT visible and obscures nothing...


Consider it a friendly challenge... 

I DO have an idea though (it's very cheesy). Black as an effect won't work (the only time it does is when people report black boxes on screwy vp files it's a BUG not a FEATURE!!!

Take a POF and use a black map, then use it as a beam like they do in SW games (but they use red blue and yellow)... IDK if a pof that big would work right but at least you' SEE it!!!

[Snail]

I would be able to see the black boxes, actually.

[Getter Robo G]

I would be able to see the black boxes, actually.

You're not helping!!!  [Kidding]

You're welcome to join in the challenge then snail. 

[Krallis]

Ive finished my beams and I must say they look rather smart (they are huge) I'll upload some screenshots soon. First I have a question, for one final tweak. Is there any way to change the radius for which the beam firing sound can be heard because my beams are large but kind of quiet.

[Snail]

You're welcome to join in the challenge then snail. 

I believe black boxes were the purpose of the release of the media vp patches (mp)

[Droid803]

On my computer, at least, black DOES show up on effects.
I need to add an Alpha Channel so that the beam's external areas are transparent.

So...bascially, you can make a blank, black image, copy say, the Green Channel from the SGreen image, paste it as alpha, save. You should have a beam which is...black. You can see the beam in subspace, and when there's something behind it (I'm pretty sure this works, since my edited beam textures have a black area around them if I don't set my alpha channel.

[Krallis]

Can you change the radius of the noise that the beam makes?

[Wanderer]

The distance setting for the sounds can be found from the sounds.tbl. Check for the sound effects used with the beam and then find the same index number from the 'game sounds' section of the sounds.tbl

[Krallis]

I mean can you set the sound to be heard from say 10,000 metres away. I know how to put sounds in.

[Wanderer]

$Name:   147   BT_BGreen.wav,      0, 0.70, 2, 1500, 3000   
$Name:   148   BT_BFGreen.wav,      0, 0.70, 2, 1500, 3000   

See the number written in bold? First on in the line sets the distance until which distance the game uses unattenuated sound. And the last one defines the distance where the sound can be heard at all.

Changing them in the sound that played with the beam to something like 5000, 30000 should do the trick.

[Krallis]

I cant edit it in the TBL view. What do I have to do.

[Jeff Vader]

Notepad.

[Krallis]

So open the TBL in notepad then just hit save.

[Jeff Vader]

Yes.