[Carl]

133+ness!

[TurboNed]

A little teenie, tiny question that I have (and a point that's probably too little-needed and difficult to implement to be worth it, but I have to ask anyway)....is there any way to affect dynamically the focus of the beams?

For example, in X-Wing Alliance (the previous three didn't do this), certain ships (dependant upon the technology level of the ship) had the ability to set in-flight focusing points for the lasers.

While flying an X-Wing, I can set the lasers to converge at 150, 100, 50, "automatic" meters from my ship.  (It's also possible to set "no convergence")  At "automatic" the lasers simply converge at the same distance as my current target.

Anyway, I'm wondering if that's possible or not, seeing as Freespace has a system of firing along the normals of the weapons...one could calibrate a POF to converge its weapons at a specific distance, but that convergence cannot be changed within the game, right?

  --TurboNed

[Pera]

Originally posted by Bobboau

and this is the executable, I was playing

FS3?

[Nico]

stoopid question number 5464346:
would  it be possible to give charge up glows ( of, dunno, 1/8 second) to regular lasers thnks to the source?

[Bobboau]

posable... ya
do I know how to do it...

I'm more concerned with getting the AI to use this at the moment

[Nico]

Originally posted by Bobboau
posable... ya
do I know how to do it...

I'm more concerned with getting the AI to use this at the moment

this is a good concern

[Taristin]

Originally posted by _argv[-1]

shaking a type 0 beam is pretty impossible -- once it's got you, you're going to take all of its damage unless you move out of range or duck behind something to avoid it.

Which is why the beam should follow you for 3 seconds, and then, say do 5 damage per second. It wouldn't kill you, but if you were critical, or a slow bomber, and 3 of these turrets find you... Buh-bye.

[killadonuts]

Originally posted by Pera


FS3?

I assume its called this so it can coexist in the same directory with the original executable.

[Bobboau]

i, erm,... uhg... yes  

[Scuddie]

Hmmm...  Is there a way for the fs3 to actually run?  We might need that test mission.

[Bobboau]

the test mission is simply a player ship (Alpha 1), and three "bad" ships

[_argv[-1]]

I did a little digging around in the code, looking for a way to cause beams to not pierce shields. I've found something interesting.

In code/Model/ModelCollide.cpp line 291 is some code for checking if a pulse weapon hit a shield, and doing things appropriately. Much of this stuff can be used with beams as well, with some modifications.

In code/Weapon/Beam.cpp line 2315 is some code for checking if a beam weapon hit an object. Notice that test_collide.flags has MC_CHECK_MODEL. To make it check shields, change MC_CHECK_MODEL to MC_CHECK_SHIELD. You need to MC_CHECK_MODEL afterwards, if the target has no shields or if its shields in that quadrant are down. You also need to do shield damage and make shield effects, which go in some functions below there, probably near line 2787.

Anyone who is interested in doing this stuff will hopefully find this information useful. Good luck, guys.

[DTP]

Could be useful for any Star trek mods. Particle Weapons vs Shields. But not for FS2-modextended campaigns because if even the shivans could not build a shield to protect against beam fire, then the Terrans  & vasudans certainly can' t, And i think we have to keep some kind of consistency with the FS universe.

But ofcourse for MODS not having anything to do with the FS universe this is useful.

[Bobboau]

I think it would be usefull for making a flag that sets a beam as non shield piercing, such as the anti fighter beams
and I have seen that code, I didn't do anything becase it looked like it would be a bit of a restructuring of the beam coliding code, and it would have to pas quadrants and such

[_argv[-1]]

Originally posted by DTP
Could be useful for any Star trek mods. Particle Weapons vs Shields. But not for FS2-modextended campaigns because if even the shivans could not build a shield to protect against beam fire, then the Terrans  & vasudans certainly can' t, And i think we have to keep some kind of consistency with the FS universe.

But ofcourse for MODS not having anything to do with the FS universe this is useful.

Actually, I was hoping to change the FS universe, such that all shields (Shivan, Terran, and Vasudan) protect against beams. It's more realistic that way, I think.

[_argv[-1]]

Originally posted by Bobboau
I think it would be usefull for making a flag that sets a beam as non shield piercing, such as the anti fighter beams
and I have seen that code, I didn't do anything becase it looked like it would be a bit of a restructuring of the beam coliding code, and it would have to pas quadrants and such

Near the location I gave in ModelCollide.cpp, there is a call to a function which figures out which quadrant was hit. Doesn't get much simpler than that.

[Fury]

Originally posted by _argv[-1]


Actually, I was hoping to change the FS universe, such that all shields (Shivan, Terran, and Vasudan) protect against beams. It's more realistic that way, I think.

Except that GTVA designed beams to penetrate Lucifer's shields.
Yes, they managed to destroy the Lucy, but cost was high.

They designed the Colossus class and anti-cap beams to be Lucy-killers.

But that doesn't matter much since cap ships does not have shields anyway...

[DTP]

hrhrhrhr

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,6339.0.html

[YodaSean]

Originally posted by _argv[-1]


Actually, I was hoping to change the FS universe, such that all shields (Shivan, Terran, and Vasudan) protect against beams. It's more realistic that way, I think.

How would that be more realistic?  I thought shields would only protect against matter-based weapons(or whatever, just not purely energy based).

[_argv[-1]]

Originally posted by YodaSean


How would that be more realistic?  I thought shields would only protect against matter-based weapons(or whatever, just not purely energy based).

Last time I checked, lasers (ML-16, Prometheus, Disruptor, Disruptor Advanced, Akheton SDG, Flail, Morning Star, etc), xasers (Subach/Mekhu HL-7), and fluctuating EM emissions (Banshee, Shield Breaker, Circe) were purely energy based.

The best example here is the ML-16. Despite it being purely energy based (it's a laser), shields are effectively impervious to it (since they regenerate faster than the ML-16 can damage them).

Also, the Lucifer's shields are impervious to everything, including the pure-energy weapons listed above. The way it was done in FS1 (ship-invulnerable), not even beams could puncture it.