269 lines
11 KiB
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269 lines
11 KiB
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<title>Generating 'Beam' visual effects</title>
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<p align="left"><font color="#808080" size="1" face="Arial">Last
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updated 4/14/2000</font></p>
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<p align="center"><a href="main.html"><font color="#990000"
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size="3" face="Arial">Main Menu</font></a><font color="#990000"
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size="3" face="Arial"> </font></p>
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<hr>
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<h1><font face="Arial">Generating 'Beam' Visual Effects</font></h1>
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<p><font face="Arial"></font> </p>
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<blockquote>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>Yeah, now we have beam effects. They
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are still in progress, but we have almost all the basic
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effects in at the moment. I imagine that these would be used
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for stuff like boots' attacks and Demo's tractor beam skill.
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Things that need scaleable lines for variable relative
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targets.</i></font></p>
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</blockquote>
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<h2><font face="Arial"><i>Creating Beams in APE</i></font></h2>
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<blockquote>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>What is a beam? It's a screen-oriented
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polygon that starts at one point and ends at another. So
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basically a line. These lines can have various effects such
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as fading from opaque to solid, fading between colors,
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growing/shrinking, etc.</i></font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>Right now, you can only create beams
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in APE. There are two APE externs to make beams:</i></font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><code><i>BEAM_CreateBeam [srchandle] [tgthandle]
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[r] [g] [b] [a] [time] [radius] [flags]</i></code></font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>srchandle/tgthandle</i>: The two
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handles are handles to the source and target entities--the
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entity origins will be the start and end points of the beam.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>r, g, b, a</i>: These represent the
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red, green, blue, and alpha components of the beam's color.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>time</i>: The lifetime of the beam
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in milliseconds.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>radius</i>: The thickness of the
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beam.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>flags</i>: The effects flags of the
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beam (to be described later)</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial">The second command is a more complex
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version of creatbeam with more arguments for greater control
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over the beam's appearance.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><code>BEAM_CreateBeamEx [srchandle] [srcsurface]
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[tgthandle] [tgtsurface] [r] [g] [b] [a] [r2] [g2] [b2]
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[time] [radius] [radius2] [texture #] [scrollx] [scrolly] [flags]</code></font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>srchandle/tgthandle</i>: These are
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the same as in the previous command, they represent the start
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and end entities.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>srcsurface/tgtsurface</i>: These are
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the names of the triangles for the source and target that you
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want the beams start and endpoints to be. They are optional.
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So if you just want entity to entity beams, just make both
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surfaces 0. If you want just a source surface (the most
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common application), say for an eye-beam effect, just use a
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source surface and keep the target surface as "0".
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You still need to have valid handles for using surface-basedbeams.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>r, g, b, a</i>: The red, green,
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blue, and alpha components of the beam's color.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>r2, g2, b2</i>: The red, green, and
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blue components of the 2nd color. If the 1st and 2nd color
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are not the same, then the beam will fade between these two
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colors as it decays.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>time</i>: Lifetime of beam.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>radius</i>: Thickness of beam/thickness
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of start point.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>radius2</i>: Thickness of end point
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of beam. If both radii are different, then you will get a
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flared-out beam.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>texture #</i>:Texture number. This
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is the same texture number you use for particles--it will
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apply a texture from the pool of particle textures to the
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beam. It is tiled down the length of the beam, but in width
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it is stretched.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>scrollx</i>: Texture scroll X speed.
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</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>scrolly</i>: Texture scroll Y speed.
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</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><i>flags</i>: Flags (to be described
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later)</font></p>
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</blockquote>
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<h2><font face="Arial">Creating Beams in PLANET</font></h2>
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<blockquote><p>The Planet Command is basically createbeamex, but slightly more flexible. This goes on the command path for any given track and
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references the entity that belongs to that track as the source of the beam. Therefore, it's not necessary to specify a source entity:</p>
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<p><code>beam=[surfacea],[tgttrack],[surfaceb],[r],[g],[b],[a],[r2],[g2],[b2],[time],[radius],[radius2],[texnum],[scrollx],[scrolly],[flags], [segments]</p></code>
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<p><i>surfacea</i>: The surface of the target entity the beam will emit from. "0" if none.</p>
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<p><i>tgttrack</i>: The track of the target entity. Can also be either the sequence or classname of the desired target entity.</p>
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<p><i>surfaceb</i>: The surface you want to hit on the target entity. "0" if none.</p>
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<p><i>r, g, b, a</i>: The red, green, blue, and alpha components of the first color.</p>
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<p><i>r2, g2, b2</i>: The second color of the beam. If the same as the first, no color fading will occur.</p>
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<p><i>time</i>: Time, in milliseconds, of the beam's life. 2500 is 2 and a half seconds, for a ballpark value.</p>
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<p><i>radius</i>: Radius, 0-256, of the beam.</p>
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<p><i>radius2</i>: Second radius--if the same as the first, no flaring will occur.</p>
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<p><i>texnum</i>: Texture #, same as the texnum for particles. If -1 or 0, will not use a texture. (I probably have to let it use 0)</p>
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<p><i>scrollx</i>: Scroll velocity along the x axis of the texture (if available).</p>
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<p><i>scrolly</i>: Scroll velocity along the y axis of the texture (if available).</p>
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<p><i>flags</i>: Effects flags.</p>
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<p><i>segments</i>: Number of segments for lightning. (optional, only used for lightning beams--3-12 segments. Let me know if you need more) </p>
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<h2><font face="Arial">FLAGS</font></h2>
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<p><font face="Arial">These are the values that you add up and
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use for the flags field. You can use the windows calculator in
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hex mode to add in the appropriate effects flags. More info to
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come...</font></p>
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<p><font face="Arial"><code><br>
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#define BE_SHRINK 0x0001 // beam shrinks with time (radius ->
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0)<br>
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#define BE_FADE 0x0002 // beam fades with time<br>
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#define BE_PARTICLE 0x0008 // add particles to beam length<br>
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#define BE_GLOW 0x0020 // draw halo around beam<br>
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#define BE_GROW 0x0040 // beam grows with time ( 0 -> radius)<br>
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#define BE_LIGHTNING 0x0200 // segmented lightning beam<br>
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#define BE_2RADIUS 0x0400 // different source and target radius<br>
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#define BE_ALPHALEFT 0x0800 // fade from 0 alpha, target --
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source : fade<br>
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#define BE_ALPHARIGHT 0x1000 // fade from 0 falpha, source -- target : fade<br>
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#define BE_INFINITE 0x2000 // beam lasts forever (until killed)<br>
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</code></font></p>
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<p>If you are using the lightning flag, the radius2 argument is referenced as the deviation
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instead of the flared radius since lightning would look pretty stupid with tapered beams. If it's
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set to 0, it will just use a default value.</p>
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<p><h3>A Small Note About the INFINITE Flag</h3></p>
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<p>If you use the INFINITE flag, the beam will last forever. You can explicitly kill the beam with the command:</p>
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<p><code>BEAM_KillBeam [handle]</p></code></p>
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<p>This will kill the infinite beam associated with the entity handle passed in. If you have more than one
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beam emitting from a single entity, this function will kill all beams associated with that
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entity.</p>
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<h2><font face="Arial">LIMITATIONS</font></h2>
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<blockquote>
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<p><font face="Arial">Beams are a single polygon (except lightning). So you will
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notice if you have a particularly wide beam that the end
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points will spin around as you move the camewra because it
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always draws the beam orthogonal to the screen. It's not that
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bad with small to medium sized beams, but beware of this when
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using obscenely wide beams.</font></p>
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</blockquote>
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<h2><font face="Arial">Using The Beam Editor</font></h2>
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<blockquote>
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<p><font face="Arial">Now we have a Beam Editor. This allows
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you to quickly demo different styles of beams and view their flag
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values for easy creation of new effects.
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</font></p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>
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The Beam Editor is similar to the Particle Editor in that it needs to be launched from NoxDroppings. To start the editor,
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type the console command <i>"ndbeamedit +"</i> from the console.
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</p>
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<p>Now you'll see an interface similar to the Particle Editor. There are a bunch of sliders on the right for adjusting
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parameters and a listbox on the lower left for flags. You can click on the flags just like particle flags. These will
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apply different styles.</p>
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<p>Now, when you click the <i>create beam</i> button, a beam will be created in front of you. (It spawns two invisible entities
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in front of the camera for this) When this button is clicked you will see the text "Beam Flags" in the upper left hand corner of
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the screen. This is the effect argument for this given beam. That way you don't have to use a calculator.</p>
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<p>By using the values of the sliders and the beam flags number, you can easily create particle commands with the editor.</p>
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<p>
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<font face="Arial">Complain about this document to the
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wonderful author, </font><a href="mailto:ralph@ionstorm.com"><font
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face="Arial">Ralph Barbagallo</font></a></p>
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