Visible traceline

[Chip]

How can I create a visible traceline for bullets?

I'm trying to create a simple gun that shoots almost instantly and I need a traceline for the bullet that fades away after a while.

[Error]

use the lightning temp_ent but change the beam models? though isn't there a beam2?

[Junrall]

Also, looking at some of the old grappling hook mods may be of some use.

[Sajt]

Are you using DarkPlaces?

[leileilol]

Yeah there's no standard 'beam' builtin for engines like Half-Life has. Darkplaces at least has this weird undocumented "TE_TEI_G3" (NOT in dpextensions.qc) which is a white plane beam powered by two vectors (origin, destination) and a third filler vector of useless (Engoo reads it as rgb to make the color of the beam )). It was implemented way back in 2002 for Nexuiz, so using it will be compatible. BUT UNLESS YOU HAVE A LASER GUN OR SOME SORT OF AIR RIFLE IT IS GOING TO SUCK FOR BULLETS.

[Lardarse]

It might be easier to have a model of a tracer, and fire that as a projectile.

[Spike]

csqc specs specify a particletrail builtin, dp also implements this serverside. messy or not, it can be used instead of TE_TEI_G3, just give it a nice particle effect and job done.

[Chip]

Thanks for the help, I'll look those functions up and see what I can come up with.

The original idea was to have a thin trail of smoke which after a couple of seconds would disperse into the air, just like cigarette smoke.

EDIT: Yes, I'm using DarkPlaces.

[Sajt]

If the bullet is instant-hit (like a railgun), then TE_TEI_G3 is the way to go.

Code: Select all

void(vector start, vector end) te_tei_g3 =
{
   WriteByte (MSG_BROADCAST, SVC_TEMPENTITY);
   WriteByte (MSG_BROADCAST, 76);
   WriteCoord (MSG_BROADCAST, start_x);
   WriteCoord (MSG_BROADCAST, start_y);
   WriteCoord (MSG_BROADCAST, start_z);
   WriteCoord (MSG_BROADCAST, end_x);
   WriteCoord (MSG_BROADCAST, end_y);
   WriteCoord (MSG_BROADCAST, end_z);
   WriteCoord (MSG_BROADCAST, 0);
   WriteCoord (MSG_BROADCAST, 0);
   WriteCoord (MSG_BROADCAST, 0);
};

Save a file as particles/nexbeam.tga lets you retexture the beam. It's additive. It fades out in a second or so, not sure if you can configure it. Here's my nexbeam texture, it doesn't look like much in a paint program but in game it's a really nice subtle smoke trail (was used for a rifle).

http://www.manchild.org/nexbeam.tga

I think there might also be a console command that dumps the autogenerated particlefont/nexbeam to files. (If the files are present, they override the autogenerated ones.)

[lth]

You could use effectinfo in darkplaces too. I've got some neat tracers going on in my current mod.