Lightning gun -- help

[Urre]

You could easily add it to that code by simply first checking the length of the trace (blah = vlen(tracelength*trace_fraction)), and just do a check for (if (fwd > blah) return;) to stop spawning them

[Orion]

Should I do a while loop? I've done a little different, but in large corridors the lightning is going infinity, and doing packet overflows.

Code: Select all

void(vector org, string bolt, float tracedist) ParseBeam =
{
   local entity beam;
   local float fwd, avel, dist;
   
   fwd = 0;
   avel = 10000;
   
   makevectors (self.v_angle);
   traceline (org, org + v_forward*tracedist, TRUE, self);
   dist = vlen(tracedist*trace_fraction);
   
   while (fwd < dist)
   {
      fwd = fwd + 32;
      avel = avel * 2;
      
      beam = spawn ();
      beam.owner = self;
      beam.movetype = MOVETYPE_FLY;
      beam.effects = EF_DIMLIGHT;
   
      makevectors (self.v_angle);
      beam.avelocity_z = avel;
      beam.angles_x = self.v_angle_x * -1;
      beam.angles_y = self.v_angle_y;
      beam.angles_z = self.v_angle_z;
   
      beam.nextthink = time + 0.1;
      beam.think = SUB_Remove;
   
      setmodel (beam, bolt);
      setsize (beam, '0 0 0', '0 0 0');
      setorigin (beam, org + v_forward*fwd);
   }
};


So, what's the way to fix? If I put an (if (fwd > dist) return;), will have a runaway loop error?

[Sajt]

Code: Select all

dist = vlen(tracedist*trace_fraction);

Shouldn't the compiler give an error on that? :O Just use dist = tracedist * trace_fraction;[/code]

[Urre]

It should give an error, since tracedist is a float. I was assuming it'd be a vector when I gave the suggestion, so yeah change it to what Sajt said.

[Gilgamesh]

Just a tip: in one of my mods (TecnoX) i had a similar idea.
I needed to make a laser beam effect (skinnable), and to avoid spawning too many entities and causing packet overflows, i did an UGLY hack: the mdl used had about 10 frames, stretched to a given length (frame 1 had 16 "quake units", frame 2 had 32 units, frame 3 had 64...).
With this in mind, the algorithm checks the required beam length and used the biggest model frame, spawning a minimum amount of entities, avoiding packet overflows.

[Urre]

Gilgamesh: In the world of Quake, that is not a hack, and certainly not ugly

One's gotta do what one's gotta do!

[Orion]

Solved, thanks!

[Entar]

Gilgamesh: that's actually a pretty cool idea, imo.

[Gilgamesh]

i feel better now

[Lardarse]

Just a tip: in one of my mods (TecnoX) i had a similar idea.
I needed to make a laser beam effect (skinnable), and to avoid spawning too many entities and causing packet overflows, i did an UGLY hack: the mdl used had about 10 frames, stretched to a given length (frame 1 had 16 "quake units", frame 2 had 32 units, frame 3 had 64...).
With this in mind, the algorithm checks the required beam length and used the biggest model frame, spawning a minimum amount of entities, avoiding packet overflows.

Very clever. I assume that you had different coloured skins as well...

Any chance you could share the model?

[Gilgamesh]

I can search for it (it's from qexpo 2003), but is just the enforcer laser with many skins, and stretched.

EDIT: Found it. Good news: found the full mod, and it still works! Bad news: i lost ALL source code, and frikqcc throws an error when i try to decompile it!

[Orion]

Hehe now the Quake2 parasite's beam works fine here