Better options for custom weapon projectile appearance

[[Krogoth86]]

I'd like to have a better option for doing different projectile appearanes for the standard arc firing "plasma" weapon type. Currently there's no 100% satisfying solution (at least none I know of)...

You've got a couple of options recently to start replacing the standard dot like particle and its weapon options by something different:

1.) Cegtag
Certainly the most sound solution. You're tied to the CBitmapMuzzleFlame class as it's the only one to obey perspective and doesn't spawn simple billboards always facing the camera (setting size=0 lets the standard engine particle disappear). It pretty much does the job and lets you put in some bitmaps of your liking with transparency & stuff. The disadvantage lies within the cegtag though: It doesn't really spawn "every frame" in terms of your framerate but rather in terms of simulation speed. In other words especially when running the gamer at slower speed you really see it stuttering over your screen and even at standard speed you can spot it quite easily. Although it's not a no-go it certainly isn't too good to be nice and that's why using cegtags certainly is the most sound solution but only doesn't give you a fluid motion of your projectile. If possible it would be nice to either do sort of a higher spawn rate of the cegtag or add a movement ability to the CBitmapMuzzleFlame so you can spawn your projectile and let it move towards its heading and as the gaps between each spawn point aren't that big this should work to fake a smooth movement...

2.) s3o
The other option you have is to attach a s3o model to the weapon just like for rockets. This way you'd be able to do your two perpendicular planes in a model and have it move smoothly as that's the behaviour of models attached to a weapon which don't have that "stuttering effect" of several spawn points. The disadvantage lies within the current model format capabilities though: Without any real transparency control things won't work and well you might consider modelling the shape of the projectile for your two planes but depending on the projectile you want to have it easily could eat 100+ polygons each if you don't want it to be angled. The solution here would be a real transparency channel with more than just a on/off behaviour which also would be cool for models in general but most certainly is a tough job to realize...

So in the end I'd like to either have a higher spawn rate for the cegtags (probably different ones on a per effect basis so you only put the rate up where needed) or an additional movement tag for the MuzzleFlame class...

[jK]

first, CBitmapMuzzleFlame is not the only directional class ... (SimpleParticles with dir=dir; SpeedSpread=x; ...)

second, the appearance of the engine spawned particles is customizable check the specifications ...

[[Krogoth86]]

first, CBitmapMuzzleFlame is not the only directional class ... (SimpleParticles with dir=dir; SpeedSpread=x; ...)

Hmm interesting - didn't see that in the Wiki. Are you sure though that it really spawns perspective particles? As I understand it (and it turned out during my tests) you just get billboards facing the camera in a specific way so when you do an e.g. egg like shape it won't mainting the particle's right angle (in terms of heading the right way) when rotating the camera around it...

second, the appearance of the engine spawned particles is customizable check the specifications ...

You can do things like stages or the size tag I mentioned in my initial post but nothing else. So yes - you can tune it a bit here and there but not do really distinct custom shapes...

[jK]

Don't implicate your idea of how things have to be (many ppl make this failure).
Just be more keen on experimenting with the instruments you got.

[[Krogoth86]]

Well my idea from how this works derives from my experience and Evil4zerggin's description of it. I also tried to do as you said but had zero success. Maybe you can point out to me which tags might interfere with each other (I'll list all of them but tried erasing some in order to check if this did fix it):

Code: Select all

			sizeGrowth=1;
			sizeMod=1.0;
			pos=0, 0, 0;
			emitVector=0, 0, 1;
			gravity=0, 0, 0;
         	colorMap=1.0 0.3 0.1 1 1.0 0.3 0.1 1; 
			Texture=dirtplosion2;
			airdrag=1;
			particleLife=2;
			particleLifeSpread=0;
			numParticles=1;
			particleSpeed=0;
			particleSpeedSpread=1;
			particleSize=8;
			particleSizeSpread=1;
			emitRot=0;
			emitRotSpread=0;
			directional=1;
			alwaysvisible=1;
			dir=dir;

The problem still is that you just get a billboard facing the camera. Maybe also to make clear what I mean with that: Here are two screens which show the behaviour I mean. The game is paused and I just moved the camera up/down and you can see the sprite change its direction:

[KDR_11k]

first, CBitmapMuzzleFlame is not the only directional class ... (SimpleParticles with dir=dir; SpeedSpread=x; ...)

He said perspective, a SimpleParticle is always drawn parallel to the viewing plane with only the other two axises decided by the direction. If you make it a line and the projectile moves towards the camera you still get a line as if it was moving orthogonally to that path. I think a perspective option for that particle type would be very useful.

[[Krogoth86]]

Right - a perspective option for SimpleParticles also would be a solution although I'd prefer a movement tag for the muzzleflame class. That also might be the more easy solution in terms of realizing it plus you wouldn't have to manually do the two projectile planes. With that said imo the muzzleflame class wouldn't even need a real movement option but simply a movement in the direction it's heading to...

[Master-Athmos]

Has there been any progress in this direction lately? It's quite a downside in my opinion...

[Forboding Angel]

Need a higher spawnrate for cegtags tbh. THat would be wonderful. Or even better yet, a way to set the spawnrate.