I'm trying to use the vapor trail effect to enhance the look of the StarTrek style Phaser beam (originally conceived by Dalva, many thanks) I've been working on. I'm an obsessed perfectionist, some times even to a fault. So far I'm having great success using FireEffect, Effect, and HitEffect to mimic the appearance of the phaser beam from the original StarTrek series (ST:TOS), but the vapor trail effect makes the whole thing look much more "continuous", otherwise it's just looking like a really short-range but fast laser shot (and it's not even a beam type weapon in function by the game code). In my OCD-ness, I noticed a slight 'echo' of the vapor trail every now and again. I even went so far as to slow the weapon's ROF so I could be sure it wasn't just multiple shots... sure enough, after much tweaking of the various vaportrail numbers, I can make the vapor trail 'echo' at least once. The worst part was realizing that after tweaking all these numbers, I still have no idea what they are actually supposed to be doing (beyond the obvious definition of the words used anyway).
I commented out the capacitor effect for testing needs
and I changed the color of the vapor trail to white to make it easy to see. Spinning around while firing is the easiest way to spot the echoes. There are significant difference between renders of the smoke trail in the pure cardinal directions (which seem to work well most of the time) and any angled renderings. I do believe I can recall George mentioning some frustrations in that area a few years ago.I left vaporTrailWidthInc="0" for all testing on the assumption that it makes the vapor trail spread out or something, which is not a desired effect for me.
Testing notes (in no particular order):
vaporTrailLength="100" & vaporTrailWidth="0" doesn't show a vapor trail
vaporTrailLength="0" & vaporTrailWidth="100" shows a vapor trail and 1 or 2 'echoes'
vaporTrailLength="10" & vaporTrailWidth="10" shows a vapor trail that's just as segmented looking as the missile fire bolt effect (which is what I'm trying to compensate for), and is so thin that at most angles it's hardly visible at all. It also echoes and appears to start farther away from the ship than with the other variable changes tested
vaporTrailLength="50" & vaporTrailWidth="50" ... Ok, now it's getting weird. At the cardinal directions, only one trail appears and it's nice and clean. At most other angles it's pretty darn thin and may echo.
vaporTrailLength="10" & vaporTrailWidth="50" ... ditto
vaporTrailLength="50" & vaporTrailWidth="10" ... ditto
vaporTrailLength="5" & vaporTrailWidth="5" ... doesn't really help 'unify' the phaser 'beam' in the way I'm looking for, looks close on the cardinal directions but still has some echos and obvious segmentation.
AAARRRGGGGH I'm going to stop tweaking on this for now. Meanwhile, any bright ideas out there? Am I looking at a potential graphics rendering bug or am I just not understanding how to use the variables correctly?
Code: Select all
<ItemType UNID="&unidSfPhaserVIII;"
name= "Phaser VIII"
level= "2"
value= "1000"
mass= "5000"
frequency= "uncommon"
modifiers= "EnergyWeapon; MajorItem; Military; Nuclear"
description= "This is one of the first phasers to be deployed in Starfleet ships, utilizing plasma focused into a continuous beam, designed to burn out shields and damage specific equipment. It uses little power, but also lacks range."
>
<Image imageID="&rsItems1;" imageX="96" imageY="0" imageWidth="96" imageHeight="96"/>
<Weapon
type= "missile"
omnidirectional= "true"
damage= "plasma:1d2; device1; shield1; WMD1"
fireRate= "10"
missileSpeed= "100"
lifetime= "6"
passthrough= "25"
powerUse= "100"
idlePowerUse= "5"
sound= "&snLaserCannon;"
sortName= "Phaser08"
vaporTrailLength= "10"
vaporTrailWidth= "1"
vaporTrailWidthInc= "0"
vaporTrailColor= "0xff, 0x00, 0x00"
>
<!-- counter= "capacitor"
counterActivate= "-3"
counterUpdate= "7"
counterUpdateRate= "10" -->
<Configuration>
<Shot posAngle="0" posRadius="8" angle="0"/>
</Configuration>
<FireEffect>
<Flare
radius= "13"
primaryColor= "0xff, 0x00, 0x00"
secondaryColor= "0xdd, 0x00, 0x00"
/>
</FireEffect>
<Effect>
<Bolt
width= "1"
length= "98"
primaryColor= "0xff, 0x00, 0x00"
secondaryColor= "0xff, 0x00, 0x00"
/>
</Effect>
<HitEffect>
<Flare
radius= "13"
style= "fadingBlast"
lifetime= "10"
primaryColor= "0xff, 0x00, 0x00"
secondaryColor= "0xdd, 0x00, 0x00"
/>
</HitEffect>
</Weapon>
</ItemType>
Uh, right, I've been there... aaand made three successful effects even...
That's pretty much how I got there in the first place.