Frictional Games Forum (read-only)

Full Version: Spotlight small bundle of light
You're currently viewing a stripped down version of our content. View the full version with proper formatting.
Hello,

I want to make a spotlight, which emits a reall small bundle of light, just like a laser.
You have to see it clearly, in the air. How can you make that?
And, does there exist a mirror of some kind, maybe a custom entity. Because ingame I want the light to reflect. Of course it won't reflect by itself, but I need something that would reflect it in real. If there isn't, I will use a bottle or something like that.

Grtz,
Brian
(12-11-2011, 11:05 PM)Sauron The King Wrote: [ -> ]Hello,

I want to make a spotlight, which emits a reall small bundle of light, just like a laser.
You have to see it clearly, in the air. How can you make that?
And, does there exist a mirror of some kind, maybe a custom entity. Because ingame I want the light to reflect. Of course it won't reflect by itself, but I need something that would reflect it in real. If there isn't, I will use a bottle or something like that.

Grtz,
Brian
Don't use a spotlight... Try a Billboard. Make an image of a red line and apply it as a .mat and put it in the billboards folder. then just scale it.


Hello Statyk (again Big Grin ),

I'm new to the material Editor. Could you make a material for me, which is a Billboard ingame and will look like a really light blue bundle of light? It shouldn't fade in length, but it should fade in width.
Because it doesn't sound like much work at all, but after experimenting with the program, I just didn't get one beam of light...

Scaling it the level editor does work. If I scale "bb_yellow_lightray.mat", it almost look good, but it fades in length which it shoudn't...

(12-11-2011, 11:10 PM)Statyk Wrote: [ -> ]
(12-11-2011, 11:05 PM)Sauron The King Wrote: [ -> ]Hello,

I want to make a spotlight, which emits a reall small bundle of light, just like a laser.
You have to see it clearly, in the air. How can you make that?
And, does there exist a mirror of some kind, maybe a custom entity. Because ingame I want the light to reflect. Of course it won't reflect by itself, but I need something that would reflect it in real. If there isn't, I will use a bottle or something like that.

Grtz,
Brian
Don't use a spotlight... Try a Billboard. Make an image of a red line and apply it as a .mat and put it in the billboards folder. then just scale it.

(12-12-2011, 05:46 PM)Sauron The King Wrote: [ -> ]Hello Statyk (again Big Grin ),

I'm new to the material Editor. Could you make a material for me, which is a Billboard ingame and will look like a really light blue bundle of light? It shouldn't fade in length, but it should fade in width.
Because it doesn't sound like much work at all, but after experimenting with the program, I just didn't get one beam of light...

Scaling it the level editor does work. If I scale "bb_yellow_lightray.mat", it almost look good, but it fades in length which it shoudn't...
Just make a white line on a black background (lower resolution means lower filesize) with any kind of image editing software (gimp,photoshop,mspaint). Save it as an .png, (or .dds dxt1) file to:
custom_stories/yourstorysname/billboards

Then fire up the material editor, set the Type to translucent, check Diffuse under Texture Units, click dots on the File to search for the image you made and exported to the location above.
When youre done, just Save as and put it in the same place as the image you made with same name as the image file.

Then you can use the file inside level editor. Remember to update your resources.cfg so your level editor can find the file the second time you open the level with custom stuff.
Thank you, I now have the light inside the game.
one more thing, its flat.. how can I make it a cylinder?
(12-12-2011, 09:07 PM)Sauron The King Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you, I now have the light inside the game.
one more thing, its flat.. how can I make it a cylinder?
That will have to be a model. Otherwise, make the billboard on "Axis" so it may be rotated, but the image still follows the position of the player. It'll give the illusion of a circle.
(12-12-2011, 09:36 PM)Statyk Wrote: [ -> ]
(12-12-2011, 09:07 PM)Sauron The King Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you, I now have the light inside the game.
one more thing, its flat.. how can I make it a cylinder?
That will have to be a model. Otherwise, make the billboard on "Axis" so it may be rotated, but the image still follows the position of the player. It'll give the illusion of a circle.
Hmm... you should see the small bundle of light going though the room. If I make it on "Axis", you won't see the light as a beam, but as a circle. If I make an entity of it, it won't fade if I'm correct.
Otherwise I will just keep it flat, if there isn't a sollution for that.


(12-13-2011, 04:55 PM)Sauron The King Wrote: [ -> ]
(12-12-2011, 09:36 PM)Statyk Wrote: [ -> ]
(12-12-2011, 09:07 PM)Sauron The King Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you, I now have the light inside the game.
one more thing, its flat.. how can I make it a cylinder?
That will have to be a model. Otherwise, make the billboard on "Axis" so it may be rotated, but the image still follows the position of the player. It'll give the illusion of a circle.
Hmm... you should see the small bundle of light going though the room. If I make it on "Axis", you won't see the light as a beam, but as a circle. If I make an entity of it, it won't fade if I'm correct.
Otherwise I will just keep it flat, if there isn't a sollution for that.
Umm.. I'm not exactly sure what your problem is, but havent you changed the lenght of the actual billboard inside level editor?

(12-13-2011, 07:16 PM)Khyrpa Wrote: [ -> ]
(12-13-2011, 04:55 PM)Sauron The King Wrote: [ -> ]
(12-12-2011, 09:36 PM)Statyk Wrote: [ -> ]
(12-12-2011, 09:07 PM)Sauron The King Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you, I now have the light inside the game.
one more thing, its flat.. how can I make it a cylinder?
That will have to be a model. Otherwise, make the billboard on "Axis" so it may be rotated, but the image still follows the position of the player. It'll give the illusion of a circle.
Hmm... you should see the small bundle of light going though the room. If I make it on "Axis", you won't see the light as a beam, but as a circle. If I make an entity of it, it won't fade if I'm correct.
Otherwise I will just keep it flat, if there isn't a sollution for that.
Umm.. I'm not exactly sure what your problem is, but havent you changed the lenght of the actual billboard inside level editor?
I have adjusted the length. When you look at the side of it, the light is good. But if you look at top of it, you can see it's flat.
Now if I make the billboard type "Point", it won't look flat if you look from above, or from the sides. But it will move with you, while the beam of light must not move.
Here are some pics, you will see that the light is flat, I need to have a Cilinder of it:
[attachment=2315]


Done,
I've used a Fogarea and made it really thin. It now looks like a white laser.
Thanks for all the help Smile