Laser effects
Author
What are some methods for implementing a good looking laser effect? Right now all I know is that I can draw a line and color it to some color, but I want something a little more advanced. Essentially I''d like to apply a bitmap glow effect to the line, but I''m not sure how to do this so it works from all angles of view (i.e. from exactly in front or behind you should see a circular glow).
##UnknownPlayer##
Has anyone tried a 3d texture to do this? On whatever supports it, I suspect that method would look the best.
nypyren, no that''s not the way to go.
you can either use a long cylinder, drawn additive with a beamy texture, or you can do the math and draw billboard lines textured with that same texture.
you can either use a long cylinder, drawn additive with a beamy texture, or you can do the math and draw billboard lines textured with that same texture.
Author
I think I need to explain more. I have a line currently that I color and color-shift to represent the laser ''beam'' in space. What I want to do is add a glow around the beam using a bitmap that is stretched along its length. However, I want to do this so that it looks right from all angles (so if your looking right down the beam, the bitmap is just a circular glow).
How can I do this?
##UnknownPlayer##
How can I do this?
##UnknownPlayer##
Well, the best way is to probably combine the effect that the AP suggests (billboarded quad) with a set of quads along the length of the beam (with their normals pointing along the beam). These extra quads will make the beam look correct when viewing from the front. You''ll need a different texture for these (a circular blob texture rather than a line along the texture).
I believe Quake 3 does this for the rail-gun trace.
HTH
Matt Halpin
I believe Quake 3 does this for the rail-gun trace.
HTH
Matt Halpin
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