Light beams

[Euth]

Hey guys, was just looking at Ente's padstation and some of Dad*Mad's maps and was wondering how you make those beams of light?? I tried making one myself by taking a cylinder and using the Beam texture that is used in the padstation map, and although it looked the same, it was solid. Anyone able to help me out please??

[Wudan]

Do you have a link to a screenshot? I think I just made one the other day, but I can't be sure what you are talking about until I see a screenie.

[Euth]

Sorry I don't - I am talking abut the effect surrounding the lights on the ceiling of the hallway in DAd*Mad's snow map #1 if that is any clearer - should probably aslo mention that it is a MP map and I'm using JK2radiant.....

[wedge2211]

I saw a tutorial on this, that described using a beam-shaped brush with the beam texture on it, and covering the top and bottom invisible surfaces with nodraw. I think you could also take that cynlinder and select "make nonsolid."

[dvader28]

is it my imagination or does this thread pop up every 2 weeks or so?

[Wudan]

You mean where the light 'fades away' from the light source?

 

It's a shader, have you used custom shaders before?

[Euth]

I haven't - what do I need to do to get them running??

 

Thanks for the help Wedge, but what you suggested doesn't seem to be working for me!

[reaper1576]

anyone got a link to a tutorial on this?

[wedge2211]

Aha--here it is...

 

http://planetquake.com/bubba/beam1.html

[reaper1576]

thanks looked at it but i cant find the beam shader or texture anyone?

[Kyle_KatarnJedi]

I have been wondering the same thing on this, I cant find that Shader or the Beam Textures anywhere? Anyone know where it is?

 

[i posted here instead of createing a new thread, I figured it would be less redundant}

[wedge2211]

You can find them all over the place, the texture (I think it's just a tga with an alpha channel, not a shader) is used in loads of maps. Look at the texture sets you have. It's kinda ubiquitous. If all else fails, you can just make your own beam-looking texture.

 

You know, I just tried doing that myself with a cylinder, and got the same problem: looks awesome, but is solid. GtkRadiant has no "make nonsolid" option, so I wrote a shader that consisted of these lines:

 

textures/erulanei/beam
{
qer_editorimage textures/erulanei/beam.tga
surfaceparm nonsolid
map textures/erulanei/beam
}

 

I tried my new shader in the game, and it was certainly not solid, but the image didn't display. (I got the "holodeck" black and white grid.) If someone could tell me how to make the cylinder nonsolid in GtkRad or what's missing from my shader code, then your problem and mine will be solved, Euth.

[War Master]

If you have Dad*Mad's maps downloaded look for the beam jpg in the pk3 file. It's taken from Quake 3 Arena. You'll find the shader code that animates it too.

[Leslie Judge]

Originally posted by wedge2211

textures/erulanei/beam
{
qer_editorimage textures/erulanei/beam.tga
surfaceparm nonsolid
map textures/erulanei/beam
}

 

I tried my new shader in the game, and it was certainly not solid, but the image didn't display. (I got the "holodeck" black and white grid.) If someone could tell me how to make the cylinder nonsolid in GtkRad or what's missing from my shader code, then your problem and mine will be solved, Euth.

 

Your problem is that you put the map command into the general section. It shoould look like this:

textures/erulanei/beam
{
   q3map_nolightmap
   surfaceparm nonsolid
   {
       map textures/erulanei/beam
       blendFunc GL_SRC_ALPHA GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA
   }
}

 

Maybe a "cull disable" right after the "surfaceparm nonsolid" if you want to make it two sided.

[Kyle_KatarnJedi]

Ok I have tried using the file from Dad's snow map, and what the tutorial said, and in game this is what I got....

 

http://www.asthedeer.org/jkte/shot0137.jpg

 

Needless to say I am Bamfuzzled....What did I do wrong?

[wedge2211]

Thanks, Leslie, I copied some other shader codes and got it working nicely. (http://wso.williams.edu/~jshoer/images/shot0132.jpg)

 

Kyle_KatarnJedi: looks like you just used the .jpg file. There is a .shader file that goes along with it. I think Dad*Mad's textures are in the "bunker" set, look in there for something called "beam" --this is actually a shader.

 

If you want to make your own, take that code that leslie posted, and change textures/erulanei/beam to reference whatever jpg texture you want your beam to be.

[Kyle_KatarnJedi]

Ok Thanks. When I am done Do I place this in the textures/yavin folder (where beam.jpg is located) or do I place it in shaders?

 

Then I assume that i apply it like a texture?

[wedge2211]

You put the .shader file in the shader directory. At the top of the block of code that represents this shader in particular, you write "textures/textureset/shadername," where that should be the texture set and name you want to give your shader (for example, in mine, the shader heading textures/erulanei/beam will create a shader called "beam" under the texture set "erulanei." you probably want yavin/beam or something like that. Then it will show up when you load that texture set, just like any other shader/texture.

[Kyle_KatarnJedi]

w00t w00t Thanks Wedge! It works now!

http://www.asthedeer.org/jkte/beams.jpg

 

Thanks All!