Laser/Phaser style weapon

[AFADoomer]

Hi all-

I was wondering if it's possible to implement a beam style weapon that has a continuous beam in Zdoom... Any ideas? I tried searching but couldn't find anything on this...

I'm thinking the answer will be "Wait for Doom Script," but I still had to ask...

Thanks!

[Graf Zahl]

Hi all-

I was wondering if it's possible to implement a beam style weapon that has a continuous beam in Zdoom... Any ideas? I tried searching but couldn't find anything on this...

I'm thinking the answer will be "Wait for Doom Script," but I still had to ask...

Thanks!

Not possible. There are no means to do a continuous beam. Even with DoomScript this wouldn't be so easy because the engine simply doesn't support this feature.

[Galaxy_Stranger]

Well, you could fake it.

I played around with the idea a couple times. What you can do is take a projectile weapon that has sprites and use a graphic that does the job.

If you want to emulate a Phaser, I would probably start with the plasma gun. Instead of sperical sprites, I would make the graphics short lines, and then use Dehacked to modify how the gun works. Maybe the BFG would work a little better, because it doesn't have a continuous stream. I'd make it's firing sequence a little faster, just enough so you could hold it down for a continuous shot. Then, all you'd need to do is replace the BFG graphic.

Yeah - I think that would work.

[HotWax]

You could also modify the chaingun graphics to show a beam shooting off into the distance and, if possible, reduce the amount of bullet spread and possibly change the decal it leaves.

If DoomScript were implemented, this would presumably be feasible using a modified railgun. That is, a weapon which emits particles in a solid stream at a constant rate while the mouse button is held down. I don't see how the engine would limit this effect.

[Graf Zahl]

You could also modify the chaingun graphics to show a beam shooting off into the distance and, if possible, reduce the amount of bullet spread and possibly change the decal it leaves.

If DoomScript were implemented, this would presumably be feasible using a modified railgun. That is, a weapon which emits particles in a solid stream at a constant rate while the mouse button is held down. I don't see how the engine would limit this effect.

This still isn't a continuous beam of light - that's what he asked for. Your suggestion is probably the closest one can get but the real deal isn't possible in Doom.

[Kate]

It would be possible to make it continuous by simply re-firing the weapon every game tic the +attack key is held down

[The Ultimate DooMer]

The railgun will work - simply change the gap between firing frames to 1 tic (I've seen a rapid fire railgun before), and then replace the graphics.

And the chainsaw is continuous - make it fire a projectile and replace it with a continuous beam.

[HotWax]

This still isn't a continuous beam of light - that's what he asked for. Your suggestion is probably the closest one can get but the real deal isn't possible in Doom.

What are you basing this "fact" on? Making a beam weapon that uses particles would clearly be possible in DoomScript since A) You could do *ANYTHING* within the engine's limitations and B) The engine is fully capable of rendering particles.

The railgun beam is a solid beam of particles originating from the end of your gun and ending at a solid map structure. Modifying it slightly to constantly emit such a trail should require no more than a minor code modification now, and should be elementary to do in DoomScript.

[AFADoomer]

Thanks guys! Maybe I'll just wait for the (eventual) source release when .48 is released, and go from there and try to code it in myself...