[SOLVED] Best way to create an instantaneous beam effect

[ashwin.sudhir]

The effect we are looking for doesn't have particles that move, the idea was to have a beam that pops up immediately connecting source and destination. We have done this using a Length particle with its Velocity set to 0.1 and Stretch Factor set to a value determined based on the distance between the source and the destination.

Then we use animated particles to simulate beam motion.

It still looks like a hack to me - is this the right way of creating this kind of effect in Unigine?

Also, doing this seems to create problems in collision detection. When Collision is turned on, the particles start going off in random directions.

Please advise, as this kind of effect is crucial in adding visual variety.

[ulf.schroeter]

You could use ObjectMeshDynamik, create quad or crossed quad geometry on effect start based on start/end positions and assign some beam material. Beam motion can be simulated with some time-based texture atlas animation and/or texture coords scrolling.

[ashwin.sudhir]

We plan to use instantaneous "beam" weapons (something like what Halo's sentinels use). The problem with @ulf's suggestion is that we'll no longer be able to use spark emitters to show a response when the particle hits a surface.

Is there any way we can cause a Length particle to detect collision (and hence spawn sparks) but not respond to collision (we do not want the beam to get deflected when it hits a surface).

Playing around with Restitution doesn't seem to help.

[ashwin.sudhir]

The final workaround we used was to create a hidden high velocity particle with a child spark emitter. This looks convincing enough.

[manguste]

Our devs suggested basically the same way as you actually used. If it works then there's no problem :)