Mounted Emitter control

I am using a mounted particle emitter on my player. I want the particles to go all in one direction oriented the same to get an effect of a pulsed-beam firing. I also want the beam to automatically point at another player in the game. At first I just thought I'd use emitter and place them in position according to
%player.getPosition(). This doesn't work because emitters won't responed to setTransform() unless they are attached to something.

Instead, I am using code I found for a mounted emitted which is a little different. I have the emitter following the player, and outputting the particles correctly, but I can't seem to affect rotation of the emitter.

Here's the code.... sorry if I'm not supposed to put code in like this, Is there a way to attach it?

function mountedImage::shootParticles(%this, %obj, %slot)
{

// echo("preactivate");
%obj.setImageTrigger(1,false);
%projectile = %this.projectile;

%muzzleVector = %obj.getMuzzleVector(%slot); //"1 1 1 0";

%objectVelocity = %obj.getVelocity();

%muzzleVelocity = VectorAdd(
VectorScale(%muzzleVector, %projectile.muzzleVelocity),
VectorScale(%objectVelocity, %projectile.velInheritFactor)
);

%p = new (%this.projectileType)() {
dataBlock = %projectile;
initialVelocity = %muzzleVelocity;
initialPosition = %obj.getMuzzlePoint(%slot);
sourceObject = %obj;
sourceSlot = %slot;
client = %obj.client;
};

MissionCleanup.add(%p);

return %p;
}

datablock ParticleData(mountedParticle)
{
textureName = "~/data/shapes/particles/square";
};


datablock ParticleEmitterData(mountedEmitter)
{
className = "ParticleEmitterData";
ejectionPeriodMS = "80";
periodVarianceMS = "0";
ejectionVelocity = "20";
velocityVariance = "0";
ejectionOffset = "0";
thetaMin = "90";
thetaMax = "90";
phiReferenceVel = "1";
phiVariance = "0";
overrideAdvance = "0";
orientParticles = "1";
orientOnVelocity = "0";
particles = mountedParticle;
lifetimeMS = "5000";
lifetimeVarianceMS = "0";
useEmitterSizes = "0";
useEmitterColors = "0";
};

datablock ProjectileData(mountedProjectile)
{

gravityMod = 0.0;

hasLight = false;
};

function mountedImage::preStep(%this, %obj, %slot)
{
%obj.unmountImage(1);
}

datablock ShapeBaseImageData(mountedImage)
{
shapeFile = "~/data/shapes/dummy1/dummy1.dts";

..... code omitted...........
};

datablock ParticleEmitterNodeData(mountedEmitterNode)
{
timeMultiple = 0.1;
};


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I experimented with the ParticleEmitter Editor, and found that for a beam emitter if I set:

thetaMin = 90.0;
thetaMax = 90.0;

then this parameter:

phiReferenceVel = (some radian value 0 to 2pi)

Will control the rotation of the emitter on the zx axis.

I'm using this code from a scheduled timer to change the rotation:

mountedEmitter.phiReferenceVel = $lx;

echo("phiReferenceVel=" @ mountedEmitter.phiReferenceVel);

%emit.setEmitterDataBlock("mountedEmitter");

I don't know what %emit should be though? The setup function for mounted emitter is this:


%player.mountImage(mountedImage,1);

and this works to start the emitter. But I don't get a handle for the ParticleEmitterNode like I do if I use


%PEnode = new ParticleEmitter()

So how can I change the EmitterDataBlock?

And will this work to rotate the emitter?

Do I need another command to tell the emitter to use the updated data??

Anyone done this?

thanx