Question about beams of light
by Bryan Pitts · in General Discussion · 06/04/2008 (4:32 pm) · 6 replies
Hey guys im having troubles figureing a few things out with the lighting system. i know how to make lights and spotlights. but how do i make a light ray from my source point to the ground. giving the effect of rays of light through trees or a building sky light?
#2
06/05/2008 (9:30 am)
Another good way to do it is imposter shapes. Make a translucent shape with a light beam texture on it, and make the shape fade in and out as the player gets close/far from it.
#3
06/05/2008 (2:52 pm)
Wow, i would never have thought about the shape idea...as for the particle effect, i wasnt able to extend the length the particles travel...is there something there that i missed? 
#4
This way, you could specify many different bitmaps to allow for a projected field of light[pattern] to render on surfaces, won't get you true photometric light data......but, close enough; unless you are trying to really simulate multiple light sources under control....
Good luck! I think the hack of using geometry, bitmaps, and projected image is the way to go, if you're trying to get multiple lights, without resorting to SgLights.
Oh, btw; I'm a 'professional' stage/feature film Electrician[lights]....I know of many lights. I also used to be a moving light technician[Roadie] who toured RockNRoll....:); ah, my little army of robots, I miss em......
06/05/2008 (5:28 pm)
Might also be nice to get the 'field' of light to be a decal and have it pasted to the end of a rayCast or however the RTS kit makes the 'groundIcon' around the player...along with the 'beam' of a cone or whatnot to sim the beam from source to fieldEnd.This way, you could specify many different bitmaps to allow for a projected field of light[pattern] to render on surfaces, won't get you true photometric light data......but, close enough; unless you are trying to really simulate multiple light sources under control....
Good luck! I think the hack of using geometry, bitmaps, and projected image is the way to go, if you're trying to get multiple lights, without resorting to SgLights.
Oh, btw; I'm a 'professional' stage/feature film Electrician[lights]....I know of many lights. I also used to be a moving light technician[Roadie] who toured RockNRoll....:); ah, my little army of robots, I miss em......
#5
06/06/2008 (9:10 am)
There's an excellent and clever way of doing it with a post-processing pass, that is explained in GPU Gems 3 in some detail (it's even got source code).
#6
06/07/2008 (7:14 pm)
Hey thanks so much for all your help guys i to the lightrays to finaly show up :D totaly looks awsome. turned out i was playing around with the wrong light data block.....i tried it with a volume light block and quickly found where i could add ray texture data. but i still owe tonz of credit to you guys, youve given me great ideas that i will be trying out :D 
Associate David Montgomery-Blake
David MontgomeryBlake
EDIT:
Look at the lighting demo from the SDK for an example of how John did it.