lightning?

Anyone know how to do a lightning bolt effect? Distant lightning is easy (use a picture of lightning for a sprite on the horizon) but how do I do something close up, like a lightning gun or something?

if you see Ross C ask him

he has come up with a lightning gun that looks very very cool

Hey Joe. I've uploaded some of the stuff. I wanted to make each lightning strike a single surface, but i ended up with each branch being a deformed cylinder. I create a rod, then deform it, each deform point being a possible location for a branch of lightning to come out (another deformed cylinder). Run lightning_newest, to see it in action. ARROW keys plus the mouse left and right buttons to move.

And the link :S

www.rosscrooks.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/lightning.zip

Very Nice!

That is THE best lightning I've seen in Blitz.

Cool, thanks. I'll take a look when I get home.

Good stuff. Public domain?

From memory, that landscape one looks very similar to a demo that came with B3D - the one I remember didn't have the isolated cloud flashes though.

Yep, sure, use it however you want :o) As for the landscape, i just grabbed a couple of textures and stuck 'em on a plane :o)

Yes, I have checked my records. "Ross C's" example is similar in appearance to 'Lightning Effect' by "David Bird" in the "birdie" directory of the B3D 3D samples directory.

"Ross C's" lightning bolts are better.

Maybe i nicked the texture from there ^_^ Sorry birdie if i did :o)

This is amazing, but i think you could do better. I really enjoyed the fact that not all bolts are drawn to the ground and appear as bursts of light, just great!

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone still have that lightning code? I would love to see that, but the link is 404 :(

Hmm, you'll need to wait till i get home :o) I think i cleared some stuff off my webspace.

Missed this so would like to see it

We could really do with a resource section where people can upload too so its kept....

Ok, here:

http://www.rosscrooks.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/lightning.zip

It was part of a project that fell by the wayside. Hopefully i can link up one day and get it finished!

I will post further comments on how to use it.

Thank you so much! Going to check it out right now :)

flippin schweet man