[Remy Lebeau]

So I've been playing around a little bit with TE_SetupBeamFollow (in CounterStrike:Source).

It's great fun. The only downside is that the beam start point is right in front of the players face, meaning that it gets in the way of players actually being able to see!

Does anyone have a suggestion for how I could either spawn the TE slightly behind the player, or an alternate that does something similar?

Thanks!

EDIT: Further experiments suggest this is only the case for the T models, not the CT! I guess the attachment point must be different

[xf117]

You can attach it to the client's weapon.

Also you can create an entity and position it anywhere you want relatively to player. Then mark the player as parent for that entity(this will force entity's position move with the player). After that use TE on the entity.

[Remy Lebeau]

Thanks for the idea.

How would I go about finding the correct entity? Say for example I wanted to attach it to a player's knife, how do I work that out?

[Mitchell]

Originally Posted by xf117 Also you can create an entity and position it anywhere you want relatively to player. Then mark the player as parent for that entity(this will force entity's position move with the player). After that use TE on the entity.

That's alot of work, you're better off just making a env_spritetrail at that point.

[Remy Lebeau]

Originally Posted by Mitchell That's alot of work, you're better off just making a env_spritetrail at that point.

The problem isn't creating the trail, the problem is what to attach it to ... Surely if I make an env_spritetrail I still have to attach it to something right?

I'm after guidance as to how I can attach this to a player in a way that isn't directly to the head...

[Remy Lebeau]

Ah, found an example:

new entityToFollow = GetPlayerWeaponSlot(client, 2); if (entityToFollow == -1) entityToFollow = client; new color[4]; Array_Copy(g_trails[client][TrailColor], color, sizeof(color)); TE_SetupBeamFollow(entityToFollow, g_trails[trail][TrailModelIndex], 0, g_trails[trail][TrailLifetime], g_trails[trail][TrailWidth], g_trails[trail][TrailEndWidth], g_trails[trail][TrailFadeLength], color); TE_SendToAll(); return true;

[Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Remy Lebeau The problem isn't creating the trail, the problem is what to attach it to ... Surely if I make an env_spritetrail I still have to attach it to something right? I'm after guidance as to how I can attach this to a player in a way that isn't directly to the head...

If you attach an env_spritetrail you can attach it to any attachment point of the player, or his origin. The attaching is the least of your problems with env_spritetrail. The TE_ way you cannot tell the temp entity where to attach it to, I figured it was obvious when i posted that. Temp Ents will only last a handful of seconds before they are deleted again.

[Remy Lebeau]

Originally Posted by Mitchell If you attach an env_spritetrail you can attach it to any attachment point of the player, or his origin. The attaching is the least of your problems with env_spritetrail. The TE_ way you cannot tell the temp entity where to attach it to, I figured it was obvious when i posted that. Temp Ents will only last a handful of seconds before they are deleted again.

I haven't done any work at all with env_spritetrails, sorry, and have only gotten as far as attaching TempEnts directly to entities without specifying attachment point! I really appreciate your help in learning this, and it looks like (from your comments) than an env_spritetrail could be a better solution for what I'm after.

Can you point me in the direction of the functions I need to become familiar with to use env_spritetrail, and also work out attachment points?

Thanks!