Wrapping beams across surfaces?

[mankrip]

[taniwha]

[mankrip]

[taniwha]

What you want actually doesn't make physical sense. The code I gave you causes the wall to rob the beam of exactly the velocity component going directly into the wall (if you were to aim perfectly perpendicular to the wall, the beam would just stop dead). The reason the beam goes off to the side when aiming up but at an angle to the wall is because that is the direction of the player's aim relative to the wall.

It might be better to think of the player's aim forming a cone around the line between the player and the wall such that the line is perpendicular to the wall (the wall might not actually exist at the point the line hits the wall. ie, you might have to imagine the wall being extended far enough). The player's aim then has two components: one going towards (perpendicular to) the wall, and one going along (parallel to) the wall (radiating out from the above mentioned intersection point). Hitting the wall removes the perpendicular component. The only way for the beam to go straight up when hitting the wall when the player is aiming a little to the left or right is if there is something else there to stop the beam going to the side. There is nothing there to do so. If you want to use friction with the wall, then the beam would just stop dead as friction works in all directions (parallel to the wall).

Try it with a garden-hose on the ground (or a wall if you really want, but then you've got gravity getting in the way).

[qbism]

The wall face itself is not the correct plane. The plane for this effect intersects the wall but the horizontal axis is perpendicular to the player.

[Spike]

so for a vertical wall, you want it to always go upwards?

[ceriux]

i think what he wants to make it travel the direction the player is facing reguardless of which angle the wall is facing. so if hes aiming straight the beam goes straight, id assume that if you were aiming lower the beam would travel downward in the direction and if you were aiming higher it would travel upwards. if he was aiming side ways at the wall the beam would travel across the wall horizontally .

[Spike]

assuming he's looking forward, the view is above the point of origin of the lightning beam.
this means that the beam always connects from the bottom of the screen towards the center (perspective and all that). which means that the beam needs to always go vertically upwards, assuming the wall is vertical.
even if the player is aiming downwards.

I really have no idea of the maths for that.

[taniwha]

What I want to know is what's supposed to happen on a non-vertical surface? (eg, floor, ramp etc) At least the code I gave gives consistent (and physically accurate) results for all surface directions.

[mankrip]

[qbism]

[mankrip]

[gnounc]

post us a youtube video when you get what you wanted, for those of us who couldnt figure out what it was.

[taniwha]

A particle-beam is not a circular-saw, but whatever. Now you have to explain why the "beam" would go vertically and not some other arbitrary direction

[mankrip]