Help with MAX

[Nighthawk]

exclusive question for those who know the inside-out of MAX (7, 8, or 9)

any chances to use a line/path/extrusion/helper/wathever to make a phaser blast?

the aim is to make a reference between two points (as a phaser would be) and make it glow (lens effect. already solved.)
I can make the phaser charge with a circular path, and straight phaser beams, but when it comes to detect a colission with other objects or to make it turn (locked on target) I'm lost....

I tried using Edit Poly/Edit Mesh/Edit Spline to link vertices to a Dummy, but the link takes the whole line as the object I want to link, not the vertices I want to isolate

[Legacy]

exclusive question for those who know the inside-out of MAX (7, 8, or 9)

any chances to use a line/path/extrusion/helper/wathever to make a phaser blast?

the aim is to make a reference between two points (as a phaser would be) and make it glow (lens effect. already solved.)
I can make the phaser charge with a circular path, and straight phaser beams, but when it comes to detect a colission with other objects or to make it turn (locked on target) I'm lost....

I tried using Edit Poly/Edit Mesh/Edit Spline to link vertices to a Dummy, but the link takes the whole line as the object I want to link, not the vertices I want to isolate

Most of us use particle beams to make phaser objects and 2 lights with lens flare (instead of glow) to make then move to the emitter position. The lights with lens flare also create the light-cast effect on the hull where the phaser is emitting, so everything gets solved pretty simply.

You can even make the particles to die after a detected colision with an object or deflector (deflectors are more safe) so the phaser would stop when hitting a shield.

[Nighthawk]

I kinda solved it with that. but the beam bends when I move the ship.
y'know, phasers are meant to be straight.....

[Legacy]

I kinda solved it with that. but the beam bends when I move the ship.
y'know, phasers are meant to be straight.....

particles should fire pretty fast and in fast bursts.. this way you won?t be emitt particles for more enough time to the arc to bend

[Nighthawk]

even firing fast, the stream does bend.
the "bending" itself is an illusion: if the emitter moves, the next particle will be offset from the previous, and it creates an arched beam.
I was thinking on using a flow control and a line, but it's the same thing: I can't direct the line by it's vertices.

the closest thing to a phaser that I could get was similar to the Bugship polaron beam: straight, forward, short bursts and thin, but that was with a line and helpers.
I still can't  make a Galaxy-style, or Defiant-style phaser: stuck in a point and following a target.

[Creative Inc]

You could try gravity...
Make it so the particles are attracted to the shield so they will always go straight to it.

[Nighthawk]

You could try gravity...
Make it so the particles are attracted to the shield so they will always go straight to it.

huh, that's tecnically the same.
the emitter has a kind of "force" to move the particles forward. using the gravity in one position, with the emitter facing in another direction will make the bending more evident.
think about you throwing a ball forward. no matter how fast you throw it, or how much you try to compensate throwing it upwards or at 45?, it will always fall to the ground.
...perhaps if I used a selection modifier to isolate some vertices, then instanced the controller of the Dummy I use as target, those and only those vertices would follow the Dummy.....

[Legacy]

huh, that's tecnically the same.
the emitter has a kind of "force" to move the particles forward. using the gravity in one position, with the emitter facing in another direction will make the bending more evident.
think about you throwing a ball forward. no matter how fast you throw it, or how much you try to compensate throwing it upwards or at 45?, it will always fall to the ground.
...perhaps if I used a selection modifier to isolate some vertices, then instanced the controller of the Dummy I use as target, those and only those vertices would follow the Dummy.....

Hmm... technically now that you said, galaxy style phasers are silly in the way it does not bend as in fact it should.. hehe.
try making a cylinder and link it to bones and then the bones to dummies, this way you can control the flow.. also, make that cylinder invisible and make it as path for particles, this way you have a nice particle based phaser beam, always straight, which you can control, start and stop.

[Nighthawk]

heh, I'm not that skilled with bones.....
but anyways, I have nothing to lose...
let's try. tnx LC!!