Lets just say for example you have an RTS where the player has the option of attacking another unit but the attack power is based on the distance between units and we were using measurements of feet. How would i create a visible line between the player unit and the unit the player is attacking as well as display the measurment of the distance between the two. I want some sort of line drawn between the two units but have no idea how to do it.

You could use draw_line3d

or you use a sprite (4x4) and stretch/rotate it so that it is like a line... then you don't have the jaggy edges.

How do you manipulate a sprite? This is the first time i've ever heard of this. And how would I convert quants to feet?

Dude I can do this, there is a function in the a6 templates that will draw a line its called particle_drawline or something. If you want, I can just go home in like 45 minutes (I'm at work) copy the code and paste it here. It's really easy I just can't remember what 1 function is because I don't really need to draw lines in my game.

Basically this code makes a line, you can use a sprite particle and use my.streak = on, and it will look cooler depending on what sprite you use. I'll post it when I get home if no one else does first

This is from the template_6 folder.



Particle00_DrawLine_Func() is the particle and use Particle00_DrawLine(&start,&end) like this:



Notice that my.streak = on, that is a commercial and above flag so if you don't have at least commercial it won't work.

I guess converting quants to feet is up to you like 5 quants to 1 foot or 10 quants to 1 foot, it's up to you.

Dude!!! Thanks alot. I have commercial so this will work fine.

I am making a space shooter that utilizes this effect with cool results. I have a space mine that creates the line from my.y + 2000 to my.y - 2000, the particle uses my.streak = on and a cloudy square-shaped bitmap with an alpha channel. In the particle function I put my.x += random(10) - 5; my.y += random(10) - 5; and my.z += random(10) - 5; and the result is a cool laser beam that flickers around. I will be posting the effect in the projects section as soon as the demo is smooth.

Check particle00.wdl in the a6 templates, I think thats the script; It has some nice scripts for drawing lines with particles.

<Insert chance for me to brag here...> Ok the enemies use the streak effect with almost the exact same code as above, causing the beam to jump around and flicker.



Using an actual sprite in the particle brought up an interesting flaw when using a sprite: the longer the line, the more the particle sprite is stretched meaning the beam may appear faint.

Awesome dude. Thanks!!!