How do I make a laser beam?

I've been trying to make a laser beam in DOOM for a long time but I can't figure out how. One method I tried is to shoot a bunch of tiny projectiles (1 or 2 pixel size) all at once which have 0 damage, variable speed (one with 5 speed, one with 10 speed, one with 15 etc. all the way up to a really high speed), and a life of only a couple frames, to give the illusion of a single beam coming out instantly. Unfortunately without dynamic lighting this just looks like a line of confetti or something coming out of the weapon, and with dynamic lighting it is extremely laggy (in Skulltag at least) due to the number of lights created, but in theory could work (maybe on computers made 10 years from now, haha). Maybe somebody in some Doom port has made their weapon shoot laser beams at some point? If so help would be really appreciated!!

I don't think it's very possible in (G)ZDoom. The closest I've seen to a 'laser beam' is the railgun projectile...which, of course, probably looks ever worse than your attempt. Kaiser's Doom64EX port has a pretty cool laser projectile for the Unmaker though...it would be nice if you could make something like that in ZDoom.

Yeah, I've thought about a railgun projectile and it suffers from the same problem - it doesn't look too much like a laser beam.

I'm interested in lasers in any port, though, so thanks for the information on the DOOM64EX Port. Too bad the only download link I could find seems to be broken at the moment. :/

Ok I'm thinking of two different laser beams.
#1:Continuous stream
#2:A Laser beam like in Dark Forces with the E-11 Blaster Rifle.

If its the continuous stream I've seen it done on the AEOD.wad with the Thunderbolt(I think that was the name of the gun) but I don't think thats what you were looking for since all the Thunderbolt does is fire a continuous stream of particles,kinda like a rapid fire Railgun.

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp245/Haloless0320/DOOM0002.png

And I'm sure if you want the effect like with the Blaster Rifle you can use a projectile (Rocket Launcher) and just turn the rocket into a laser.

http://i416.photobucket.com/albums/pp245/Haloless0320/DOOM0004.png

EDIT:Now that I think of it,EDGE might support what you want.I think I saw a laser rifle in one of wild weasel's wad's.

Interesting. I can't seem to find a laser beam in one of Wild Weasel's wads (there are so many that I could have just missed the correct wad). Could you please try to remember what the wad is called?

Also, how would I go about doing this in EDGE?

What kind of laser beam are you trying to create? One that originates from the player's weapon, or from a construct in your level?

A laser weapon held by the player which fires a thin but powerful beam of light (like lasers are supposed to). I know it is possible to make lasers on the level with a 2-sided linedef that has mid texture that looks like a laser but that's not what I am looking for. :P

you could make use of GZDoom's 3D model support and make it so that a long thin transparent 3d model projects out of the gun/player when the gun is shot.

Interesting idea. Is there a way to make sure that the model is always only as long as the distance between the player and the point that the laser stops at (a monster, a wall, etc)? Otherwise I see problems like the laser not being long enough and awkwardly not reaching the target, or conversely, a long laser sticking through every wall and monster until the edge of the map without stopping.

Patrick Pineda said:

you could make use of GZDoom's 3D model support and make it so that a long thin transparent 3d model projects out of the gun/player when the gun is shot.

that'd be stupid as the laser would be seen through walls and the like.
The Quake method, is to just make a traceline. then have a trail effect be cast across it from vector origin to the traceline end point (TE_LIGHTNING). Later engines like Darkplaces implement a texture beam plane(TE_BEAM). Zdoom could simulate this by a simple crapload of particles in a line.
Getting them to add such function that's not a railgun trail is a different story (i'm not sure if zdoom is currently capable of simple laser particle)

maximum of possible in GZDOOM it is default mage weapon in Hexen...........laser beam like in DOOM64 create in GZDOOM impossible



(i think that it is understandable)

Spleen said:

Interesting. I can't seem to find a laser beam in one of Wild Weasel's wads

Probably because, technically speaking, I've never made a laser beam weapon. Most of the ways I can think of to do a laser beam have pretty obvious flaws with them that prevent me from bothering.

WildWeasel said:

Probably because, technically speaking, I've never made a laser beam weapon. Most of the ways I can think of to do a laser beam have pretty obvious flaws with them that prevent me from bothering.

You did do the No Batteries Included wad though.It had some laser weapons...but I guess no Laser beam type armaments.Didn't your NBI.wad for Edge have a laser beam weapon?

Spleen said:
A laser weapon held by the player which fires a thin but powerful beam of light

Since a long stream of particles/sprites apparantly isn't working, I don't give this much chance. Unless you want to make do with just the laserdot on the target (object/wall) instead of a laserline pointing from gun to target.

Well u can do it with sprites, but it looks a little quirky. I've seen it before in King Reol's Castle of the damned....
http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/index.php?id=14605

good luck