TrailEmitter

[legacy-SirBeefsalot]

The scientific method is great and all, but i'm posting here in the hopes i could get some concrete details about the new TrailEmitter class in UT2k4.

I googl'd, started off the page on http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/TrailEmitter and ran a search on the udn with no success. As i stated i've been trying to eye-ball some of the properties affects but it's begun getting tedious to continue the recompile/boot/host/look/quit system.

For a quick refresher of the properties we have.

int MaxPointsPerTrail;
float DistanceThreshold;
bool UseCrossedSheets;
int MaxTrailTwistAngle;
float PointLifeTime;

These are what i believe to be the most important variables to have an understanding of.

There are a number of others as well which i definitley would be interested in but will omit for now.

[legacy-mrslatezb]

I believe unrealed is the easiest method to make emitters. Otherwise if it is a constant emitter and you have just one in a map (and it sticks around) you can type editactor class=MyPackage.MyEmitter in the console for a UED type default properties box

[legacy-FireCrack]

make the code in unrealed. When you are done click the emmiter and hit copy. Paste it, and remove all the level specific tuff (begin map and such) fix that last property so instead of mylevel.xxxemmiteryyy it says simply xxxemmiteryyy(you might want to set yyy to simpler numbers) and voila, you have your defeaultproperties.

[legacy-SirBeefsalot]

You're right about one thing, unrealed is far better than testing through ut2k4 itself. I should have thought of it earlier. Thanks

[legacy-SirBeefsalot]

Here's an additional, more specific question about the trail emitter.

There seems to be a delay between when the projectile spawns and when the emitter actually begins emitting. What causes this?

I have ensured initial delay is set to 0.
I have also tried spawning the emitter in 3 seperate locations. I tried first, switching from the projectiles PostBeginPlay(), which i used intially, to PreBeginPlay(). This didn't seem to do anything.
I then attempted to spawn the trail emitter at the same time i spawn the projectile, in my weapons SpawnProjectile() function. This also produced no apparent changes.
I noticed that when testing in instant action with slomo 0.4 the emitter begins leaving it's trail closer to the projectiles spawn location compared to the slomo 1.0 trail.
Another thing i'm guessing to be a result of this delay, causes any of my projectiles that collide within some fairly close proximity to the spawn location, to not produce any *emissions* whatsoever.
This isn't a critical problem but for asthestics it certainly is an issue.

[legacy-SirBeefsalot]

I solved my problems and got the emitter up to what i consider good, so for now i'm done. Thanks to those who replied. I posted my findings and the solution to my emitter delay at http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/TrailEmitter/

I still have no clue what distance threshold does, but it can't do much so i'll just let it go for now.