UTIL Tracer

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January 2024

UTIL_Tracer is a UTIL provided in the Source code for creating bullet traces. It supports new particle-based tracers and old-style hardcoded particle tracers. See List of Client Effects for effects you can use.

Todo: Picture example.

Todo: Fill out rest of Input, it's not clear from the function what each one does.

Usage

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Purpose: Make a tracer effect using the old, non-particle system, tracer effects.
// Input  : &vecStart - Vector of where to start the tracer
//			&vecEnd - Vector of where to end the tracer
//			iEntIndex - 
//			iAttachment -
//			flVelocity -
//			bWhiz -
//			*pCustomTracerName - Dispatches a tracer with this name instead of the default "Tracer"
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
void UTIL_Tracer( const Vector &vecStart, const Vector &vecEnd, int iEntIndex, int iAttachment, float flVelocity, bool bWhiz, char *pCustomTracerName )

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Purpose: Make a tracer effect using the old, non-particle system, tracer effects.
// Input  : &vecStart - Vector of where to start the tracer
//			&vecEnd - Vector of where to end the tracer
//			iEntIndex - 
//			iAttachment -
//			flVelocity -
//			bWhiz -
//			*pCustomTracerName - Dispatches a tracer with this name instead of the default "Tracer"
//			iParticleID -
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
void UTIL_Tracer( const Vector &vecStart, const Vector &vecEnd, int iEntIndex, 
				 int iAttachment, float flVelocity, bool bWhiz, const char *pCustomTracerName, int iParticleID )

Examples

//This example uses the first (non overloaded) function. It creates a custom "StriderTracer" tracer.
void CNPC_Strider::MakeTracer( const Vector &vecTracerSrc, const trace_t &tr, int iTracerType )
{
	float flTracerDist;
	Vector vecDir;
	Vector vecEndPos;

	vecDir = tr.endpos - vecTracerSrc;

	flTracerDist = VectorNormalize( vecDir );

	UTIL_Tracer( vecTracerSrc, tr.endpos, 0, TRACER_DONT_USE_ATTACHMENT, 5000, true, "StriderTracer" );
}

void CPropJeep::DrawBeam( const Vector &startPos, const Vector &endPos, float width )
{
	//Tracer down the middle
	UTIL_Tracer( startPos, endPos, 0, TRACER_DONT_USE_ATTACHMENT, 6500, false, "GaussTracer" );
        //So on
}

int iAttachment = GetTracerAttachment();

switch ( iTracerType )
{
case TRACER_LINE:
	UTIL_Tracer( vNewSrc, tr.endpos, iEntIndex, iAttachment, 0.0f, true, pszTracerName );
	break;

case TRACER_LINE_AND_WHIZ:
	UTIL_Tracer( vNewSrc, tr.endpos, iEntIndex, iAttachment, 0.0f, true, pszTracerName );
	break;
}

if( m_iszTracerType != NULL_STRING )
{
	UTIL_Tracer( GetAbsOrigin(), vecEnd, 0, TRACER_DONT_USE_ATTACHMENT, 5000, true, STRING(m_iszTracerType) );
}
else
{
	UTIL_Tracer( GetAbsOrigin(), vecEnd, 0, TRACER_DONT_USE_ATTACHMENT, 5000, true );
}