Giving the lightning sound...

Ok, I have lightning in my map. Not to brag, but it looks really cool.
Taking it out of the map is not an option, even if it has to be silent.

I'm using an env_beam with the flag "strike on random" checked. So how
would I get a sound to play when the beam "strikes on random"?

Any help is greatly appreciated. Im running out of time and need to figure this out very soon.

I think the strike at random only applies to where the beam actauuly
strikes (if its targeting multiple tatgets). What you want is the beam
to trigger a sound entity, either a ambient_gerneric, or sound
something, have the outputs in the beam target that sound entity.

What would I put in the "my output named" field? The only options it
gives me are "OnTouchedByEntity" (which doesn't work), and OnUser1 2 3
and 4 which don't seem to work either.

Sorry I'm new to hammer, not too great at the input/output stuff yet.

Well, then you'll want something which randomly triggers your lightning strike (instead of having "random strike" ticked). Quite how you do this I'm not sure :smile: Though perhaps you could also try doing something with an entity which triggers the sound when it is "hurt" by the lightning strike (OnTakeDamage or some such, and a very high health value).

Hey that's not a bad idea..gonna have to try it and see if it works.

couldn't you use a logic_timer to randomly activate the beam and also play your sound at the same time? I'm pretty sure that the logic_timer can be used to do stuff at random intervals..

Indeed it can, and it's a good idea. The damage idea didn't work, so I'll try this and post back with results.

edit: omg...the timer thing works, and it works damn sweet. This is going to be SO AWESOME DUIFHSDIF EWWPA!!!11

hehe..sorry...just really excited, I've been trying to make it work all day, and the results are damn worth it.

I've seen some maps where the thunder sound is going off at sparatic times
even when the lightning is not striking. The effect is that lightning
is all around, ooh ahh. If the sound is frequent enough it tends to
seem realistic, but it needs to be quiet enough so as not to be
annoying when playing the map a lot. Essentially this is the
poormans/halffast solution in case you get desperate! yay

lol, glad I could help. put it to good use :wink:

Yeah, I thought about doing this, and in a way I am. I have really loud
lightning strike sounds for the bolts that you can get really close to,
and for the ones off in the distance I have the more atmospheric sounds
playing. Seems to work well when you mix them together.

sniff sniff

Do I smell a tutorial? :wink:

Ok, how bout this. If you guys can help me figure out the last piece of
this puzzle, I promise a tutorial once my map is finished.

I'm trying to get it to flash light with the lightning. I can make the
light turn on when the lightning hits, but it won't turn back off.
Right now I'm using a logic timer in the same way that I make the
bolt/sound play. for the light, I set the input to "turn on". So that's
how it turns on...how do I make it turn off? Is there some logic_relay
or something that I can do? I'm new to all this hammer stuff and still
have lots to learn.

easy, on your logic_timer just add another output to the light, set it to "turn off" and make a 0.4 second delay. So when the lighting/sound/light fire the turn off will fire 0.4 seconds later.

Here is another question though... can you make a second light_env that you can toggle? I can imagin it would be hard to make a good lighting light with just a few point lights.

Works great, thanks :biggrin:

I don't know about using a light_env. I don't even have a skybox in my map..

I'll compile it with normal point lights and see how it looks.