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Customizing a Lightning Arc Preset

Customizing a Lightning Arc Preset

You can customize your lightning arc entity using the presets in the lightningarceffects.xml file. You can also copy and modify existing presets to create your own customized lightning arc presets.

To use a lightning arc preset

  1. In Lumberyard Editor, use the Select tool to select the lightning arc entity you want to customize.

  2. In a text editor, open \dev\Gems\LightningArc\Assets\libs\lightningarc\lightningarceffects.xml in the Lumberyard root directory (lumberyard_version\dev).

  3. Choose one of the existing presets from the lightningarceffects.xml file (follows Arc name in the example) and, in Lumberyard Editor, under Entity Properties, enter your chosen Arc name into the ArcPreset field .

    For example, enter ExtendedArc or KickSparks, which are existing names of presets as shown in the following lightningarceffects.xml file. This sample shows only the partial contents; open the file on your computer to view the full contents of the file.

       <LightningArc>

	<Arc name="Default">
		<param name="lightningDeviation" value="0.2" />
		<param name="lightningFuzzyness" value="0.1" />
		<param name="branchMaxLevel" value="1" />
		<param name="branchProbability" value="2.0" />
		<param name="lightningVelocity" value="0.6" />
		<param name="strikeTimeMin" value="0.35" />
		<param name="strikeTimeMax" value="0.35" />
		<param name="strikeFadeOut" value="0.6" />
		<param name="strikeNumSegments" value="6" /> <!-- int max is 7 -->
		<param name="strikeNumPoints" value="5" />
		<param name="maxNumStrikes" value="6" />
		<param name="beamSize" value="0.2" />
		<param name="beamTexTiling" value="0.25" />
		<param name="beamTexShift" value="0.05" />
		<param name="beamTexFrames" value="4.0" />
		<param name="beamTexFPS" value="15.0" />
	</Arc>

	<Arc name="ExtendedArc">
		<param name="lightningDeviation" value="0.1" />
		<param name="lightningFuzzyness" value="0.05" />
		<param name="branchMaxLevel" value="1" />
		<param name="branchProbability" value="10.0" />
		<param name="lightningVelocity" value="0.25" />
		<param name="strikeTimeMin" value="2.0" />
		<param name="strikeTimeMax" value="2.0" />
		<param name="strikeFadeOut" value="1.0" />
		<param name="strikeNumSegments" value="6" /> <!-- int max is 7 -->
		<param name="strikeNumPoints" value="6" />
		<param name="maxNumStrikes" value="5" />
		<param name="beamSize" value="0.18" />
		<param name="beamTexTiling" value="0.25" />
		<param name="beamTexShift" value="0.05" />
		<param name="beamTexFrames" value="4.0" />
		<param name="beamTexFPS" value="18.0" />
	</Arc>

      <Arc name="KickSparks">
		<param name="lightningDeviation" value="0.2" />
		<param name="lightningFuzzyness" value="0.1" />
		<param name="branchMaxLevel" value="1" />
		<param name="branchProbability" value="3.0" />
		<param name="lightningVelocity" value="16.0" />
		<param name="strikeTimeMin" value="0.0" />
		<param name="strikeTimeMax" value="0.05" />
		<param name="strikeFadeOut" value="0.05" />
		<param name="strikeNumSegments" value="6" /> <!-- int max is 7 -->
		<param name="strikeNumPoints" value="5" />
		<param name="maxNumStrikes" value="6" />
		<param name="beamSize" value="0.1" />
		<param name="beamTexTiling" value="0.75" />
		<param name="beamTexShift" value="0.15" />
		<param name="beamTexFrames" value="4.0" />
		<param name="beamTexFPS" value="15.0" />
	</Arc>

To create a new lightning arc preset

  1. Open the lightningarceffects.xml file.

  2. Copy the text (between and including <Arc name="Name"> through </Arc>) for an existing preset.

  3. Paste it at the end of the file before the </LightningArc> closing bracket.

  4. Replace the Arc name with your own custom preset name, then modify the following parameters to fit your needs.

The following table lists definitions for the parameters in the lightningarceffects.xml file.

Lightning Arc Entity Properties

ParameterDescription
lightningDeviationThe smoothness of the effect in meters.
lightningFuzzynessThe noisiness of the effect in meters.
branchMaxLevelAllows child branches to strike out of the main beam and child branches to strike out from other child beams if this value is 2 or higher. A setting of 0 or 1 is recommended.
branchProbabilityProbability that child branch will strike out from another beam segment. Consider these examples: [See the AWS documentation website for more details]
lightningVelocityRate at which a branch shifts upward from its original position after being triggered.
strikeTimeMinMinimum time a branch remains visible.
strikeTimeMaxMaximum time a branch remains visible.
strikeFadeOutTime to fade out after a branch disappears. This setting decreases the branch beamSize to 0 instead of actually fading with transparency.
strikeNumSegmentsNumber of snaking segments generated.
strikeNumPointsNumber of points per segment generated to create the noisy effect. The number of actual segments generated is defined by strikeNumSegments * strikeNumPoints. When the code generates the geometry, it creates a camera-aligned beam with exactly two triangles. This means the number of triangles per strike is strikeNumSegments*strikeNumPoint*2. Since maxNumStrikes is the hard limit of potential number of sparks active at any time, the potential number polygons of a given lightning effect is strikeNumSegments*strikeNumPoint*2*maxNumStrike. Note that with the LightningArc entity, each lightning strike triggers a new lightning strike. Therefore the total poly count of a given effect can be much higher. The game has internal limits for the total amount of lightning effects, lightning strikes, and polygons that cannot be surpassed.
maxNumStrikesHard limit on the number of beam segments that can be generated.
beamSizeWidth of the beam generated. Child beams have half the width.
beamTexTilingTexture tiling depends on the world size. A value of 2.0 means the texture wraps around twice every meter. A value of 0.25 means the texture will wrap around every 4 meters.
beamTexShiftRate at which the U coordinate moves in a given direction. While beamTexTiling affects only the U coordinate, the V coordinate is automatically calculated to select one of the texture’s frames.
beamTexFramesNumber of frames in the animation.
beamTexFPSFrames per second of the multiframe animation.