Marc, after looking at how you are using the lightning, there might be a more efficient and easier way of doing this.

You could have each cloud check if the variable "lightning" is set, if it is, then a random test would control how frequent a bolt is made. Finally the cloud would call a function to throw a lightning bolt from itself to the nearest designated target.

This would be much simpler and efficient than the current method. No need for entity pointers. Although the target would always be the nearest in the strike range and not a random target in the strike range. I think the result would most times be the same.

Heres how I might do it;

Code:

---

 
//================================================================================
// VARIABLES & SOUNDS
//================================================================================
 
 
var lightning_on = 1;         // use this variable to turn lightning on or off
var lightning_freq = 0.985;   // frequentcy of lightning strikes, 0 = constant, 1 = never
var strike_range = 1000;      // how close cloud origin must be to target origin for a strike
var flash_range = 1000;       // lightrange for the lightning flash
var thunder_snd_range = 800;  // set range of 3d sounds here
 
 
var thunder_choice;  //sound choice variable
sound thunder1 = "thunder1.wav";
sound thunder2 = "thunder2.wav";
sound thunder3 = "thunder3.wav";
 
  
//================================================================================
// LIGHTNING CLOUD ACTION
//================================================================================
 
  
Action cloud
{
  while(me)
   {
     if(lightning_on == 1)
      {
        if (random(1) > lightning_freq ) {lightning_strike();}
      }
     wait(1);
   } 
}
  
   
//================================================================================
// LIGHTNING TARGET ACTION
//================================================================================ 
   
   
Action building  //or any lightning target!   
{
  my.skill1 = 2; // identifies entity as a strike target
}
  
   
//================================================================================
//  LIGHTNING_STRIKE FUNCTION
//================================================================================ 
   
   
function lightning_strike()
{ 
  var closest_target;
  closest_target = strike_range + 1;           // initally set just outside of strike range
  vec_set(line_start.x, my.x);                 // set calling ent as start vec
      
  you = ent_next(null); 
  while ( you != 0 )                           // cycle through entitys
   {
     if(you.skill1 == 2)                       // if you are a target
      {
        temp = vec_dist(my.x, you.x);          // get the distance
        if(temp < closest_target)              // if you are closer than last closest target
         {
           vec_set(line_end.x, you.x);         // set you as end vec
           closest_target = temp;              // set you as new closest target
         }
      }
     you = ent_next(YOU);                      // get next entity
   }
    
  if(closest_target <= strike_range)           // if the closest target is now within range, make lightning
   {
     lightning_effect();
     
      vec_set(my.blue, vector(255,128,128));   // set amount of blue,green and red in flash here
      my.light = on;
      my.lightrange = flash_range;
      wait(2);
     
      thunder_choice = int(random(6)); 
      if(thunder_choice == 0 || thunder_choice == 3){ent_playsound(my, thunder1, thunder_snd_range);}
      if(thunder_choice == 1 || thunder_choice == 4){ent_playsound(my, thunder2, thunder_snd_range);}
      if(thunder_choice == 2 || thunder_choice == 5){ent_playsound(my, thunder3, thunder_snd_range);}
     
      my.light = off;
      my.lightrange = 0;
   }
}
  
   

---

You could even change this to find the three or so nearest targets, and randomly pick one, but I believe that real lightning jumps to the nearest target anyway so perhaps this will be fine.

Hope this helps with your project in someway, even if only in new ideas. Keep going!

Thanks a lot man. It's great to come back from a nice day of snowboarding in 80cm of new snow, and then see this post. I'm going to try it now.

Man, the code is great.. but I'm getting the same errors :|

I can't understand..

Is it because my cloud entities and my building entities are too far from each others?

Which code are you using? You are getting the exact same errors as in the first post?

i'm using the new one you just posted here.. and yeah the exact same errors! :S

I'm just getting back into 3DGS, but:

If it's the "empty pointer" thing on cloud.red

How are you loading the cloud entity?

You'll need to define it's loading action to assign the cloud pointer itself.
Note- the following is only pseudo/partial code (probably using outdated 3DGS commands ):

Ent_Create("MyCloud",MyPosition,LightningInit)


Action LightningInit{
Cloud=me;
// Other Default assignments for this entity,
// including Event actions or other actions.
}

If the Cloud is being loaded by WED (not script) you'll need to get a handle to the entity, I think using the ptr_for_name function.

Perhaps:
Cloud=ptr_for_name("MyCloudEnt")



Been a while - - Hope it helps,

-Neut.

Make sure that you have updated the right files! The latest code I posted dosent use a "cloud" pointer. Perhaps I could make a demo or look at your code. I am having no problems with 22 clouds throwing lightning, maybe its something else?

Yeah.. i forgot to update correctly. Now, I got those errors:

This means you are using these variables when either they are not defined or
before they are defined. These specific variables are used by the
lightning_effect() function, so they are probably defined there and you are
including code that uses them before they are defined.

If not you need this in your code somewhere before you use them;

var line_start[3]; // bolt xyz origin
var line_end[3]; // bolts end xyz

On big projects, I create a file called globals.wdl that contains all global
variables, function definitions, sound, image and entity pointers. I include
"globals.wdl" before any other files. This way everything is defined
before use and it also makes it easy to find.