Garry's Mod Wiki

Garry's Mod Wiki

Render Library References

These pages seek to provide helpful insight into the groups of functions provided by the Render Library.

The major function groups are:

What are Beams?

The Beam functions make it easy to draw continuous lines in 3D space out of multiple connected Beam Segments.
Beam Segments are drawn out of textured quads that rotate to try to always face the camera (Billboards) in order to hide their flatness. They're used for things like the flame on thrusters, ropes, lightning effects, and more.

There are two approaches for drawing Beams:

Examples

Example: Multi-Segment

Drawing a star using a continuous Beam made out of multiple Beam Segments.

If you would like to run this example yourself, create a new folder in garrysmod/addons called "RenderBeamExample" and place the sample code below into a .lua file in garrysmod/addons/RenderBeamExample/lua/autorun/client/

Ensure that any other example code is removed or replaced to prevent unexpected behavior!

-- Configuration variables local beamWidth = 10 local starRadius = 100 local starCenter = Vector( 0, 0, 0 ) -- Calculate the points of the star -- These angles were determined by guessing and checking until it looked good local starTopLeft = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( -60 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( -60 ) ) ) * starRadius local starTopRight = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( 60 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( 60 ) ) ) * starRadius local starTopCenter = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( 0 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( 0 ) ) ) * starRadius local starBottomLeft = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( 180 + 35 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( 180 + 35 ) ) ) * starRadius local starBottomRight = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( 180 - 35 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( 180 - 35 ) ) ) * starRadius hook.Add( "PostDrawOpaqueRenderables", "RenderBeamMultiSegmentExample", function() -- Use a material that responds to the Beam's color render.SetColorMaterial() -- Uncomment the line below to see a wireframe view of the Beam Segments -- render.SetMaterial( Material( "models/wireframe" ) ) -- Each render.AddBeam() call adds another "stop" along the Beam's path. -- There must be at least two "stops" in order for a Beam Segment to be drawn between them. render.StartBeam( 6 ) render.AddBeam( starBottomLeft, beamWidth, 0, Color( 162, 224, 46 ) ) render.AddBeam( starTopCenter, beamWidth, 0, Color( 27, 189, 189 ) ) render.AddBeam( starBottomRight, beamWidth, 0, Color( 190, 38, 165 ) ) render.AddBeam( starTopLeft, beamWidth, 0, Color( 224, 132, 46 ) ) render.AddBeam( starTopRight, beamWidth, 0, Color( 207, 30, 30 ) ) render.AddBeam( starBottomLeft, beamWidth, 0, Color( 162, 224, 46 ) ) render.EndBeam() end )

Notice that where the Beam starts and ends (The bottom-left corner of the star) the Beam is the width specified in the calls to render.AddBeam. In the other corners of the star, the Beam appears thinner due to the end of the Beam being rotated to accomodate the next Beam Segment's direction. This is more easily seen in the wireframe view seen in the second screenshot below.

MultiSegmentBeamStarColor.png
MultiSegmentBeamStarWireframe.png

Example: Single-Segment

Drawing a star using several Beams made out of single Beam Segments.

If you would like to run this example yourself, create a new folder in garrysmod/addons called "RenderBeamExample" and place the sample code below into a .lua file in garrysmod/addons/RenderBeamExample/lua/autorun/client/

Ensure that any other example code is removed or replaced to prevent unexpected behavior!

-- Configuration variables local beamWidth = 10 local starRadius = 100 local starCenter = Vector( 0, 0, 0 ) -- Calculate the points of the star -- These angles were determined by guessing and checking until it looked good local starTopLeft = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( -60 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( -60 ) ) ) * starRadius local starTopRight = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( 60 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( 60 ) ) ) * starRadius local starTopCenter = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( 0 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( 0 ) ) ) * starRadius local starBottomLeft = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( 180 + 35 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( 180 + 35 ) ) ) * starRadius local starBottomRight = starCenter + Vector( 0, math.sin( math.rad( 180 - 35 ) ), math.cos( math.rad( 180 - 35 ) ) ) * starRadius hook.Add( "PostDrawOpaqueRenderables", "RenderBeamSingleSegmentExample", function() -- Use a material that responds to the beam's color render.SetColorMaterial() -- Uncomment this line to see a wireframe view of the beams -- render.SetMaterial( Material( "models/wireframe" ) ) -- Draw the lines of the star between the calculated points render.DrawBeam( starBottomLeft, starTopCenter, beamWidth, 0, 1, Color( 162, 224, 46 ) ) render.DrawBeam( starTopCenter, starBottomRight, beamWidth, 0, 1, Color( 27, 189, 189 ) ) render.DrawBeam( starBottomRight, starTopLeft, beamWidth, 0, 1, Color( 190, 38, 165 ) ) render.DrawBeam( starTopLeft, starTopRight, beamWidth, 0, 1, Color( 224, 132, 46 ) ) render.DrawBeam( starTopRight, starBottomLeft, beamWidth, 0, 1, Color( 207, 30, 30 ) ) end )
SingleSegmentBeamStarColor.png
SingleSegmentBeamStarWireframe.png

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