8 replies to this topic

[Treblesaurus Rex]

I couldnt find the answer to this in any of the other threads I checked, But as a pilot that is trying to better his builds, I have to ask this simple question:

Exactly how does Pulse Laser damage get calculated?


Now I know that Beam Laser (So, normal ones, but will be referring to them in this manner for the purposes of easy differention through the course of this) damage is calculated based upon how long you hold it over the enemy. For example a Medium Beam fires for 10 ticks of time doing .5 damage per tick (I know those arent the ACTUAL numbers). I get the functionality of the weapon.

However, Ive been trying to really see the difference of how the damage is applied with Pulses then how it is with Beams.

Now the Medium Pulse Laser does a max of 6 damage over its full cycle, and from my experience, it pulses 4 times per cycle. Now from my understanding, each pulse applies damage, acting more like an independant round rather than a continuous spread of damage. As such, 4 pulses = 6 damage, thus each individual pulse should do 1.5 damage on the affected area.

Is that right? Or does it function more like the recent changes to LRMs which is damage multiplier over time? You know, something like .5 damage first on-hit pulse within x-time, 1.5 for the second within x, and 2 damage for 3rd?

Some clarification on this subject would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Hans Von Lohman]

Actually, all lasers in the game are "pulse" lasers in effect.

First off, both are "hit scan" weapons, which means there is no flight time between pulling the trigger and the hit. There is no tracking of a 3D projectile through space like a PPC or Missile shot. Computer games have been doing this forever. AKA, the pistol, shotgun, and chaingun in DooM are hit-scan weapons, while the rocket launcher and BFG3000 are not. The target can be all the way across the map, and you hit it (although in MWO the damage you do drops off until it does no damage at x2 range).

I believe that normal lasers area actually firing out a series of shots, each one doing a fraction of the total damage. I think (don't quote me) that you are firing out 10 individual shots like a machinegun, even though the graphics and sound effects imply it is a continuous beam. If you sweep the laser over the target, you may only do 2 or 3 points of damage, the rest going into the dirt or buildings you also hit.

A pulse laser just uses fewer "shots". The beam duration is lower, aka discharges faster, and you ought to punch harder as each individual shot does more damage. Each "wub" is a shot.

If a laser is a high speed, .22 caliber gattling gun, then an pulse laser is a tri-burst of .50cal rounds.

Edited by Hans Von Lohman, 27 June 2013 - 12:36 PM.

[Ph30nix]

i think its a flat rate of damage over the course of each pulse, if it was a more damage over duration effect that would be pretty horrible to be honest. Especially in the current instant damage over DPS game we have going.

[Treblesaurus Rex]

Hans Von Lohman, on 27 June 2013 - 12:30 PM, said:

Actually, all lasers in the game are "pulse" lasers in effect.

First off, both are "hit scan" weapons, which means there is no flight time between pulling the trigger and the hit. There is no tracking of a 3D projectile through space like a PPC or Missile shot. Computer games have been doing this forever. AKA, the pistol, shotgun, and chaingun in DooM are hit-scan weapons, while the rocket launcher and BFG3000 are not. The target can be all the way across the map, and you hit it (although in MWO the damage you do drops off until it does no damage at x2 range).

I believe that normal lasers area actually firing out a series of shots, each one doing a fraction of the total damage. I think (don't quote me) that you are firing out 10 individual shots like a machinegun, even though the graphics and sound effects imply it is a continuous beam. If you sweep the laser over the target, you may only do 2 or 3 points of damage, the rest going into the dirt or buildings you also hit.

A pulse laser just uses fewer "shots". The beam duration is lower, aka discharges faster, and you ought to punch harder as each individual shot does more damage. Each "wub" is a shot.

If a laser is a high speed, .22 caliber gattling gun, then an pulse laser is a tri-burst of .50cal rounds.

This.

This is what i thought it was. thank you for confirming basically what i figured it was.

[aniviron]

The pulse lasers work exactly the same as normal lasers, the beam duration is just shorter. The visual effect implies there are a half dozen pulses of damage, when in fact there are probably close to 100 just like on a normal laser. It's just a shorter burn time. You can test this by looking at the decals left by laser damage when firing at the ground- swinging your aim over the terrain will leave a solid line of scarring for both weapons.

[Angel of Annihilation]

aniviron, on 27 June 2013 - 04:04 PM, said:

The pulse lasers work exactly the same as normal lasers, the beam duration is just shorter. The visual effect implies there are a half dozen pulses of damage, when in fact there are probably close to 100 just like on a normal laser. It's just a shorter burn time. You can test this by looking at the decals left by laser damage when firing at the ground- swinging your aim over the terrain will leave a solid line of scarring for both weapons.

This is the answer your looking for.

[Hans Von Lohman]

I doubt it is 100 hits for a laser. The duration of beam can be 1 second long, and that means the time between hits is only 0.01 seconds.

Just think of how games work. You are not looking at a moving image, but rather a series of still images that change at each screen refresh. For a Xbox or PS3 console they're capped to 35 frames per second, and most PC games shoot for 60 FPS.

I don't do programming, but I do 3D graphics (as a hobby), but I get the feeling that each calculation for a part of your laser shot is tied to each frame of animation. As in the game checks your screen geometry, asks if you crosshairs are on the guy, and then applies 1/60th of the total damage to that location, then updates to the next frame and repeats that process.

Over the course of 1 second (which is quick for us, but can take up the majority of a TRON movie's plot and drama), you get off your burst of hits, 60 still images at a time, and the impression that things on your still image screen are actually moving around. If you could think faster and see faster, you would see that you are actually being shown a slide show really fast.

The only reason I say this is that I know that calculations and the games frame rate are often tied together. That is why high ping bastiches are hated in older multiplayer games since a gunshot might actually pass right through them, because they were not where your computer thinks they are compared to where their computer thinks they are during that frame of animation.

I'm not nit picking. You have it more or less accurate. I just wanted to pull back the veil of mystery on how games work.

[JayVrb]

Fire up a match, quickly drag your lasers across the ground, observe the decals they leave behind... those are your impact points.

[IceCase88]

You mean its not magic? That's....