Any good tricks to create light beams like this screenshot?

I've tried a bunch of methods using C2, and closest I've come to is using 100+ particles, but it just doesn't seem resource efficient. Not blaming C2 engine, since duplicating this effect in Unity/Unreal/other engines using particles are also resource intensive.

Does anyone know how these large professional game companies accomplish this, both efficiently and seamlessly?

Another way is to use a sprite but how to generate such a sprite in the first place?

screenshot is from starcraft 2

This beams look's like sine. You have to learn math to create this effect, I think.

But here another try with canvas plugin. Maybe, this not exactly what you want, but it just idea to you of how to trick.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3iZ60F3QWxTVVY5dG1ramJRVXM/edit

The only reasonable facsimiles would be done via frames, or webgl since Starcraft is, well.....3d.

You can make this with after effect and then export it as png's

Search for free after effect templates you may found some.

http://drilian.com/2009/02/25/lightning-bolts/

Extrapolate to construct, it's not complicated and i think that its very cool.

ByR

Interesting link - thanks for sharing.

Sprite with inner and outer glow in Photoshop. 3 frames with variations in bolts.

No fancy code or maths, just some sprites.

For the origin, spawn a glowing circle sprite at that point, and on impact, spawn another glowing circle at that point. If you want to make it travel until it hits a target, just do a every tick increase width by X, and when it hits the target, stop.

The easiest way is indeed the sprite method. Create some bolt-like sprites (make sure the origin and target points are aligned) and alternate between frames every tick. Set the width of the sprite to be the distance of the origin and target points (this can go so far because of the stretching). On this site http://ekdidyma.web.uowm.gr/ I used this method for the electrical bolts and they update dynamically in relation to their origin/target position.

Here is a practical example. A bit of a mess, but you'll figure it out I think

That example is awsome!

Thanks mrnannings