Effects

This page is part of Writing Lua scripts. The functions are listed in the reference: effect.

The effect module shows graphic effects to the players of the map within the view range (ultima.world.view_range); a moving effect also reaches those in range of where it arrives. The graphic is an art id: EffectGraphicType names the animations the emulators use (Smoke, LargeFireball, SmallFireball, FireColumn, Explosion, SparkleHeal, SparkleBless, SparkleCurse, Fizzle, SmallBolt, Glow, the four fields and others; the generated definitions.lua lists them all), and any other art id works too.

effect.at, effect.on and effect.moving take an optional table of options:

Option	Meaning
speed, duration	0 to 255 each; both default to 10
hue	Hue of the graphic, 0 to 65535
render	An EffectRenderModeType: Normal, Darken, Lighten, LightenTransparent, Translucent, TranslucentColor, Negative, NegativeTransparent
fixed_direction, explodes	For a moving effect: keep the graphic’s direction, and explode on arrival
particle, explode_particle, explode_sound	Particle effect ids and the arrival sound; only the Enhanced Client shows particles
layer	An EffectLayerType, the body part the particles are shown at: Head, RightHand, LeftHand, Waist, LeftFoot, RightFoot, CenterFeet, or None, the default

-- A fireball from the caster to the target, exploding there.
effect.moving(caster, target, EffectGraphicType.LargeFireball, { speed = 7, duration = 0, explodes = true })

-- The healing sparkle on a mobile; the Enhanced Client also gets particles at the waist.
effect.on(who, EffectGraphicType.SparkleHeal, { speed = 9, duration = 32, particle = 5005, layer = EffectLayerType.Waist })

A function returns false and plays nothing for a value out of range, an option of the wrong type (speed = "9", explodes = 1), an option it does not know, and an effect with neither a graphic nor a particle. An argument of the wrong type raises an error, as for every module. A classic client draws no particles: it gets the graphic, and nothing for an effect made of particles only; a moving effect with the graphic 1, ModernUO’s placeholder, counts as one. A lightning bolt, effect.lightning(serial, hue = 0), has no graphic and is always sent. Effects are not sequenced: chain them with timer calls.

effect.at plays an effect graphic that stays at a point of a map, such as the smoke of a teleport:

effect.at(MapType.Trammel, 1600, 1628, 5, EffectGraphicType.Smoke)