Lighttweener

Overview

This component implements a light property tweener for entities in the Entity Component System. It enables smooth animation of a light's radius, intensity, falloff, and colour from current values to specified target values over a given duration, using linear interpolation. It manages the tween lifecycle, updates values per-frame via OnUpdate, and optionally invokes a callback upon completion.

Dependencies & Tags

• Relies on inst:StartUpdatingComponent(self) and inst:StopUpdatingComponent(self) to manage frame updates.
• Uses Lerp (linear interpolation) — typically available globally in the DST engine.
• No entity tags are added or removed.
• No other components are directly required by name.

Properties

Property	Type	Default Value	Description
inst	Entity	nil	The entity to which this component is attached.
light	Light (or nil)	nil	The light component/reference to be tweened.
i_falloff, i_intensity, i_radius	number or nil	nil	Initial (current) values for light properties at start of tween.
i_colour_r, i_colour_g, i_colour_b	number or nil	nil	Initial RGB colour components.
t_falloff, t_intensity, t_radius	number or nil	nil	Target values to interpolate towards.
t_colour_r, t_colour_g, t_colour_b	number or nil	nil	Target RGB colour components.
callback	function or nil	nil	Function to call after tween completes (signature: callback(inst, light)).
time	number	nil	Total duration of the tween in seconds.
timepassed	number	0	Elapsed time since the tween started.
tweening	boolean	false	Whether a tween is currently in progress.

Main Functions

EndTween()

• Description: Forces the light to its target values and terminates the tween (stops updates and triggers the callback if present).
• Parameters: None.

StartTween(light, rad, intensity, falloff, colour, time, callback)

• Description: Begins a tween on the specified light, storing initial values and interpolating toward the given targets over time seconds. If time <= 0, jumps immediately to target values.
• Parameters:
  • light (Light): The light entity to animate. Required for tweening.
  • rad (number or nil): Target radius. Uses current radius if nil.
  • intensity (number or nil): Target intensity. Uses current intensity if nil.
  • falloff (number or nil): Target falloff. Uses current falloff if nil.
  • colour (table of size ≥ 3 or nil): Target RGB colour (e.g., {r, g, b}). Falls back to current colour if nil.
  • time (number): Duration of the tween in seconds.
  • callback (function or nil): Optional function executed when the tween finishes.

OnUpdate(dt)

• Description: Called each frame during an active tween. Computes interpolated values based on elapsed time and updates the light properties accordingly. Stops automatically when the tween completes.
• Parameters:
  • dt (number): Delta time since the last frame.

Events & Listeners

• Listens to: None (no inst:ListenForEvent calls).
• Triggers: None (no inst:PushEvent calls).
  (Note: While it calls a user-defined callback, this is not an event in the DST event system.)