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Lightning

Based on game build 714014 | Last updated: 2026-03-05

Overview​

The lightning prefab creates a short-lived entity that plays a lightning strike animation, emits thunder sound with distance-based intensity, and triggers screen flash and camera shake effects for all nearby players. It is typically used to simulate thunderstorm weather events. Two prefabs are exported: lightning (includes animation) and thunder (audio-only variant without animation state).

Usage example​

local lightning = CreateEntity()
lightning.entity:AddTransform()
lightning.Transform:SetPosition(10, 0, -5)
lightning:DoTaskInTime(0, function() end) -- placeholder, prefab handles setup
-- Use the actual prefabs instead:
local inst = Prefab("lightning"):Spawn(10, 0, -5)
inst:Remove() -- cleaned up automatically after 0.5 seconds

Dependencies & tags​

Components used: transform, animstate, network, soundemitter Tags: Adds FX

Properties​

No public properties

Main functions​

PlayThunderSound(lighting)​

  • Description: Calculates distance from the player(s) to the lightning entity and plays a thunder sound with volume and spatial positioning adjusted accordingly.
  • Parameters: lighting (Entity) — the lightning entity whose position is used for sound origin.
  • Returns: Nothing.
  • Error states: Returns early if lighting is invalid or TheFocalPoint is nil.

StartFX(inst)​

  • Description: Iterates through all players, computes distance-based intensity, and triggers screen flash and camera shake effects.
  • Parameters: inst (Entity) — the lightning entity providing the source position.
  • Returns: Nothing.

fn()​

  • Description: Constructor for the lightning prefab. Sets up animation, sound, network, and transforms; spawns thunder sound and FX; schedules cleanup.
  • Parameters: None.
  • Returns: Entity — the fully configured lightning entity.

thunderfn()​

  • Description: Constructor for the thunder prefab. Same behavior as fn but without animstate, to serve as a lightweight alternative when animation is not needed.
  • Parameters: None.
  • Returns: Entity — the configuration entity.

Events & listeners​

  • Pushes: None explicitly — cleanup via inst:DoTaskInTime(.5, inst.Remove) internally removes the entity.
  • Listens to: None — no inst:ListenForEvent calls present.