Progress Update:
Been working very hard to find a way of making the laser dot always line up exactly with the beam.  Many things that kind of work are available, but they lag behind the beam and it looks funny.  I'm attempting to use a raycast function to do it, but it's not working as you'd hope just yet.

Besides that, a few small bugs have been fixed, like the laser remaining visible through dialogue, and there's now a small delay before the laser starts, to account for the time it takes to start aiming down the sights.  It's customisable to account for players that use animation packs or otherwise just don't want to use my value.

This version is not released yet.  The code is a mess with debug stuff.  I'll release it either when I fix the dot end or it's simply been too long.

Version 0.98.5:
Fixed a lot of small bugs, and worked tirelessly on the trigonometry to decide what equations to use when handling things at very close range.  For now, there's what I initially thought was a bit of a cheap solution, but I have not had any problems testing with it, so I'm rolling it out and it may stay this way, depending entirely on feedback.  Playing with RE4Cam turned on works really well for me.

This does not fix close-range situations wherein the dot end is not in the same place as the end of the laser.  That will probably be the next update.

Version 0.98.1:
Fixes some minor bugs, optimises code a bit, uses new meshes for laser origin and beam, adds first-person toggle global.

Meshes:
RE4LaserOrigin.nif is the one loaded by the mod as the start point of the laser.  It's currently invisible.  It's a copy of RE4LaserEndInvisible.nif,which as the name implies is invisible.  To restore to the old version, copy RE4LaserOriginBillboard.nif and rename it RE4LaserOrigin.nif.

RE4LaserProj.nif is the mesh for the laser beam.  It currently has a lengthy fade as it gets closer to the gun, in hopes of disguising the lag from the MoveToNode function.  It is a modified version of RE4LaserProjFade.nif, so make a back-up if you want the option of restoring this mesh but want to experiment with something else.  RE4LaserProjBest.nif is the one from the previous version of this mod.  If you wish to restore it, it needs to be copied and renamed RE4LaserProj.nif.

Note that mesh-swapping can be done with the game running but the changes will not take effect if the laser is on-screen.  So stop aiming, pause, swap your meshes, and then go back to the game and aim to see the changes.


New global:
RE41st - If not 0, laser functions even in 1st-person aiming down sights.  If 0, laser turns off during 1st-person aiming if weapon has iron sights.  Default 0.

Version 0.98:
Laser is 100% accurate in centred mode, provided you have no aim penalties (low skill, crippled arms, moving, &c.) and your weapon spread is 0 (not too common without mods).  Laser now has dot end, togglable via global until I make an MCM menu.

New global:
RE4Vis - If not 0, on launching or unpausing the game, it turns the dot end visible.  If 0, launching or unpausing will turn it invisible.  Default 1.


Version 0.97:
Fixes the flickering, adds customisability on speed of the camera zoom on aiming down the sights, adds temporary fix to obscure when the laser moves away from the gun if moving too quickly.

Two new globals:
RE4TimeSwitch - If not 0, on launching or unpausing, the time it takes to zoom in when aiming down sights is set to the same as RE4FOVTime.  Default 0.
RE4FOVTime - The value to which RE4TimeSwitch changes the game setting fIronSightsFOVTimeChange, which controls aiming zoom speed.  Default .1


Version 0.96.5:
Adds aim zoom customisability, adds toggle-aim support, stops laser generation during VATS.

Three new globals:
RE4Cam - If not 0, any time you launch the game or pause and unpause the game, all weapon aim zoom values in 3rd-person will be set to RE4FOV.  Default 0.
RE4FOV - The value RE4Cam will use when setting all 3rd-person aim zoom levels to the same thing.  Default 45.
RE4Tap - If not 0, the laser (and aim setting adjustments) will alternate every time you tap the aim button; requested to support tap-aim mods.  Default 0.


Version 0.96:
Takes both the original and centred versions makes them one file, and corrects a few more bugs.

Adds three new globals:
RE4Mode - 1 is Centred, 2 is Original, 0 is off.  Default 1.
RE4Fade - How long each laser projectile takes to fade away, in seconds.  Default 0.05.
RE4Delay - How long the laser script waits to update the laser's position, in seconds.  Default 0.01.

The purpose of RE4Mode is to choose how you want the laser to work as well as the auto-aim settings changes that are made only when you aim.  Centred aims your bullets towards the centre of the screen, but does apply penalties for things like skill or crippled limbs.  Original completely removes auto-aim, which means you need (or probably want) a mod that shoots the bullets straight out of every gun.

The purpose of the other variables is to help individual users mitigate the flickering laser that occurs depending on your graphics mods.  Now that I'm more or less satisfied with the aiming, I'll look into the flickering, but thought this would be useful in the meantime.

For now, mods like More Realistic Aiming or Deus Ex Weapon Spread are recommended.  I'll be implementing something similar later. I like Lead a lot as well with this.  Weapon Mesh Improvement Mod should be used by everyone whether or not you have this mod installed, if you ask me.

Version 0.95:
The description below still applies to the Original Version, but as of version 0.95, I decided after some feedback that instead of depending on the guns to shoot their bullets straight, I'd centre the laser's endpoint to be at the crosshair and make it so that the game will put your bullets there.  I still don't have a lot of time, so I don't know what effect having a low guns skill has on this and it's a little experimental.  My character has 100 in guns as I was most concerned with how accurate that would be, and it's pitch perfect now.  I plan to do a lot of work on this in future, but for now I have to rely on people downloading, testing, and giving feedback.  Speaking of which, youngyone01 deserves a lot of credit for sharing their experiences with the game's auto-aim system and the game settings variables involved.  More feedback like that will go a long way towards making this mod feel even more like the shooting in RE4 and 5, depending on what extremes I'll have the time and will to go to once I can return to this and give it my full attention.


Just something I wanted to try for a while.  It works.  Doesn't really have any problems but may be best if used with something like Deus Ex Spread, cos the 'RPG mechanics' get a little obvious here.  For the record, I haven't tested the two together and don't have time to do so.  I put this together in about ten minutes and tested it, but I'm spending nearly all my time working on New California, so this is going to have to be 'as is' for a while.

There's no controller support at the moment.  That always takes the longest to do.  But there will be.  After New California's all finished, I'll try to get to it.  Track this if that's something that interests you, cos it won't be soon, but it will happen.

Probably works well with that new Action Camera mod but I haven't tested.  I'm happy with the way it works with my Definitive Camera Hotkeys, so I didn't bother with anything else.

Another thing I'm thinking about adding later is a camera that moves more like RE4's camera, so you're not always aiming dead centre in the middle of the screen.  Probably have to leave that one optional when it's done.

I'll probably get round to making the colour customisable as well.

Install like any other mod.  JIP LN Required.


How it works/potential problems:
Event-based as I tend to do.

When you start aiming, it records the current values of the game settings fAutoAimScreenPercentage, fAutoAimMaxDegrees, fAutoAimMaxDegrees3rdPerson, and fAutoAimMaxDistance, then changes the first three to 0 and the last one to 99999.  This makes the bullet fly straight out of the gun, which is needed if the laser is to be used as a guide.  Otherwise, the game uses the crosshair to redirect the bullets a bit, which would be fine with me, honestly, if it were not completely broken in third-person. Still, there's a major issue with certain guns, and I believe their meshes are the problem.  They no longer really go sideways, but they're not right vertically.  I found the ranger sequoia to be a bad one.  But most of the guns felt really good if I'm honest.

Then a script starts running which moves an invisible, collisionless item to the projectile node of your weapon and has it start firing a laser that does no damage or anything and which all NPCs so far just ignore.  I've tried offsetting it for more realism but didn't make much progress with that.  You can try experimenting with global variables RE4X, RE4Y, and RE4Z to see what you get.  My script is set to use those as offsets from the projectile node but I found leaving them at 0 to be best.

Every .01 seconds, it updates this laser's position according to the position of the projectile node and the angle of the player.
It stops the laser during most of the weirdest times to have it pointing straight ahead (like reloading...that was weird before I fixed it).

When you stop aiming, it stops the script that was running and returns the above game settings to the values they were using before they were altered and puts the laser firer back in its cage (RE4LaserHouse; good area to test how banjaxed the weapon meshes are as well).

In conclusion, ideally, you will pair this mod with one that fixes weapon meshes, and one that reduces weapon spread in favour of a sway is probably a really good idea.  You can make it yourself and add it to this if you like.

Permissions:



Anyway, sorry for the barebones description but I have to get back to NC.