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[2.0.72] Beam "random_end_animation_rotation" is treated as always true

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2025 11:09 pm
by bolderbrush10
Noticed this shortly after 2.0 launched, but after a year of poking around and waiting, the problem has sadly failed to fix itself.
It's possible that I failed to find the right flag or setting to fix this, but I'm utterly at a loss, so the boolean "random_end_animation_rotation" is my best guess for the problem.

Attached minimum reproduction mods and saves for pre-and-post factorio 2.0 to showcase behavior.

Expected, pre-2.0 behavior: The beam ending is aligned with the orientation of the entity that has created the beam when random_end_animation_rotation is false (see orange arrow in below screenshot), and aligned randomly when it is true (green arrow below).
The graphics for the beam are defined in TestTurretBeam.ground_light_animations.ending, and are shaped as arrows in the attached mod
pre2orientationrandomworkingasexpected.png
pre2orientationrandomworkingasexpected.png (359.5 KiB) Viewed 468 times




Buggy, post-2.0 behavior: The beam ending is seemingly randomly-oriented every time the beam is created, regardless of how random_end_animation_rotation is set or the orientation of the originating-entity.
The graphics for the beam are now defined in TestTurretBeam.graphics_set.ground.ending
post2orientationrandomnoeffect.png
post2orientationrandomnoeffect.png (554.8 KiB) Viewed 468 times

This is causing an ugly effect for my mod SearchlightAssault, where the spot light it casts no longer matches the turret (it looks especially bad in motion):
feels.png
feels.png (1009.63 KiB) Viewed 468 times

Re: [2.0.72] Beam "random_end_animation_rotation" is treated as always true

Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2025 11:10 pm
by bolderbrush10
I suspect that something got tweaked or dropped during the transition to factorio 2.0 and its use of "graphics set" instead of "ground light animations"

Re: [2.0.72] Beam "random_end_animation_rotation" is treated as always true

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2025 10:38 pm
by Rseding91
Thanks for hte report however this is a simple modding error. The value is on the graphics_set and not on the beam prototype (see https://lua-api.factorio.com/stable/typ ... csSet.html). I highly recommend you go into the settings and enable the "check-unused-prototype-data" option which will tell you when a value you set is not used by the engine.

Code: Select all

Warning PrototypeLoader.cpp:199: Value ROOT.electric-turret.TestBeamTurret.attack_parameters.ammo_type.category was not used.
Warning PrototypeLoader.cpp:199: Value ROOT.electric-turret.TestBeamTurretRand.attack_parameters.ammo_type.category was not used.
Warning PrototypeLoader.cpp:199: Value ROOT.beam.test-turret-beam.random_end_animation_rotation was not used.
Warning PrototypeLoader.cpp:199: Value ROOT.beam.test-turret-beam-rand.random_end_animation_rotation was not used.
12-15-2025, 17-37-50.png
12-15-2025, 17-37-50.png (9.98 KiB) Viewed 181 times

Re: [2.0.72] Beam "random_end_animation_rotation" is treated as always true

Posted: Mon Dec 15, 2025 10:46 pm
by bolderbrush10
Much appreciated, thank you!