Lightning Effect

Development Rendering
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1

Hi everyone,
I’m trying to create a lightning effect similar to the electrocute spell in Diablo3 (reference:video ) but I’m not sure how to achieve that result. I’ve been searching all over the web for tutorials or even HINTS and the only thread i found is this one and its not really the result I’m looking for.
I’m using a beam emitter right now and the result isn’t that bad (RESULT.gif) but the lightning isn’t forking since it’s a straight line. I tried to use the SubUV index but its not working at all with the beam type (i thought i could make a sequence of tiling-textured and animated planes) so now I’m back to square one. Is there any way i can achieve that? Is there any way i can make a beam fork?

Thanks in advance for any advice you might give me!

edit: This is another result achieved randomizing the target position, which again isn’t bad but it’s not forking!

2

I would do it like this. There might be a more efficient solution:
You could set up a beam emitter that goes from your character to the target. When it reached the target, you check, if there are any other possible targets in range. If so, create a beam emitter from that one target to the target number two. If not, just stop, or make the beam fade away smoothly. Repeat this step.