In half life 2 episode 2, Valve used special shaders on their "antlion egg sacks" that changed based on the angle they are viewed at to make it appear that there is a light inside the sacks. This method was good because it didn't require extra lights, geometry, or special 2 sided shaders.

Is it possible to do something similar with halo ces shaders? Can their appearance be altered based on the angle they are viewed at? If so, how?

Also, any tips on making some sort of "energy beam" shader or effect?

Thanks!

erm, sorta, the Source engine is brilliant, but i hate steam apart from the fact i bought it.

you can use glancing angles in the shaders with your colour, and only reflect the form you want in the multipurpose map, ofcourse its cheap and wont yield the exact same results

if you want an energy beam, you can study the stock tags, for example, the bridge energy ropes and the plasma rifle projectiles, and ofcourse, the sniper rifle round

Energy beams could be made with .lightning tags, but to my knowledge, cannot be attached to a projectile.

yes this is very possable vick play the map longest and look at the columns in front of the blue or red base flag if you look directly at it, the gap is clear, but glance at it from an angle and its purple