---
title: "Light Beams: API"
package: "@phaser-ae/beams-3d"
tier: Free
version: 3.0.0-3
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-19
description: "Visible shafts of light through haze for 3D scenes, from torches and searchlights to lighthouses and headlights, that follow their light and melt into solids."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/beams-3d/api
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Light Beams: API

`@phaser-ae/beams-3d` — Visible shafts of light through haze: spotlight, searchlight, lighthouse and headlight cones that follow their light and dissolve into solids.

## The pack

### `beams3d`

```ts
function beams3d(opts: Beams3dOptions = {}): Pack<{ beams: Beams3dApi }>
```

The `beams-3d` pack: visible shafts of light from spot lights, one instanced draw. Requires a 3D world and
`render-3d`, whose depth the shafts dissolve against so they never cut through the world.

## Types

### `Beam`

```ts
interface Beam
```

A live beam. Its look (`length`, `cone`, `color`, `intensity`) can be read and set at any time; on a beam that
follows a light, reading a field it has not set gives the light's current value, and setting one makes it the
beam's own. Its pose (`x`, `y`, `z`, `dir`, `pitch`) is settable on a beam from `at`, so a lighthouse can sweep
one by turning `dir`; a following beam's pose is its light's, and setting it is an error in dev (move or aim
the light instead) and ignored in production. A non-finite number is the same error.

- `length: number` — How far the shaft reaches, world units. Live.
- `cone: number` — Half-angle of the cone, radians. Live.
- `color: string` — Colour, CSS. Live.
- `intensity: number` — Additive core strength. Live.
- `x: number` — Lamp world x. Live on a beam from `at`; the light's x on a following beam.
- `y: number` — Lamp world y. Live on a beam from `at`; the light's y on a following beam.
- `z: number` — Lamp world z. Live on a beam from `at`; the light's z on a following beam.
- `dir: number` — Aim yaw, radians, 0 toward +z. Live on a beam from `at`; the light's `light3d.dir` on a following beam.
- `pitch: number` — Aim pitch, radians, positive down. Live on a beam from `at`; the light's `light3d.pitch` on a following beam.
- `readonly light: Handle | null` — The light it follows, or null for a beam from `at`.
- `kill(): void` — Remove it now. Further writes to it are ignored.
- `readonly alive: boolean` — True until killed, or until the light it follows dies.

### `BeamPose`

```ts
interface BeamPose
```

Where a hand-placed beam's lamp is and where it points: what `at` takes on top of a {@link BeamSpec}.

- `x: number` — Lamp position, world x.
- `y: number` — Lamp position, world y (up).
- `z: number` — Lamp position, world z.
- `dir: number` — Aim yaw, radians, as a lighting-3d light's `light3d.dir`: 0 points +z.
- `pitch: number` — Aim pitch, radians, as `light3d.pitch`: positive points down, `Math.PI / 2` straight down.

### `Beams3dApi`

```ts
interface Beams3dApi
```

`game.beams`.

- `add(light: Handle, spec?: BeamSpec): Beam` — Give a SPOT light (from lighting-3d's `game.lights.add` with a `cone`) a visible shaft. It follows the light's position, aim, cone, reach and colour every frame, except what `spec` sets, and dies with the light. It is not drawn while the light is off, at zero intensity or not a spot (a point light, cone 0). A handle with no `light3d` (lighting-3d not composed) throws in dev.
- `at(spec: BeamSpec & BeamPose): Beam` — A shaft that follows nothing, placed and aimed by hand; move or sweep it through the returned {@link Beam}.
- `strength: number` — A multiplier over every beam. Default the `strength` option. Live.
- `soft: number` — How far ahead of a solid a shaft dissolves, world units, at least 0.01. Live.
- `enabled: boolean` — Whether the pass draws. Live.
- `readonly count: number` — Beams alive now (killed ones and those whose light died are dropped every step, drawn or not).
- `readonly drawn: number` — Beams drawn last frame: 0 headless, while disabled, or with no visible beam.

### `Beams3dOptions`

```ts
interface Beams3dOptions
```

Manifest options.

- `soft?: number` — How far ahead of a solid a shaft starts to dissolve, world units; at least 0.01. Default 1.5.
- `strength?: number` — A multiplier over every beam's own intensity. Default 1.
- `enabled?: boolean` — Whether the pass draws at all. Default true.

### `BeamSpec`

```ts
interface BeamSpec
```

How one beam looks. On a beam that follows a light, every field left out FOLLOWS the light, read every frame;
a field given (or set later on the {@link Beam}) is the beam's own from then on.

- `length?: number` — How far the shaft reaches from the lamp, world units. Default: the light's `radius` (20 for a beam from `at`).
- `cone?: number` — Half-angle of the cone, RADIANS (lighting-3d's `lights.add` takes degrees; its `light3d.cone` is radians, as this is). Capped just under 90°. Default: the light's cone (0.4 for a beam from `at`).
- `intensity?: number` — Additive core strength, 0 upward; 0.5 reads as a clear shaft in haze. Default 0.5.
- `color?: string` — Colour, any CSS colour. Default: the light's `light3d.color` (`'#ffeecc'` for a beam from `at`).

---

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