I'm gonna be real with you, this is going to be a lot of work!
Here's what you can do:
You'll need to have 5 pictures. That's right, make 'em yourself in iDraw.
-The first picture needs to be 320x240 and completely black. No other colors.
-The next picture needs to be completely black, but with the transparant color facing a particular direction like this:
888 888
888 888
888 8888 All the 8's are supposed to represent black screen. You wanna leave a path (the beam) in the
888888888 transparant color. This, for example, would be when your character is facing up.
888888888
888888888
-Then you need another picutre exactly the same, but with the transparant color (the beam) facing right, instead of up like in the example above.
-Then you need another picture for down, (you can just flip the "up" one horizontally).
-And lastly another picture for the left direction (flip the "right" one vertically).
-Save each as a separate picture.
I hope you're good with events...otherwise this will be difficult to understand.
1) You need to have a parralel process going on in the background.
2) In the event commands, page 3, select "Fork Conditions"
3) On page 2 of the fork conditions, select Hero - face up. (This will check if the hero is facing up)
4) Click OK
5) Inside the fork clause, change a variable (name it Direction), set it to 1. 1 will be for up.
6) Repeat steps 2 - 5, but cange it for hero facing right, and make Direction set to 2 (for right).
7) Repeat 2 - 5 for hero facing down, set direction to 3 (for down).
Reapeat 2 -5 for hero facing left, set direction to 4 (for left).
9) Now change a new variable called "Weapon Slot" and set it equal to the hero's Arms#.
Essentially, what we've just done is create an event that will constantly check which direction the hero is facing, and assign it a value. If the hero is facing up, variable Direction will be 1. If he's facing down, Direction will be 3 and so forth. You can even make this a common event if you want in the database.
Now, in the database, you have to make an item in the number 100 slot. What I mean by that is when you go to the items screen in the database, every item is numbered with an ID. Just go to the number 100 ID and make your Flashlight in that slot. IT MUST BE A WEAPON!!!
Now we need another parallel process event to show which picture will be displayed, but it will only activate if variable "Weapon slot" is above 100, that way, this event will only trigger while you've got the Flashlight in item slot# 100 equipped.
1) Put a "Fork Condition" command to read -- if Direction is equal to 1. This will check if direction is 1.
2) Inside the fork clause, go to event commands page 2, click show picture 1: (the "Up" beam picture)
3) Repeat steps 1 and 2, but change Direction to 2, keep it as picture 1, but change it to the "Right" beam picutre.
4) Again for Direction equal to 3 with "Down" beam picture...
5) And again for Direction equal to 4 with "Left" beam picture.
I think that should do it. If that doesn't work, post a new response and I'll see about fixing it...either way though, I should recieve a freaking medal for explaining something so complex!