Groundscar1_0 goes to Grounscar1_1
and so on.
Now imagine, if we combine both the ability to have custom groundscars for specific explosions (coming in next release already according to the nexus of wisdom, Argh) with multi-framed groundscars. You could have, for instance, a nuke explosion which leaves a ground scar that looks sort of like a crater rather than a typical burn mark. The crater glows orange-red, gradually fading to the standard black after a defined period of time.
I thought it could be set up so that there are two groundscars at the same location, and one loses opacity at a defined rate faster than the standard time limit for groundscars, maybe 10x by default. Or maybe just a timed system, where the number of game frames defined will be the amount of time until it completely loses opacity.
An idea I had for it might be something like this... You have map 1, which is the standard grounscar, and map 2, which shows what areas of the groundscar will be hightlighted. In regular situations it could just be a higher contrast version of the first frame. In whatever file these are defined in, there are some new variables added:
Code: Select all
[scar1]
{
FRAME1_1=scar8_1_0; //first frame of random scar pattern 1
FRAME1_2=scar8_2_0; //first frame of random scar pattern 2
FRAME1_3=scar8_3_0; //first frame of random scar pattern 3
(frame1_... can go on forever)
FRAME2_1=scar8_1_1; //second frame of random scar pattern 1
FRAME2_1=scar8_2_1: //second frame of random scar pattern 2
FRAME3_3=scar8_3_1; //second frame of random scar pattern 3
(frame2_... can go on forever)
RGBCOLOR1=1 0.9 0.7; //very bright yellow-orange, this is the initial color the "special" scar map is
ALPHA1=3; //very high white washout, a bit of a glow
FRAMES1=60; //The initial rgb and alpha values only last about 2 seconds
RGBCOLOR2=1 0.75 0.4; //reddish-orange, the second color the special scar map is
ALPHA2=1.5; //some white washout, not much glow, the actual color has begun to show
FRAMES2=540; //This phase lasts a lot longer
RGBCOLOR3=0.8 0.3 0; //deep red, the last color the special map is (although the special map can go through any number of color shifts, just add more rgbcolor, alpha, and frames tags)
ALPHA3=0.8; //The real colors are clearly visible, darkening
FRAMES3=3400; //This phase lasts very long
}To use this to greatest effect, we'd also need higher resolution groundscars, which are currently locked at an arbitrary figure. (256x256 I think) Even 512x512 would be a huge improvement.
