AlphaImage damage frame Options

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

Just a short Question

Is it possible to have a seperate alphaimage for the damage frame of a building? e.g. a street light wouldn't glow if it's half damaged.
I only know the tag AlphaImage= ,but it doesn't supports damage frames.

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Nov 6 2007, 05:35 PM

[SeekSomethingNew]

Interesting, i would like you to test something for me, try adding AlphaImage=*AlphaSHP* to a VehicleType for me please..

AlphaImage takes one value, max string size of 25 characters, and i dont think it accepts more than one frame...

[Team Black]

Well this is interesting.

First I gave "AlphaImage=ALPHATST" to [HVR].. it gave the alphalightpot image wherever a new hover MLRS was spawned.


Then I gave it to limpet mines (in undeployed state), to see if it would spawn more for every time it undeployed.
It gave the lightpost image with a blocky square border around it.


Then I destroyed the limpets, and their alpha images disappeared with them. Pretty cool, though I couldn't think of a good use for a feature like this..



This post has been edited by Team Black: Nov 6 2007, 06:52 PM

[SeekSomethingNew]

This is very interesting... also try Infantry... and Aircrafts...

But Alpha light is under ObjectClass, what is called be almost every class in the game, thats why i wanted to know if it actually worked...

But i will sure keep a hold of this

This post has been edited by TSHyper: Nov 6 2007, 09:14 PM

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

AlphaImage takes one value, max string size of 25 characters, and i dont think it accepts more than one frame...

too bad, but i already assumed this.

btw, i tested alphaimages on units too and came to the same result as Team Black. If it would follow the position of a unit it would greatly enhance the visual effects of TS.
An aircraft with a seeker-spotlight under it, or mechs with spotlights would be awesome.

This is very interesting... also try Infantry... and Aircrafts...

They work the same as units. Both place the alphaimage on the map when build/spawned and the alpha doesn't follow them. The alpha also disappears as soon as the unit is destroyed.
But sometimes it's necessary to scroll away and then back so the alpha disappears or is shown.

Maybe we should also test an alphaimage on a weapon projectile. I doubt that it follows the projectile, but it would give great glowing weapons.
tested: it works the same way as units. It is placed after launch, and deleted on impact. But it gives a quite cool effect, even if the screen isn't always updated when it should be removed.

The reason that it isn't always removed and why Team Black had boxes on his limpet is, that the spawn position and the deleting position aren't the same. The game tries to remove it on the deleting position for that it creates a box (size of box = alphaimage shp size), that sometimes reaches into the alpha on the spawn position and thus deletes only a part of the alphaimage.

\EDIT
some eye candy for what i asked my initial question.


This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Nov 7 2007, 11:41 AM

[SeekSomethingNew]

Now, we would have never found this out if LKO never asked xD

Now here is a list of Classes that calls it...

AnimTypeClass
BulletTypeClass - Warheads
OverlayTypeClass
ParticleSystemTypeClass
ParticleTypeClass
SmudgeTypeClass
TechnoTypeClass - All Buildable Objects...
TerrainTypeClass
VoxelAnimTypeClass

Not sure about this one...

IsometricTileTypeClass

This post has been edited by TSHyper: Nov 7 2007, 05:42 PM

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

Smudges? So it would glow forever,since they are never deleted?
I tested it already on tiberium TIB01-TIB20 but it doesn't worked.
On Tibtrees it works. tested
On Warheads it doesn't work. tested

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Nov 7 2007, 06:45 PM

[SeekSomethingNew]

Hmm, interesting indeed... i did not expect it to even work on units, i cant find if the code actually uses it, only that it calls it.

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

is there anything else under ObjectClass, that is always used only on a certain type, but actually works on other things too?

How do you find out, to which class it belongs? If i look in the game.exe i can find the tag, but not to which class it belongs.
Since all tags are ordered in seperate parts, i would assume that CrushSound, Crushable, RadarInvisible, Selectable, LegalTarget, Strength, Immune, Insignificant, HasRadialIndicator, RadialColor, IgnoresFirestorm, Voxel, ga, na, gt, nt, ca, ct and APC also belong to ObjectTypeClass, because it stands there only 1 line above.

And if i'm correct and ct, ca, nt, gt, na and ga are the prefixes used on buildings and units inherit from objectclass, units can have theater specific images too.

In addition there is %sW that looks like as if not only the apc can have a water specific image, but every other unit too. HMECW.vxl should work this way too.

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Nov 7 2007, 11:12 PM

[SeekSomethingNew]

Ah you see, you wont, because you have to disassemble the EXE, this is what pd and VK do...

EDIT: Noticed to edited your post, your kinda right, but that will not always be the case because some classes borrow from others. :/EDIT

Anyhow, This will show you what the inside of the EXE looks like, its in Machine Code / ASM...

Not with everything named btw, you have to do that yourself, thanks to pd for me using hes TS IDB




ObjectTypeClass Includes...

RulesClass
Name=
AlphaImage=
Crushable=

CrushSound=
RadarInvisible=
Selectable=
LegalTarget=
Armor=
Strength=
Immune=
Insignificant=
HasRadialIndicator=
RadialColor=
IgnoresFirestorm=

ArtClass
Theater=
NewTheater=
Voxel=

Notes...
HMEC, if found, can be ANYTHING with this ID, is hardcoded to have Strength=1200
I think, *THINK*, if the string on Voxel= is not found, it looks for .SHP...
Selectable= defaults to "1/true/on"
Image= takes one value, max string size of 25 characters.

EDIT: Noticed to edited your post. :/EDIT

About the Theater Prefixes, They are in ObjectClass, but not with the rest, they are ObjectTypeClass_Load2DArt.

This class includes... ga, na, gt, nt, ca, ct

Seems #a is the default, but if #a is not found, it will use #t.

I cant work much out, but it loads a .SHP file as we all know, but it does some calculation with the theaters... might be easy to add a new theater...

As for the %sW string, let me explain what that string does...

%s means replace with given string, this is C/C++ programming syntax.
W is just WW's term for Water i would gather.

This string is used by ObjectTypeClass_Load3DArt, that means Voxels and HVA (VoxLib and MotLib), and does not apply to any SHP object.

First it loads the Voxel, Then the HVA. Then it checks if this Voxels name is "APC", if it is, then it loads the the Voxel and HVA named APCW (W being the prefix string amended), if not, it carries on and loads the normal Voxel and checks for %sTUR and %sBARL. APC also does this, i was trying to keep things short.

Now, it could be possible, using some hacks to make it load the %sW anyway, by making it load this after %sBARL and %sTUR in the Voxel and HVA loading, this is another thing to add to my must do list

Dude, you really need to get MSN, all these things your questions discover

This post has been edited by TSHyper: Nov 7 2007, 11:38 PM

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

Dude, you really need to get MSN, all these things your questions discover

good that they aren't useless. And no msn for me, sorry. I have ICQ over miranda, but don't like to use it. I simply like best to write in a forum or pm.

here's another question. What makes CustomRotor and Rotors? Are they filled with life and do a certain job? Especially how do RROTOR.SHP and LROTOR.SHP belong to this?
Maybe these SHPs just don't exist and it would be enough to make them, so CustomRotor works and puts the shp on a unit.

Another tag that would interest me is HoverPad, but maybe i should wait till you have the ini tags online.

This post has been edited by Lin Kuei Ominae: Nov 8 2007, 12:40 AM

[SeekSomethingNew]

I dont care, you need to get it, its no harm dude, i was the same when i first came here...

Ok well... AircraftTypeClass holds CustomRotor and Rotors.

CustomRotor, well, does not seem to do anything to me...
Rotors does not seem to eather...

RROTOR.SHP and LROTOR.SHP are loaded as game init, and are loaded with the Pip SHP's and so. i cant see where they are used...

HoverPad, its BuildingTypeClass, accepts boolean values, i dont know much else, its only used by one function and it allows Units and maybe Aircrafts to dock with it? What is it you wanted to know?

This post has been edited by TSHyper: Nov 8 2007, 01:27 AM

[Lin Kuei Ominae]

What is it you wanted to know?

only if these tags have undiscovered features, that can be implemented. HoverPad seemed to me a tag something similar to WeaponsFactory. A special building with special abilities.

Anyway thanks for figuring all this out.

[SeekSomethingNew]

Well, i cant really read code to see what it does at this moment, i dont know how to do so yet. But yea, to does something with Aircrafts and Units...

About WeaponsFactory, all i know is that it has something to do with building units...

[Tratos]

HoverPad, its BuildingTypeClass, accepts boolean values, i dont know much else, its only used by one function and it allows Units and maybe Aircrafts to dock with it? What is it you wanted to know?

HoverPad is what causes hover units to 'land' on the repair depot, although the repair depot itself doesnt include this tag this is the effect it has. Maybe you can check if the effects of this tag are called by another.

This post has been edited by Tratos: Nov 8 2007, 10:51 PM

[SeekSomethingNew]

Hmm, there not really called by anything, but rather they decide what the code does... so HoverPad=yes would tell, i would suppose its the service deport function, to allow Hover units to land on it. I dont really know, i am not very good with understand most code at this moment...

[Tratos]

That's what it does in RA2 but its not actually used in TS, and the hover mlrs 'lands' on the service depot anyway. I would imagine that tag is redundant and the functionality was added to a different tag that the service depot does use.