How to make fixed backdrops?? (ANSWERED)

[Hybrinoid]

The title says it all. HOW DO YEH DO IT?!

(lol sorry if this is wasting your time CLiff but I MUST KNOW)

[cliffski]

Here is how to do it. You will need the latest build of the game (1.38).

Add a new graphic to the game that is the entire world backdrop, say 'ground.jpg". If your scenario is 2048 by 2048, it will get stretched to that size, so make it big. Like all game images its dimensions must be a power of two, so 512, 1024, 2048 etc. Bigger than 2048 may not work on many video cards.

Edit your modded scenario file to add a new section:

[terrain]
0 = 1024,1024,1.0,ground.jpg,0,0,0,1.0,1.0,2048,2048,1,0

The first ‘0’ is just the line number, to distinguish between multiple entries.
The next two are the position of the object in terms of the world. For fixed backdrops make this the center of the world.
The next number is vital. It’s parallax. at 1.0, this si the same as the ships, so they will appear to crawl over it as though it is land.
Next comes the name of the image.
Next is the angle of the background in degrees
Then we have left,top right bottom if you are using partial areas from a larger texture atlas
The next two are the width and height of the background image as seen on the screen. this should exactly match the mapsizex and mapsizey
Now we have a flag that says ‘always draw’ set this to one if the image is the same size or larger than the entire world. It will prevent it being ‘clipped’.
The last flag anchors the image to the normal space backdrop parallax effect. Ignore this unless you want to add an image (such as a planet) that moves perfectly with the parallaxed space backdrop.

Note you can have multiple lines, use texture atlasing and various parallax layers. Thus hopefully you can place multiple terrain items and have clouds drifting overhead etc

[Hybrinoid]

@cliffski

Here is how to do it. You will need the latest build of the game (1.38).

Add a new graphic to the game that is the entire world backdrop, say 'ground.jpg". If your scenario is 2048 by 2048, it will get stretched to that size, so make it big. Like all game images its dimensions must be a power of two, so 512, 1024, 2048 etc. Bigger than 2048 may not work on many video cards.

Edit your modded scenario file to add a new section:

[terrain]
0 = 1024,1024,1.0,ground.jpg,0,0,0,1.0,1.0,2048,2048,1,0

The first ‘0’ is just the line number, to distinguish between multiple entries.
The next two are the position of the object in terms of the world. For fixed backdrops make this the center of the world.
The next number is vital. It’s parallax. at 1.0, this si the same as the ships, so they will appear to crawl over it as though it is land.
Next comes the name of the image.
Next is the angle of the background in degrees
Then we have left,top right bottom if you are using partial areas from a larger texture atlas
The next two are the width and height of the background image as seen on the screen. this should exactly match the mapsizex and mapsizey
Now we have a flag that says ‘always draw’ set this to one if the image is the same size or larger than the entire world. It will prevent it being ‘clipped’.
The last flag anchors the image to the normal space backdrop parallax effect. Ignore this unless you want to add an image (such as a planet) that moves perfectly with the parallaxed space backdrop.

Note you can have multiple lines, use texture atlasing and various parallax layers. Thus hopefully you can place multiple terrain items and have clouds drifting overhead etc

THANK YOU SO MUCH CLIFF!

[xenu]

YEEEEEES!
All HAIL CLIFF!

Now to spend the weekend moding the scenerios and releasing them!
Get ready for 4 new races! Alphans, Browncoats, SHADO and a ‘special’