Animated map objects

[ghost]

It might make the maps seem more vibrant if it contains animated map objects like computers with blinking cursors, space ship wall computer screens, fires in attacked buildings or fans in ventilation ducts.

[cxong]

I've implemented this feature plus the spinning fan tile from Cyberdogs; the computer terminal would be an obvious choice for animation, but what else? Let's add some animated map objects as required, for example I recall some of your campaigns are supposed to have server racks? Perhaps we can resprite those with blinkenlights.

[ghost]

@cxong Allright, I'll try to do that and the wallscreens mentioned in the opening post later today.

[ghost]

@cxong I sent you a modified version of the space pirates campaign with wall screens in the 4th mission. Those aren't exactly works of art, so improvements and suggestions are welcome, but I might add more stuff later.

The animation works flawless. However, it uncovers some issues:

• wall objects are immune to shooting (but that's somewhat logical from an implementation POV I guess)
• normal objects that are shifted to the wall still have the player collide with their normal position
• the wreck image is at the original position and so is the break down particle effect (however, it looks cool in this case, as if the screen felt from the wall and broke on the floor)

[ghost]

@cxong Ok, I added blinking servers and powerhubs to the AI Insurgency campaign.

[cxong]

Thanks; the sprites aren't bad. I've updated AI insurgency.

The Space Pirates ones will need more work; the current map object system doesn't fully support what you want. Some problems:

• Once map objects are destroyed, they are displayed as "wrecks", which are assumed to be on the ground, so they are drawn last. Even if they are shifted using the (currently unused) WreckOffset parameter, the walls will be drawn over them, making them invisible
• Wall objects will have funky hitboxes; either they physically stick out, even affecting players walking into them, or they are completely inside the walls, which might make it possible to shoot them from the other side of the wall, or if you make the hitboxes too thin, small/fast bullets may be able to tunnel through them

To fix the first problem, I'm thinking of reworking the "wreck" system, adding a separate flag for whether a map object should be drawn last, and instead when map objects are destroyed, they can optionally spawn another map object in their place. This is usually a wreck, but it could also be another destructible map object. You could have map objects at different stages of destruction, or you could loop them back into the original object. Sounds interesting but I don't know if there are practical uses for that - maybe a light that toggles between colours as you shoot them?

The second problem is harder. Unless you want them to be shootable from behind the wall, we'll need to do continuous collision detection, maybe using a technique like this one: http://gamedev.stackexchange.com/q/55873/26250. Then we can have a super-thin map object, 1px tall and just outside the wall. This will also fix other bugs like #372. I've been putting this one off because I've been wondering at which point it'll be worth it to just go directly to a real physics system like Chipmunk2D, but I suppose that'll probably never happen.

By the way, the screen sprites are ok but they can be improved by shading the edges, so it looks like a physical screen instead of something painted onto the wall. Just like the techniques used here: http://opengameart.org/content/unfinished-user-interfaces

[ghost]

@cxong Thanks, I'll look into shading.

If it turns out that the changes in the code aren't worth it, should I leave the collision stuff as it is or disable the wrecks?

[ghost]

@cxong I added some shades, but I'm not sure if the light is right. C-Dogs has some weird light sources and the shades look kind of big due to the low resolution.