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I've been wondering about two things which affect a players ability to see whether his shots are landing on the target:
The famously rough shield hit effect and the hull hit effect.

I think the hull hit effect is f02bmp.mdl, but I'm not sure.
Here's an image of the effect in-game:


I'd appreciate any help.

AFAIK the size of those sprites is hardcoded, so hit explosions are always tiny no matter how big is the image.

There's a discussion about missile explosions somewhere in the forum, where this issue was raised.

Yes, but you could make the sprite images take up a larger portion of the canvas. I'd guess you could increase the sizes maybe 25-50% that way. Making them brighter or with more contrast might help too.

SpaceJunk wrote:QUOTE (SpaceJunk @ Dec 23 2010, 05:20 AM) AFAIK the size of those sprites is hardcoded, so hit explosions are always tiny no matter how big is the image.

It works the same way like this:
http://www.freeallegiance.org/forums/index...st&p=537206

The hit sprite is NOT f02bmp.mdl.
I modded that one and it did not show.

What I do know now is that the hit sprite looks identical to the navigation light and other flare type particles (engines):


I don't know if these are the same file or not... if they are, that would suck a bit...
Any ideas?

PS:
You can see in this image that the TF mini bullet is a serious perk... it shows up very clearly against any dark or drab texture.

Take a look at this:

http://svn.alleg.net/svn/Allegiance/tag/FA.../effect/efart.h
http://svn.alleg.net/svn/Allegiance/tag/FA...nTrek/artwork.h

Edit:
Another place of hardcoded artwork:
http://svn.alleg.net/svn/Allegiance/tag/FA...particlegeo.cpp

Looks like it's f101 and/or f103, but it's not used in particlegeo.cpp so maybe it's yet another image.
I'm going to test.

I'm wondering about the shield now... they unfortunately used a single image for 9 frames of shield damage.
It might break if it's resized... then again, the explosions didn't, so it's possible the code divides the image into frame according to w/h ratio.

Frak, I need to do a @#(!load of tests.

incidentally, could you look up why hull hits don't show up on targetview?

or is that fixed in R6?

Bunnywabbit wrote:QUOTE (Bunnywabbit @ Dec 24 2010, 01:54 AM) incidentally, could you look up why hull hits don't show up on targetview?

or is that fixed in R6?

Are they supposed to?

I always thought of the target view as a sort of computer rendering of the target, not an actual view.
It's like in X-wing and TIE fighter, where it's perfectly clear that it's a computer rendering since you can target and visually highlight specific parts of capital ships.

Back to Alleg, I don't think hull hits or for that matter booster or anything else should be shown and would not matter much if it did.
In any case, you should be watching your actual target, not a miniature of it.

EDIT:
Here's how it looks in X-wing and TIE fighter:




The real question is, when are we going to be able to target cap ship engines and turrets in Alleg?!

Spinoza wrote:QUOTE (Spinoza @ Dec 24 2010, 01:17 AM) Are they supposed to?

I always thought of the target view as a sort of computer rendering of the target, not an actual view.
It's like in X-wing and TIE fighter, where it's perfectly clear that it's a computer rendering since you can target and visually highlight specific parts of capital ships.

Yeah they aren't supposed to, it doesn't show them boosting or shooting either, just their orientation in relation to yourself.