Is it possible to add more light sources to Night maps?

[Buzzles]

I ask because during some musing about muzzle flashes (ie, as I understand, not possible unless you want to redo a large number of sprites), I ended up thinking about lighting in general and realised that the night maps are currently very dark (well, farm and industrial, haven't tried town at night) and have no pre-defined sources of light.

There's no light sources outside of the ones caused by the xenonaut equipment (or the UFO), however, there's obviously some sort of spawn code for light that's used to generate a light source (or fake it) at the location a thrown flare lands.

Is it at all possible to leaverage this code to designate light sources in the map editor to display when a map loads?

Even if it's just a quick and dirty list of coordinates it would allow the illusion of working lamposts on the industrial and town maps, which would be a lovely graphical addition to the game.

As a further question, are the light sources just circular in nature or can they function like the trooper's vision cones? If they are directional you might able to use them to give the impression of headlights on the static car models on the town maps. If you can specify colour, hey presto, rear lights as well.

It's only graphical tweaking mind you, but it's one of those little touches that add a bit of ambience to maps.

[erutan]

even farm tilesets should have some porchlights and whatnot. headlight cones weren't something I would have thought of, but that's a cool point.

[Gorlom]

I'm not so sure I agree with farm haveing lightsources. The pitch black atmosphere on some tilesets was part of the charm. Besides you have your flares in a pinch =)

Streetlights and headlights would be pretty cool though.

[IceVamp]

Never thought about it until now. Yes, the industrial/city maps should have lights. Remember floating lamp posts from EU

[Belmakor]

Head lamps on cars would be awesome. But very difficult if not impossible to do in 2d? Street lamps would be quite easy though, just invisible flares on the ground with the appropriate shaded street lamp.

[Belmakor]

Talking of which, what about having red flares surrounding the landing site for the chinook? Providing there are soldiers already on the map that is...

[IceVamp]

Talking of which, what about having red flares surrounding the landing site for the chinook? Providing there are soldiers already on the map that is...

But we're not there because they called us, we're there because we shot down the moffer.

[Buzzles]

Head lamps on cars would be awesome. But very difficult if not impossible to do in 2d? Street lamps would be quite easy though, just invisible flares on the ground with the appropriate shaded street lamp.

An approximation should be easy enough depending if flares and xenonauts vision cones (which light up the ground) work on the same system, just one being specified as a circle the other a cone.

If they do there should be no reason why a small static non moving cone can't be applied in the correct map locations.

Of course, this is all speculation unless Chris (or his coder) decides to furnish us with more information.

[Chris]

Yes. You can add light sources to props in the tile editor already, although it's not something I've done (although I should have, now I think about it). The light has no effect during the day, so the lampposts would just be props during the day but actually at night they would be something far more important.

[Buzzles]

Huzzah! Thanks for answering Chris.

[erutan]

The farm levels would be mostly dark as is (not all that many porches) but I think having them would be a nice touch.

I'd also suggest increasing the contrast between lit and dark a little bit at night.

@icevamp - presumably the flares would be tossed out before landing. that sounds like a pretty bad situation regardless - you'd probably just get a lot of reaction fire from aliens outside flare range. send out some rookies! or if you're more humane, a tank you pretend isn't manned.

[Buzzles]

Hmm, just had a gander at the submap editor. Lamp posts are definitely doable, just need to whip up a lampost prop if there's not one.

Approximations of headlights for the car props, currently sadly not. Although you could fudge it by setting a really low value for the light source and claim it's the interior light

[erutan]

What if you had a small bright circle near the headlamp, then some smaller ones extending from that were dimmer... if they didn't overlap and the brightest just become the light value that could be work. Also are colored lights possible? e.g. red rear lights, neon signs, etc?

[Gorlom]

Is it possible to tie the light into the specter for the car so that the light disspears if the car is destroyed?

I mean I could probably be ok with the lampposts still emitting lights after being destroyed (for some odd reason) but the cars headlights would be much more noticible if they stayed.

[Buzzles]

Is it possible to tie the light into the specter for the car so that the light disspears if the car is destroyed?

I mean I could probably be ok with the lampposts still emitting lights after being destroyed (for some odd reason) but the cars headlights would be much more noticible if they stayed.

Yes. Looking at the submap editor, you can set light values per the state of tile (normal, damaged, destroyed). Which is handy.

[IceVamp]

Huh.. you sure you can't do cars? Even a simple simulation would be sweet. Man, I never get around to fiddling with the map maker.

[Belmakor]

Can't wait till this report is finished so I can start modding

[Gauddlike]

It should also be nice and easy to do a few different versions, some with lights and some without.

Going into a terror mission at night where half the map is well lit and the other half has had the power cut would be kind of atmospheric.

[erutan]

Cool idea - there could also be a chance that the area around a downed UFO at night would have no power.

[Buzzles]

Huh.. you sure you can't do cars? Even a simple simulation would be sweet. Man, I never get around to fiddling with the map maker.

Sadly no. The problem is twofold:

1) You can't specify a direction or shape for the light. It's simply a circle originating from the centre of the prop in all directions. Works perfectly fine for streetlights/guardbooths etc...

2) You can't link lights to any other tiles or events from what I can tell. So while you *could* fake headlights by having two small lightsources on the two tiles infront of the car, they'd still be there if the car gets damaged or destroyed, which would look silly.

[freeaxle]

Hmm, it's a shame you can't do cone shaped light. It would have been awesome to have had torches in the game! I'm still at a loss as to why the only light source given to personnel is a thrown (and rather heavy) electro-flare. Budget cuts must be going deep.