TeamColors update for version 1.3

[Zero Angel]

ISDF VEHICLE TEAMCOLOR ADDON FOR BZ2
By Zero Angel [zeroangel@bzuniverse.com]

DESCRIPTION:

This update  makes the skins look a lot sharper, brighter and more colorful overall during multiplayer games.

Standard BZ2 team coloring simply changes the color of the unit to a monochrome version of one color (ie: shades of red).

This update will change that by using the 'glow skins' feature of BZ2 to mask all parts of the skin, except for the orange areas which will be recolored to match team colors (ie: red,blue)


INSTALLATION:
Unzip directly into your addon folder.

To uninstall, delete ivGlowskins from your addon folder.


ISSUES/KNOWN BUGS:
1) Will _not_ cause bad assets under stock BZ2 or any MOD.
2) Will cause vehicles to be more visible in dark environments,
   this helps to allow night maps to be usable for all gfx settings.
   As 'high' lighting settings penalize users, this should help to
   offset the problem.
3) May cause a slight FPS hit due to the extra textures that are to be drawn. Do not  use if your videocard has less than 16MB RAM.

[Commando]

Tried it out.  Looked ineresting.  Not sure why but my afterburners on my sabre started acting weird after installing it.  They wouldn't show up clearly unless I was firing my at stabber.  They would get dimmer until I fired the stabber.  It appears to be related to the skin because my clean 1.3 directory has no such behavior.  The engines also flicker while firing stationary.

[Zero Angel]

Thanks for the excellent find Commando. I'll look into that tonight, hopefully it doesnt cause any major problems.

[Commando]

I doubt it will.  It is a minor graphic annomaly.  I have no idea what caused it, but it looks interesting that the engines appear to compensate for the at stabber rounds.  Only negative aspect is that the after burner flames become hard to see unless you fire the at stabber.

[Jwk the Hemp Monkey]

I brought this up ages ago for FE rev.c, but lizard at the time told me it required odf editing.

not right now, but soon, i shall use the same technique you have deomonstrated and create a super pack for all ships, inculding hadeans, which will take advantage of this feature.

did you get it to work for buildings?

[Zero Angel]

When I tried to use glow skins for buildings, the glow skins would flicker on and off, very annoying glitch. And it does require ODF editing under 1.3, but its automatic under 1.3.

[Commando]

And it does require ODF editing under 1.3, but its automatic under 1.3.

I'm confused.  Do you mean editing is required in 1.2 and it is automatic in 1.3?

[Zero Angel]

Yes

[Commando]

If you have some done for the buildings, send them to either me or GSH and the flickering may get looked at.  I can't guarantee anything, unfortunately.  I sent GSH your tunnel fix, but I'm not sure if he ever got it.  I'll try sending it to him again, unless you have made some updates since you sent it to me.

[Zero Angel]

Yeah, the hi-side tunnel entrance I sent with the pack breaks existing maps that use it (DM tunnels), cuz I had to change the classlable to get the AI to use the tunnel properly. Therefore the hi-side tunnel entrance should have its ODF name changed slightly, such as pbtunn03a.

[Tempest Storm]

Hmmm, does the flickering only happen in MP ZA? I don't recall the ones I made flickering, but I only really tested in the editor and IA.

[Jwk the Hemp Monkey]

on the Alpha channle, will 50% grey show up 50% of the team.colour ?

[Zero Angel]

Yeah, think of it has being a 50% opaque layer in photoshop.

[Bull Dog]

Yeah, the hi-side tunnel entrance I sent with the pack breaks existing maps that use it (DM tunnels), cuz I had to change the classlable to get the AI to use the tunnel properly. Therefore the hi-side tunnel entrance should have its ODF name changed slightly, such as pbtunn03a.

Any place where I can get the Fixed large tunnel?  I sure could use it on one of my maps.........

[Aegeis]

Hey ZA, smash up job you did with those glow textures.  WOW!  It really livens up those old units in mp, my eyes couldn't believe it when I was 1.3 strating this weekend.  To bad you didn't do anything for the scions though.