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Flashlight
Soldat Forums - Soldat Talk - Game Improvements / Suggestions
KeFear
December 30, 2005, 11:33 pm
So, i found the new lightning scenery-pack, and the idea came to my mind like *wooosh*:
What if we had Flashlights! It could be useful in dark maps, and it would have a short lifetime so you couldn't use it all the time. You press the key for it and a lightbeam would show from our soldat to the cross (but it's length would be limited ofcourse)

What do you think?

Silent Soldier
January 9, 2006, 12:46 pm
Well the game should have a new lightning physics then, (as you know you can see the soldiers in dark nowadays) but it would be nice that the lightning would depend on the map's background color.

Deleted User
January 9, 2006, 2:04 pm
if a polygon or ma p or background or whatever is black, what color would the flashlight change it to?

soldat dont have lightning effects.

Raptor
January 10, 2006, 1:30 am
What do you mean with dark maps?

Deleted User
January 10, 2006, 3:05 am
quote:Originally posted by Psychoif a polygon or ma p or background or whatever is black, what color would the flashlight change it to?

soldat dont have lightning effects.


Regarding the black background question, the color resulting from the flashlight would simply be gray. Since, when dealing with light, mixing the three primary colors (red, green, and blue) in equal proportions creates the color white, you could simply increase the primary colors' values in the background pixel's hexadecimal code (which consists of a hex value ranging from 00 to FF for each primary color, #000000 being black) by a uniform amount; this would make any color affected by the flashlight brighter while preserving the color's hue. Of course, if the flashlight beam itself is colored, then you simply have each hex value appropriately adjusted differently from the others, so a yellow beam of light would make #000000 into, say, #007B7B (value's just taken off the top of my head) instead of #7B7B7B.


As for your point regarding Soldat's lack of lighting effects... While the flashlight would be a potentially interesting element to add to a map with a black background and black polies, such a use is far too severely limited to consider seriously. As such, until the day Soldat has true ambient lighting effects, the flashlight is doomed to exist only in the obscurity of unremarkable player-built mods.

Captain Ben
January 10, 2006, 9:26 am
I think the mapmaker would have to be edited for this as well.
just another poly type, pretty much a poly that you can walk and shoot though, you can see yourself and your light, but nothing else!

Echo_Trail
January 10, 2006, 12:51 pm
i was thinking, we allready have something a bit like this. In realistic mode you have a limited field of view. This could be narrowed even more, and everything but the "field" could be darkened or even black..

DePhille
January 10, 2006, 6:15 pm
If you want that I think you need to have part-transparency (Alpha) if you want to keep the lighted stuff realistic I think.

Grtz , DePhille

zyxstand
January 10, 2006, 9:48 pm
also, michal would first add a feature that allows map editors to choose how bright soldiers are - ctf_equinox may seem like a dark map - wait, it IS a dark map - but the soldiers aren't any darker than on other maps.
if he would add this then the flashlight idea would be most beneficial. though i'd like it to be kinda like in half life where the it's battery gets recharged slowly after not in use.

bond_james_bond
January 11, 2006, 12:44 am
Pff... I didn't read all the other posts, but I think a flashlight would be and look so cool in Soldat!

DeMo
January 12, 2006, 7:00 am
I think you guys are playing too much Counter Strike.
In Soldat you don't have time to pick a flashlight and go searching for players in the dark... when you spot somebody you'll be dead before you can switch to your weapon.

Xanthophobia
January 12, 2006, 9:00 pm
*bashes that chainsaw dude around the head with flashlight*..

Deleted User
January 12, 2006, 10:38 pm
Umm, DeMo- You would be able to use the flashlight at the same time as your weapon. This isn't Doom you know.

You can make soldiers darker or lighter in soldat, you just have to make a "Blank.bmp" scenery, shade it black, and give it a transperancy. Then you can put it over the whole map.

numgun
January 16, 2006, 4:13 am
heh... u can have a flashlight in soldat even now:
Thx to swebonny for his awesome idea:
convert the SNIPERLINE to a BEAM OF LIGHT! (draw it with paint or get swebonnys in the partially 1337 mods section)
and if u want it on: press alt+f2 in game to ON/OFF

happy flashing!

CrapBomba
January 17, 2006, 11:34 pm
It wouldn't need any kind of lighting engine or crap... It would just alpha blend a rotated light beam image. I think it would be pretty useless but it wouldn't hurt anything.

Chakra`
January 18, 2006, 4:40 pm
Can I lock this thread? I keep mis-reading it as saying "fleshlight" ...very distracting.


(don't mind me. just being weird)

Keron Cyst
January 18, 2006, 6:16 pm
I'm for the lock. Flashlights really aren't needed. Sure, I really do think they'd provide coolness to the game but are more of just some accessory for the bored and aren't worth the programming time.