[Hellbender]

I noticed in another thread that some sort of support has been added to the code for animated glow maps.  Would this be in the same format as the thruster animations?  Would a glowmap ani replace the glowmap entirely for the model, or is it possible to use the static glowmap in conjunction with the animated version?

I asked once before, but it got lost in the shuffle - is it possible to use a smaller image format for model skins or are we pretty much limited to using what we have at present?  Asking because current sizes for textures scaled to work with 1024x768 and higher screen resolution are prohibitively huge for many people to download.

[Bobboau]

you can have one glow map per texture, it can be of any size or shape, it can be animated, but you can only have one

[Hellbender]

Thanks Bobboau, the animated texture would be in the .ani format correct?

[Bobboau]

yes

[Hellbender]

Thanks again!

Now to see how many frames to get a nice flashing light without going overboard on file size...

[StratComm]

Originally posted by Hellbender
Thanks again!

Now to see how many frames to get a nice flashing light without going overboard on file size...

[cough] glowpoints [/cough]

Seriously, I could think of a lot of good uses for animated glowmaps, but a blinking light just isn't one of them.  Now pulsing shivan glows - there's an idea that I'd like to see.

[Hellbender]

They are pretty much the same thing.  Most animated skin effects are lightening and darkening textures or putting them on and off in a timed sequence.  In essence a blinking light.  With a bit of planning and good execution you can have multiple texture effects.  The appeal of using glow maps to me is the additional visibility.  A light map can be just as dark as a static skin texture, slightly illuminated, or very bright. Depends on the shades used.  Also an animation with several blinking textures can also have static lights and brightened areas.

[Steel]

"Seriously, I could think of a lot of good uses for animated glowmaps, but a blinking light just isn't one of them. Now pulsing shivan glows - there's an idea that I'd like to see."

I don't know - running and anti-collision lights on fighters and ships could be pretty cool...