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Great balls of fire
Posted by Data in Cortex Command - August 20th, 2007

32bpp EffectsWe have figured out how to keep the entire engine at 8 bits per pixel internally (for manageable memory footprint), while rendering the last step of each frame in 32 bits per pixel to your screen. This allows us to do some nice glow effects in-game, and will eliminate any “crazy color” palette problems that some have experienced with the old 8bpp video mode builds.

You will still be able to turn off the effects and even go back to 8bpp mode in the next build, in case this slows down the game on your machine. We haven’t noticed a huge hit to performance though, so I think it’s well worth it for the extra eye candy.

Also, we’ve been profiling the memory allocations and have managed to plug the vast majority of the memory leaks present in previous builds. This should make longer games more feasible without CC slowly eating all your RAM.

Just wait for the rocket gib/explosion effects coming soon!

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96 Responses to “Great balls of fire”

  1. Striker26 - # August 20th, 2007 at 5:33 pm

    wow, this game is going to look great in the end

  2. Kokits - # August 20th, 2007 at 5:45 pm

    Dude! the new glow effects look absolutely amazing! My jaw literally dropped when I saw it!

  3. striker121 - # August 20th, 2007 at 5:58 pm

    That looks awesome, but it would be insane if you could show us a picture of an explosion.

  4. BreenedandScrooned - # August 20th, 2007 at 6:02 pm

    Whoah, awesome.

  5. Thanatos - # August 20th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

    Wow, excellent. I like it alot. I have a suggestion though.

    Something I notice alot in modding… it would be SOOOOO much better if you added an object onto anything, be it brain, clone, robot, rocket, ect. This would be called “AddBreakObject” and you could add as many of them as you wanted. It would make for excellent mod abilities.

    The reason I am asking this is i am working on a mod right now that Could make use of about 3 of these, for a passive tractor beam, a particle shield to deflect explosives, ect.

    Can you at least think about it? Making the game even more moddable than it already is would be awesome!

  6. whitty - # August 20th, 2007 at 6:20 pm

    so whenever you make an update like this, is it included in the current build or do we have to wait for the next one?

  7. zalo - # August 20th, 2007 at 6:21 pm

    How hard would it be to turn on this effect?
    Maybe we could have a glowing actor or something.

    Great Job. Keep up the good work. :D

  8. BreenedandScrooned - # August 20th, 2007 at 6:22 pm

    Whitty, I’m pretty sure we’ll have to wait for the next build.

  9. iwillcontrolyou - # August 20th, 2007 at 6:24 pm

    Coooooooooooooooooool. Looks nice.

  10. AlphaCommando - # August 20th, 2007 at 6:24 pm

    Shiny, very shiny

  11. Skiv - # August 20th, 2007 at 6:29 pm

    Love it… just love it….

  12. whitty - # August 20th, 2007 at 6:39 pm

    awww… anyway, i love the new things with the graphics. maybe scene editor and the ability to save and play your scene will come next!

  13. Carp - # August 20th, 2007 at 7:13 pm

    Shiny….
    Sounds really neat. Carry on.

  14. Cayne - # August 20th, 2007 at 7:36 pm

    WOW! Thats amazing… so… will the color palette be optional? Or are the extra colors part of post processing… or am I just babbling like an idiot?

  15. flameman1101 - # August 20th, 2007 at 7:47 pm

    whoa! the rockets look 3Dish data and the whole team you all are doing stupendously good at spriting!!
    Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!Awsome!

  16. Bunda the Great - # August 20th, 2007 at 7:54 pm

    Oh, man, this is amazing. CC gets 10x better with every single build, I swear.

  17. LCpong - # August 20th, 2007 at 8:01 pm

    That’s awesome! btw, why my scene editor in game dun work?

  18. Lord Tim - # August 20th, 2007 at 8:13 pm

    So shiny….

  19. AquaGeneral - # August 20th, 2007 at 8:22 pm

    Can the glow effect also be used on other things such as a concrete wall, then we can get some sort of reflections coming in.

    Great job, the glow should really add to the graphical art style :)

  20. finairfin - # August 20th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

    oh man, with new graphics and code optimization, the next build looks like it’s gonna be great. and official rocket gibs? uber.

    on a side note…. another AI digging mode that looks for and digs dead dropships and rockets would be really cool. sort of like a clean-up crew, no? it gets really hard to protect your base when the other team can build a staircase up to your entrance or beyond the range of your snipers, etc.

  21. tazers - # August 20th, 2007 at 9:09 pm

    BAWLS OF FIAH

    sorry
    looks neat.

  22. 21GP - # August 20th, 2007 at 10:06 pm

    Gorgeous.

  23. zalo - # August 20th, 2007 at 10:39 pm

    That reminds me, It looks sorta like hammerfall.

    Please implement motion blur, like in Crysis, HL2Ep2, and Portal.

  24. Cayne - # August 20th, 2007 at 10:50 pm

    Motion blur isnt really necessary, but It would be pretty cool for the GPU blessed…

  25. tazers - # August 20th, 2007 at 10:50 pm

    motionblurred…. sprites?
    I can’t imagine that being too pretty to have on all the time.

  26. MIKE - # August 20th, 2007 at 11:19 pm

    whoa!! is there any light at the end of this wonderful tunnel? will this game be internet based mayhem?

  27. Striker26 - # August 20th, 2007 at 11:33 pm

    Yes! better looking muzzle flashes too.
    hopefully you can change the color of the glow

  28. Alechs - # August 21st, 2007 at 2:11 am

    OMGAWESOME! Keep up the good work guys! AMAZING

  29. numgun - # August 21st, 2007 at 2:45 am

    Data, is that .png alpha transperancy?
    Or some equivalent of that?

  30. Lazyfaith - # August 21st, 2007 at 3:03 am

    That really looks brilliant, you guys keep up the good work, can’t wait for the next build. But remember, don’t go over the top with the glows.

  31. BreenedandScrooned - # August 21st, 2007 at 3:07 am

    Bombs would be so cool looking with this.

  32. ChJees - # August 21st, 2007 at 3:29 am

    Looks great!

    Although it could have been used more extensively. (The rocket flames looks weird with only “Light” near the engine.)

  33. JeCa - # August 21st, 2007 at 3:45 am

    But CHJees, wouldn’t it look even more strange if the smoke glowed? Really happy about the RAMleaks being fixed, can’t wait for Rocket-Gibs. :)

  34. someone lol - # August 21st, 2007 at 4:33 am

    lol 33 post lol

  35. Kurrus - # August 21st, 2007 at 4:40 am

    Oh cool. When will you fix the forums?

  36. someone lol - # August 21st, 2007 at 4:57 am

    what forum lol?

  37. PromoStarr - # August 21st, 2007 at 5:13 am

    Wooooooo looks NIIIIIICEEE cant wait

  38. p3lb0x - # August 21st, 2007 at 5:46 am

    sweet. love those flame effects

  39. poudidi - # August 21st, 2007 at 6:40 am

    MEGAZORZAL !

  40. Kurrus - # August 21st, 2007 at 7:23 am

    DRFF.

  41. Cevius - # August 21st, 2007 at 8:10 am

    I really cant wait to play this finished game, because these builds are so much damn fun already. :D

    Keep the good work up guys!

  42. Delgado - # August 21st, 2007 at 8:35 am

    Data you amaze me once again. THIS GAME is going to ROCK at the end. These glow affect are unbelivable :) you are god data, dont forget that :0 :0 :0 ;0

  43. Skibiliano - # August 21st, 2007 at 9:25 am

    mufawufwuf… *puts replaceable jaw*
    Over cool!
    Muwa….
    *puts it back*
    Cool!

  44. Nfsjunkie91 - # August 21st, 2007 at 9:43 am

    Never thought I’d see bloom in CC. Must’ve been some clever coding to do this.

    Does this mean we won’t have palette corruption anymore since it’s going to be rendered in true color on our screens?

  45. K-Toke - # August 21st, 2007 at 9:48 am

    @ #36 Someone Lol
    This forum http://www.datarealms.com/forum/index.php

    Oooh CC is starting to look like a retail game!

    And Data when will the forums be fixed?

  46. Displeased - # August 21st, 2007 at 1:06 pm

    Odd how now that you’ve changed the graphics, everyone’s all: “Ooh, aaah, shiny! MUST TOUCH SHINY FIRE!” but usually when you say you’ve changed the physics engine or something like that in an utterly revolutionary way, people go: “Hey, you know, when are you going to implement those ? I’d really love to see .
    Great job on the game Data.
    As for you community: Try and get some therapy for the ADD. ;)

  47. Data - # August 21st, 2007 at 1:08 pm

    What’s wrong with the forums?
    Please describe the problem when you report on one, people!

  48. Kurrus - # August 21st, 2007 at 1:29 pm

    Wizard James is the problem.

  49. zalo - # August 21st, 2007 at 1:38 pm

    I thought it was because the gradients.

    The lighter Grey is now
    coming from the bottom,
    when it used to come from
    the top in the old DRL.

  50. Joe Mikkel - # August 21st, 2007 at 4:34 pm

    That looks awesome! GG!
    I wonder, could the new engine support dynamic lighting, like in Gish?

  51. zalo - # August 21st, 2007 at 5:49 pm

    Yeah, what if there was a light,
    and dark version of every sprite.

    And The mask would change according
    to angle, and distance of the light.

    And there would be sunlight, coming from the top left.

  52. GSM - # August 21st, 2007 at 6:13 pm

    If you’d just center on the pathfinding AI, and get a build with that in it, you’d really have something that shows off the really interesting gameplay you’ve got going here. As is, nobody seems to want to play the game without infinite funds, or wildly superpowered weapons. Give teams of two the ability to send waves of intelligent attackers, and then you’ll have something. Also, why did you not turn off actor to actor collisions that result in units exploding? Nothing like that ever happens in any other 2D game I can think of.

  53. Spamking - # August 21st, 2007 at 6:43 pm

    Sweeeeeeeeeet looking… Could make fer some beautiful explosions.

  54. Mikey - # August 21st, 2007 at 7:02 pm

    cant not wait for the explosion in build 18!

  55. K-Toke - # August 21st, 2007 at 7:09 pm

    Data this comes up when I try to go into the forums.
    Internal Server Error
    The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

    Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@datarealms.dataproperty.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

    More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

    Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
    Apache/1.3.37 Server at http://www.datarealms.com Port 80

  56. AJenbo - # August 21st, 2007 at 8:48 pm

    OMG this is excatly what i was hoping to see when i entered your site today :D

  57. nooby - # August 21st, 2007 at 9:09 pm

    so what,is it gona be in the next build or a download?

  58. whitty - # August 21st, 2007 at 9:51 pm

    sometime when i try to post my page refreshes blank and i have to type it all over again. fix now PLOX!!!!

  59. whitty - # August 21st, 2007 at 10:05 pm

    it happens in the forums

  60. Purple - # August 21st, 2007 at 10:23 pm

    Looks good, a little too shiny though. It wouldn’t be that pronounced in broad daylight.

  61. RottenCod - # August 21st, 2007 at 11:45 pm

    for some reason after i downloaded the latest build i could play it once fine but the second time i ran the program it crashed, so i tried it again and it crashed again.
    So after trying it once more i downloaded the latest CC build again, the same error happend. I could play it fine once then it crashed.
    Data, what is happening? Is it a problem with my system or the game???

  62. Wolfie - # August 22nd, 2007 at 1:50 am

    BALLIN’

    Finally! retribution for VISTA users!

  63. Thundermaker - # August 22nd, 2007 at 2:37 am

    OMG! Koool! Can’t wait anymore! Maybe I should freeze myself for a couple of days… or weeks?

  64. DiviX - # August 22nd, 2007 at 2:48 am

    YEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

    AT LAST ALPHA IMAGES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    WOOOHOOOOO JUST YOU WAIT WHEN IT COMES OUT!!!!

    GONNA GET SUPPA LOOKIN MODS!!! YEYEAH!!

  65. Dj Demetrius - # August 22nd, 2007 at 4:53 am

    sexy…now all we need is smoke!

  66. Delgado - # August 22nd, 2007 at 8:37 am

    OMG SMOKE THATS AN AWESOME IDEA!!!

    Data I ask you PLEASE PLEASE no skellies in the next build or the final game. pls pls pls pls pls!!!

  67. ELECTRIC CHEESE - # August 22nd, 2007 at 11:16 am

    I havent touched cc in about a year.
    This look fucking epic.

  68. Spamking - # August 22nd, 2007 at 12:10 pm

    Oh, I remember now…
    Now that the muzzle flash has such a pretty glow, would you mind making it so that it displays every time the weapon fires again? Some weapons really need it in order to look right…

  69. 3 Solid - # August 22nd, 2007 at 3:55 pm

    Reminds me of Hammerfall.

    Awsm.

  70. Erahgon - # August 22nd, 2007 at 8:46 pm

    Looks neat, anything on improved AI so far?

  71. Blob - # August 23rd, 2007 at 12:06 am

    Woo!!! This Looks Awesome!!! Can’t Wait!!

  72. UltimateDoe - # August 23rd, 2007 at 12:29 am

    Looks so… AWESOME!! Looks great and Shiny….
    Must get, Can’t Wait… Might give up Tribes 2 Construction just to play next Build…

  73. Blob - # August 23rd, 2007 at 3:54 am

    *drooiling*

    wlaah…. Still watching those gif…

  74. KarvaBopi - # August 23rd, 2007 at 4:53 am

    Hmmm, if this game is going to get fog of war, it would be cool if like rocket engines and like stuff like that could light places up D:

  75. KarvaBopi - # August 23rd, 2007 at 4:56 am

    WHOA, i just noticed the muzzleflash and its fregging awezome :DDDD

  76. JeCa - # August 23rd, 2007 at 4:58 am

    But I’m still thinking, what defines the [glowiness] of the objects? If it only is the color, it’d be awesome to construct a yellow glowing character. However, that might make other things, like brass, look weird, so that doesn’t seem likely. If there’s a GlowRange line in the .ini files, then how do you keep the smoke from glowing? It could be that only certain things - like muzzleflashes - glow, but some of the smaller balls shine quite far from the ship, and so does the shots.

    Really anxious to see what you can make out of this once it’s out, but keep making those big breakthroughs and don’t come back till you got something revolutionizing. :P

  77. AquaGeneral - # August 23rd, 2007 at 3:56 pm

    The robots have red eyes, imagine if they had the glow effect on there eyes, explosions will also look alot better with the glow.

    Lastly I though of making a sun in the background with the effect.

  78. OrangePanda - # August 23rd, 2007 at 8:11 pm

    nice effect. so when can we expect a new build?

  79. Aramed - # August 23rd, 2007 at 10:46 pm

    Theres a firefly on the tip of your SMG now. :P Jk, Nice work…this has been said millions of times but I’ll say it anyway. Can’t wait for the next build to come out.

    P.S. Wonder what the flak cannon looks like.

  80. someone lol - # August 24th, 2007 at 5:29 pm

    no you will get blind lol

  81. someone lol - # August 25th, 2007 at 9:11 am

    ey plz update lol

  82. Delgado - # August 25th, 2007 at 6:41 pm

    Data pls pls pls NO SKELLIES IN NEXT BUILD. please if u dont want skellies in the petition on the general forums

  83. BreenedandScrooned - # August 25th, 2007 at 7:04 pm

    What’s wrong with the skeletons?

  84. zalo - # August 25th, 2007 at 8:21 pm

    Absolutely nothing, Delgado probably thinks it is to hard with hordes of skellies trying to invade his base.

    Plus, data shouldn’t waste a perfectly good actor.

    Though, occasionally I do see the blue clones as useless.

  85. someone lol - # August 26th, 2007 at 4:10 am

    omg stupdo guy u cant remove sekelton game wil carhs lol

  86. someone lol - # August 26th, 2007 at 4:39 am

    wo i was flyin then i crashed lol

  87. whitty - # August 26th, 2007 at 7:07 am

    i was standing and i crashed :)

  88. coilgunner - # August 26th, 2007 at 8:32 am

    :D yes! can’t wait to see those gib explosion effects :)

  89. somerandomguy - # August 26th, 2007 at 5:14 pm

    we demand working water

  90. RoboLee - # August 26th, 2007 at 5:43 pm

    water would be good but I just wana know not when but how far away from the next build do you think you are.

    Because of this update I’ve been checking this page like a wild man for like a week, I just wana know if your close to completing the task

    also I would like to see(taken into consideration workload and what you have already said your putting in)(good-worst order):

    *32bpp working well, looking good.
    *Advanced AI.
    *take screen shots with no lag

    *options like resolution, frag count on/off etc.
    *extra variables- pooling water(more material properties), realism(when shot fly back when shoot recoil)etc.
    *undo button for BYOB (10 times undo?)

    ~on-line Multi-player of some sorts
    ~4 colored teams
    ~proper explosions
    ~melee
    ~people always want more

    +vehicles (though it may not make sense… some people wants em though- I don’t care really)

  91. whitty - # August 27th, 2007 at 3:17 pm

    i made a gun that shoots working water, but after about 5 seconds the water turns to mush and you sink it it.

  92. RoboLee - # August 28th, 2007 at 7:55 am

    p.s. I don’t mean for all them to be in one build (obviously)

  93. Binky - # August 28th, 2007 at 8:00 am

    YYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  94. Mikey - # August 28th, 2007 at 12:07 pm

    when do u think the adv. A.I. is coming in?

  95. RoboLee - # August 28th, 2007 at 2:49 pm

    hopefully the next build (as he’s mentioned it from build 14: “Agreed, AI does suck completely now. Just wait until we get proper A* pathfinding in place… you’ll get owned in delightful ways you didn’t expect or I will have considered it a failure!”)

    DATA: “Ability to force reload of all ini’s without restarting game, will be in next build.” said in build 14 post, where is it :(, tis very annoying to have to exit the game completely

  96. Data Realms - Dev Log » Blog Archive » Delicious Pie Menus and Eye Candy in Test Build 18 - # August 29th, 2007 at 5:43 am

    [...] Cortex Command (64) General DRL (8) « Great balls of fire Delicious Pie Menus and Eye Candy in Test Build 18 Posted by Data in Cortex Command - August 29th,2007 [...]

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