Cutting a hole in a backdrop?

[Del_Duio]

Hi guys,

I know this is possible but I can't remember how to do it. Specifically, I'm thinking of an old but excellent digging game called Excavatorrr (yes, with all those 'R's at the end). In it, the guy appeared to dig out chunks of the ground with his pickaxe but it was done by cutting out a 'chunk' of a pre-existing backdrop object somehow.

Maybe it was pasting the transparency color?

Anyhow, it wouldn't be for digging but I thought of another cool thing I could do with this which is why I ask.

Thank you!

[schrodinger]

Just some mixed ideas thrown off from mind:


If you want to do it with backdrops,
when digging, you could destroy pasted backdrop / save "dig" value for that cell (i.e. in array) / paste a new "slightly more consumed" backdrop (relative to the value of the array for that cell)


If you do it with actives, and just change animation, you save the hassle of destroying pasted backdrop/paste/store in array (in DirectX performance-wise should be practically the same?)


For a more flexible/dynamic approach (but more complex and "intensive"), you could think of erasing chunks when destroying,
a bit like in the particle explosion example here, but placing those chunks instead of making them fly away.


From some past testing, I remember pasting active pictures in Standard mode is very lightweight,
you could think of pasting smaller chunks (i.e. 16 x cell) so you could destroy little backdrops as smaller bits of a block.


Active pictures can also be pasted "cropped", so you could destroy backdrop / paste a "cropped" version of the same, to erase part of the terrain.


Surface object would probably make all this simpler and almost hassle-free

[SHINBAXTER]

@shrodinger

wenever i see a post with ur name on i click it instantly u always giv me food 4 thought

& who is this secret genius "the lizard king"....is that u in disguise, like a secret super hero fighting fusion crime?

[schrodinger]

ahahah
you got me, that's my secret identity I use to fight chaotic, long, shabby code

Thanks Shinbaxter, I'm glad you found some useful / thought-inspiring ideas

[Del_Duio]

Yeah no kidding, you are one helpful dude schrodinger thanks!