Parralax?

[Heretic]

What is Parallax and how does it work in Hammerwatch? Are there any examples that I can see to get an idea?

[NekoBaron]

Its used to create an overlay on top of the screen such as fog, and lets you set the speed and direction that it scrolls in.

[Heretic]

Are there any examples of this in the game or any campaigns?

[NekoBaron]

A few custom campaigns rarely use it but if you want to test it in the editor use the testparralax.xml and play about with it, you could flash the entire screen up with any set effect sprite if you wanted.

[Heretic]

Oh this is the fog from the survival map. So I'd like to use this parallax feature, but there are certain areas I need the parallax to *not* be. I see in the survival map they have the fog below the cliffs, and in those areas the fog does not reach - but I think they cheated around it by putting the parallax layer below the cliff doodads.

It seems that no matter what the parallax will show over the tiles if not the doodads - is there any way to exclude the parallax in certain areas?

[Hipshot]

The only way to exclude parallax in an area right now is to make a new level, more or less.

[Heretic]

Okay so the whole level will have the parallax no matter what? Thanks for th answer btw, are there any plans to maybe make some sort of exclusion area?

[Hipshot]

I think you should assume it will stay this way until we can find another way.
Maybe you can just add a crop feature to the parallax settings, I can ask Myran.

[Myran]

Well, you can turn them on and off with scripts, so you could just fade it out when a player enters some area.

[Hipshot]

...but that will mess up MP games when people are far away =)

[NekoBaron]

I just forced a level change for the world map on my custom campaign when moving to the desert so you have to pass though a small desert outpost first, then everyone in the desert at once.

[Heretic]

This prevents things like a town with fog, or at least forces people to move in and out of every single building together, etc.

[NekoBaron]

best solution would be animated doodad for what you want, not ideal though and pieces would have to fit perfectly.

[Heretic]

That's essentially how I might have to do it at times - this is an immense amount of doodads to stream across a place though, we'll see!