Explosion anim filenames

Millennium · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 3:50 pm Post subject: Explosion anim filenames

A question out of pure curiosity, without any bearing on actual modding, but does anyone have any idea what the explosion animation names stand for? The things named EXPL or BANG are pretty obviously derived from proper words for explosions/detonations, but what words could the ID letters TUMU, TWLT, BRNL and CLSN be derived from?

Are there any explosion/impact-related english words that could be shortened to TUMU, TWLT, BRNL or CLSN?

Or were the guys at WW just using random letter combinations to seperate certain "lines" of similar (but differently-sized) explosions?

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Lin Kuei Ominae · Seth **Joined**: 16 Aug 2006 **Location**: Germany

I was wondering about that too.
TWLT - Twilight ?
BRNL - Burn Large ?
CLSN - Cluster Nuke ?
TUMU - Total Uber Mega Uxplosion #Tongue

Though seeing how WW coded several logics, i stopped trying to find any sense in their actions. And i doubt they always knew what they were doing.

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Millennium · Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:34 pm Post subject:

I also associated TWLT with 'twilight', BRN with 'burn' (although I couldn't make sense of the L), CLS with 'cluster' (although I couldn't make sense of the N), but TUMU with 'tumultuous' (or a word from the same root).

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Millennium · Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 5:06 pm Post subject:

More to the point, will I break anything hardcoded if I rename all the explosions?

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Lin Kuei Ominae · Seth **Joined**: 16 Aug 2006 **Location**: Germany

check the exe
if you find a string that matches one of these names, then there is something hardcoded to this.
e.g. SMOKEY, DROPLAND, CARYLAND are all in some way hardcoded and can't be removed or renamed (except you change the string in the exe too)

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G-E · Defense Minister **Joined**: 09 Feb 2015

I think LKO is right, there are a few hardcoded because of the hackery involved in things like the nukes and other special functions, but not many...

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Crimsonum · Seth **Joined**: 14 Jul 2005 **Location**: Fineland

It's most likely they were derived from something which helped the WW coders better know when to use them. In RA2 the names might just be leftovers from TS, where they are somewhat categorized instead of used everywhere:

TUMU - Used on vehicle or building explosions
TWLT - A generic white explosion, used on debris and object (excluding projectiles) explosions
BRNL - Used on various HE weapons
CLSN - Used on missiles, cannons etc.

TUMU could indeed be derived from tumult or tumultuous, meaning "violent commotion, noise".

TWLT has always bothered me, I can't come up with a word it could be derived from.

BRNL clearly has something to do with burning, since these explosions are always used by weapons that spark fires and leave scorch marks.

CLSN, I always thought it was derived from collision.

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ApolloTD · Commander **Joined**: 19 Nov 2003

I've seen that tumu AFAIK in other source explosion filename yet same footage, I suspect it comes from same source effect pack Westwood may have used.

As reality is, quite a bit of Tiberian Sun effects were not even made by Westwood, just usual 'industrial package acquirements' which may also relate to names.

But frankly, atleast Westwood was not using plain numbers unlike some developers for game files giving something to ponder, not that it heralds much of use?

Millennium · Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 1:14 pm Post subject:

The file commentary in TibSun's TWLT* explosions explicitely calls them "white" explosions (of various sizes). Dubious...

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