AltImage

The shape set a visceroid draws its attack animation from.

Specification

Applies to: UnitType
File: rules.ini
Section: [<ObjectType ID>]
Value: string
When omitted: (empty)No alternate shape set is bound, and the type draws from its ordinary artwork throughout.

The value is a filename without its extension, up to 23 usable characters. .SHP is appended and the shape set is fetched from the loaded archives as the section is read, so the artwork is bound once at load time rather than looked up again when it is drawn.

Only a SmallVisceroid=yes or LargeVisceroid=yes UnitType ever draws from it, and only while its animation stage stands at 90 or above — the range a visceroid enters when it opens fire and leaves five frames later. Stages below 90 are its idle wandering and come from the ordinary Image instead. Any other UnitType stores the name, fetches the artwork and never reaches a branch that draws it.

[MYVISCEROID] ; a UnitType registered in [VehicleTypes]
LargeVisceroid=yes
Image=MYVISC     ; idle frames
AltImage=MYVISCA ; attack frames, MYVISCA.SHP

The frame drawn is the stage less 90, so the shape set is read as eight five-frame runs in facing order starting from west: west at frames 0 through 4, then north-west, north, north-east, east, south-east, south and south-west, ending at frame 39.

A name that matches no file in the loaded archives leaves the type with no alternate shape set at all, and the attacking visceroid then draws nothing for those five frames while its position, weapon and damage carry on unchanged.

See also — SmallVisceroid, LargeVisceroid, Image