Surface
Places the animation in the ground layer, among the units and structures, rather than in the layer above them.
- Applies to
- AnimType
- File
art.ini- Section
[<ObjectType ID>]- Value
- boolean
- When omitted
no
The ground layer is the only display layer the engine keeps in order, so an animation in it is sorted against the units, structures and terrain sharing it and is drawn in its place among them. An animation left out of it joins the layer above, which is drawn after the whole ground layer and after the artwork that hangs off structures, so it is laid over that whole scene rather than sorted into it. Fire, smoke and the animations a structure runs want the ground layer; explosions and other effects that read as being in front of everything do not.
YSortAdjust has an effect only in the ground layer, since that is the only layer whose order is maintained.
An animation pinned to an object is in the ground layer whatever this says, so the flag matters only to an animation standing on its own.
The flag also picks a height for the animation as it is created — the rules’ FlightLevel when it is off, ground level when it is on — but that choice is overwritten by the coordinate the animation is placed at a few lines later and never reaches the screen. An animation sits at whatever height the code that created it asked for.