Theater

Marks a type's artwork as theater-specific in the art file; in a map file it instead names the theater the scenario is played in.

Theater-specific artwork

Specification — Theater-specific artwork

Applies to: ObjectType and derived types
AircraftTypeBuildingTypeBulletTypeInfantryTypeOverlayTypeParticleSystemTypeParticleTypeSmudgeTypeTerrainTypeUnitTypeVoxelAnimType
File: art.ini
Section: [<Image ID>]Image ID: Image= value; ObjectType ID when omitted
Value: boolean
When omitted: no

The shape file keeps the Image ID as its name and exchanges its extension for the theater’s own: .TEM in temperate and .SNO in snow. Nothing else about the name changes, and there is no fallback to .SHP on this path — a theater with no file of its own leaves the type with no shape.

[MYROCK] ; the Image ID of a TerrainType
Theater=yes ; draws MYROCK.TEM or MYROCK.SNO, never MYROCK.SHP

The flag is tested before NewTheater and wins outright, so a type marked with both is only ever renamed by extension. A Voxel=yes AircraftType, InfantryType or UnitType has no shape to rename at all; a BuildingType resolves and loads a theater-named shape either way.

Theater-specific animation artwork

Specification — Theater-specific animation artwork

Applies to: AnimType
File: art.ini
Section: [<ObjectType ID>]
Value: boolean
When omitted: no

Read order

This setting is accepted under more than one entry heading; the last one the engine reads wins.

Order	File	Section
1	`art.ini`	`[<Image ID>]`Image ID: Image= value; ObjectType ID when omitted
2	`art.ini`	`[<ObjectType ID>]`

Once the scenario’s theater is settled, the animation’s artwork is resolved as its own AnimType ID with the theater’s extension — .TEM in temperate, .SNO in snow — and falls back to <AnimType ID>.SHP when that file is absent. The animation is re-resolved on every later theater change unless it is loaded on demand.

[MYBLAST] ; an AnimType ID
Theater=yes ; draws MYBLAST.TEM or MYBLAST.SNO, and MYBLAST.SHP if neither is there

The flag is tested before NewTheater and wins outright, so an animation marked with both is only ever renamed by extension.

Scenario theater

Specification — Scenario theater

Applies to: scenarios
File: map file
Section: [Map]
Value: TheaterType
When omitted: TEMPERATE

Parse behavior

read twice from the same [Map] entry into the same scenario member, once as the scenario is set up and once as the map is read

[Map]
Theater=SNOW

The theater is settled before any of the map’s contents are read, because it decides which tile, art and palette archives are mounted for the whole load. Two are registered, TEMPERATE and SNOW, and the match ignores case. Beyond the artwork it also gates the snow-only behavior in the simulation, so IceGrowthEnabled does nothing on a temperate map.

Unlike the rest of the scenario’s settings, this one lives in the map’s [Map] section.

See also — NewTheater, Image, Voxel, IceGrowthEnabled