Effect

Three dozen ready-made effects from the game: an explosion, smoke, sparks, a trail. Pretty and entirely harmless

mediumYou need: What a world processor is, A colour as one number

effect explosion 10 10 4 %ffaaff 0

Field	What is in it
first	which effect
second and third	the point in tiles
fourth	size or rotation — whichever this effect understands
fifth	the colour
sixth	extra data: for blockFall that is the falling block

An effect does nothing

It is a pure picture: no damage, no push, no change to the map. An explosion drawn by effect explosion touches nobody — explosion is for damage, and the two are easy to confuse.

What kinds there are

Group	Effects
warnings	warn, cross
construction	placeBlock, placeBlockSpark, breakBlock, breakProp, blockFall
shots	shootSmall, shootBig, sparkShoot, sparkShootBig
smoke	smokeSmall, smokeBig, smokeColor, smokeSquare, smokeSquareBig, smokeCloud, smokePuff
hits	hit, hitSquare, spark, sparkBig
explosions	explosion, sparkExplosion, crossExplosion, wave
other	spawn, trail, vapor, drill, drillBig, lightBlock, bubble

Not every effect understands every field: some take a colour, some do not; some grow in size, some rotate. What does not apply simply has no effect — as with setmarker.

Note

The game caps the size at a thousand: an effect covering half the map is of no use to anybody and expensive to draw. Effects that take a rotation instead of a size have no such cap.

Silent failure

An effect costs drawing time, not logic time. A program calling effect every iteration draws hundreds of flashes a second and bogs down the game for everybody watching. Effects are paced by a timer, like everything else that is for show.

Note

The course sandbox has no effects, so there is no example for this lesson. In the game the instruction works as usual.

Remember

• effect kind x y size colour data draws one of the game’s ready-made effects.
• It has no consequences at all — it is only a picture.
• Some effects take a colour, some a rotation; fields that do not apply are ignored.
• The size is capped at a thousand.