Weapon Editor

To open the weapon editor, go to the Weapon Tab for players or enemies and click on the Open WEAPON EDITOR  button.

For more information about how weapons work in the SHMUP Creator, please read the Weapons concepts section.

The left column lists all the Weapon Sets of the currently selected player or enemy.
The middle column lists all the Weapon locators with the mane of their current Weapon from the selected Weapon set.
The third column allows you to modify the selected Weapon properties.
And the last column is the preview.

WEAPON SETS LIST

 Rename Weapon Set button: rename the current weapon set
 Move up Weapon Set button: move the  current weapon set up
 Move down Weapon Set button: move the current weapon set down
 Weapon Set name button: click on the name to select the Weapon Set.

WEAPONS LIST

 Eye button: hide the current weapon in the preview window
 Weapon name button: click on the name to select the Weapon.
Open Weapon manager button: open the Weapon manager window to choose an existing weapon from the game or create a new one

WEAPON PROPERTIES:

CONTROLS TAB FOR PLAYER

The behavior is simple: it’s the user who will trigger the weapon using the keyboard or its joypad.
 Assign button menu: the button number which will shoot the weapon.

refire limit: SHUMUP Creator allows you to limit a weapon’s rate of fire to avoid players being able to rapidly tap the fire button to achieve a greater rate of fire than auto-firing the weapon.
With refire limit enabled the player will not be able to shoot faster than the weapon time between bursts duration. This solves potential exploits by players but also gives you the flexibility to design this feature into your weapon system.

Use A.I. checkbox: the weapon can also use some A.I., like warm-up or charge shot.

Start delay edit box:

The warm-up is a waiting time, just before the shoot. You can add a sound and an sfx, and typically you can use this to warn the player that the weapon will soon shoot, for instance with a boss big laser.
       Warm-up Duration spinner: the warm-up duration.
       Warm-up FX menu: the particle effect which is played during the warm-up. The effect will loop until the end of the warm-up.
       Warm-up Sound menu: the looping sound which is played during the warm-up.
      Volume spinner: the warm-up sound volume

FOR ENEMIES:

The weapon behavior is similar to what is happening to the weapon trigger: when will it press the trigger, how long, how?

Use safe zone checkbox: most of the time you want the enemies to only shoot when they are on-screen. If you uncheck this, the weapon will start as soon as the enemy wakes up, even if it is out of the screen.

Wait for target checkbox: the weapon will only start when the player is in front of the weapon. Useful for tanks.

Random wait spinner: When the enemy is activated, this property allows to wait a little before starting to use this weapon. This property is only used once at the start.

Random wait checkbox: the weapon wait for a little before starting. The duration of the wait is random.
Min. wait  spinner: the minimum duration of the wait
Max. wait  spinner: the maximum duration of the wait

 BURSTS TAB

Note: if the button is not pressed anymore while shooting a burst, the burst is stopped even if all its bullets are not fired.

  Time between burst spinner: the duration between two bursts

WEAPON

      DIRECTION
     The initial direction of the bullet when it is shot.
          Bullet direction: the bullet direction is the direction of the weapon
          Aim player: the bullet direction is the direction of the player
                Angle limit spinner: in degrees, can limit the shot angle. For example, a value of 180 will prevent an enemy to shoot behind him. Zero = no limit.
          Parallel checkbox
          Don’t rotate during burst checkbox: during the burst, the locator stops its rotation. The locator only rotates between 2 bursts.

     LOCATOR ROTATION ANIMATION
     This feature rotates the weapon locator.
     Angle spinner: the locator rotation angle
     Speed spinner: the locator rotation speed. A negative value will rotate in the other direction.
    ping-pong checkbox: If checked, the weapon locator will rotate from the default orientation to the angle, then go in the other direction, in a looping manner.
If unchecked, once the weapon locator has rotated from the default orientation to the angle, it will go back instantly to the default orientation, and start again. 
     start from the center checkbox

BURSTS
 Number of bullets spinner: the number of bullets shot in one burst      Bullets interval spinner: The time between each bullet shot during one burst.
      START POSITION
      bullet offset edit box
      burst edit box: the distance of the spawn from the weapon canon.  Useful to make circles.

      SPREAD
     Those features modify the position, angle, or speed of the bullets from a burst. They have no effect if the burst contains only one bullet. You can use those values to create 5-ways burst for instance.
     Angle edit box: the angle between each bullet from a burst.
     Horizontal edit box: the horizontal offset between each bullet from a burst.
     Vertical edit box: the vertical offset between each bullet from a burst.       Speed edit box: will add or remove some speed at each bullet from a burst. For instance, with a 2 value, each new bullet from a burst will go twice as fast as the previous one.

      PROBABILITY
     A random value can be added to a bullet when it is spawned.
    Angle edit box: the maximum random angle added to the bullet.
     Horizontal edit box: the maximum random horizontal offset added to the bullet.
     Vertical edit box: the maximum random vertical offset added to the bullet.
    Speed edit box: the maximum random speed added to the bullet

 Symmetry checkbox: Instead of adding those values to each bullet, they can be distributed in a symmetric way to create other patterns. Note that some bullets are added to create symmetry: a 3 bullets burst will become a 5 bullets burst.

REPEATER
A fun and powerful feature, the repeater will repeat the burst around the weapon. It can create quickly very complex patterns.
 Number edit box: The number of burst copies.
 Angle edit box: The total angle of distribution of the burst copies: 360 will shoot burst all around the weapon. 180 will shoot burst around a half-circle around the weapon.

DAMAGE

      Destructible checkbox: A destructible bullet can be destroyed by another bullet.
      Invincible checkbox: An invincible bullet can’t be destroyed by another bullet.
     Cancellable checkbox: If checked, this bullet can be canceled, if not, this bullet is excluded from the cancelings.

 

 

DIRECTION BEHAVIOR

Modify the bullet trajectory during its life.
 Type menu:
     – None: The bullet travel in the bullet start direction.
     – Aim: The bullet aim at the nearest target.
     – Gravity: Gravity affects the bullet trajectory and goes to the screen’s bottom direction.
     – Left: The bullet curves to the left.
     – Right: The bullet curves to the right.
     – Random: The bullet curves to the left or to the right. The direction is randomly chosen at the bullet spawn time.
     – Angle: The bullet curves to a chosen angle direction (ex: 45 degrees.

      OPTIONS
       Strength edit box: The trajectory deflection strength. The bigger the value, the more the bullet will deflect from its previous trajectory.
       Start time edit box: The duration after which the Change direction will start to affect the bullet.
       Duration edit box: The Change direction effect duration. When the effect is complete, the bullet continues in front of it.

 

FIRST CHANGE SPEED
Those properties allow you to modify the speed of the bullet in time. This allows, for instance, to spawn a bullet, make it stop after 1 second, wait for a little while, then start again and go quickly in the player’s direction.
 New speed edit box: The final speed after the speed change.
 Start time edit box: The start time of the speed change.
 Duration edit box: The duration of the speed change.

SECOND CHANGE SPEED
Same thing. This second speed change can only start after the end of the 1st one.
 New speed edit box: The final speed after the speed change.
Start time edit box: The start time of the speed change.
Duration edit box: The duration of the speed change.
 Life duration edit box: you can control the life of the bullet. After this duration, the bullet will disappear.

LOCATOR SHOT
Particle sys. 01 menu: this effect is played when the bullet is shot. It is spawned at the weapon position.
Particle sys. 02 menu: this effect is a secondary effect and is also spawned at the weapon position. It can allow adding a smoke effect for instance.

sound menu: the sound played when a bullet is shot.
Volume edit box: the volume of the shot sound.
Pitch edit box: the pitch will change the sound height: like playing a lower or higher note.
Pitch variation edit box: a random pitch variation. The higher the number, the bigger the variation range.

BULLET
This menu is available if you choose a “projectile bullet”
!!! Pay attention to the rendering cost: 1000 bullets with 1000 particle emitters can slow down the game.
Bullet particle sys. menu : allow to attach a particle system to a bullet.
Bullet particle sys. > trail. A trail is a polygonal trail attached to the bullet.
Trail texture menu: you can choose your own texture for the trail effect. Please note that this texture should be 1D: this means that the texture only needs 1 pixel for its height and will represent one horizontal slice of the trail.

LASER PARTICLE SYSTEM
This menu is available if you choose a “laser”
 start menu: This effect is played at the weapon position, and so at the laser start.
 end menu: This effect is played at the laser end.

BULLET IMPACT
particle sys. menu: when a bullet collides with something and dies, this effect is played at the bullet position.
 Sound menu: the sound played when the bullet collides with something.
volume edit box: the volume of the shot sound.
pitch edit box: the pitch will change the sound height: like playing a lower or higher note.
pitch variation edit box: a random pitch variation. The higher the number, the bigger the variation range.

Note: Attaching a particle effect or a trail to a bullet can be costly if you are shooting a lot of those bullets.

Note: The best way to understand how the weapons are working is to try every feature. Don't hesitate to change values and see how it modify the bullets patterns!

WEAPON PREVIEW

This window displays the weapon in action.

 Pause button: pause or play the bullet pattern.
 Reset button: reset and restart the pattern.
 Sound button: can mute or un-mute the sound

WEAPONS MANAGER

When you want to assign or create a new weapon preset to a weapon, open the WEAPON MANAGER.
To open it, click on the   select button.

 Weapon Name button: the name of the weapon
 New Weapon Preset button: create a new weapon preset
 Duplicate Weapon Preset button: duplicate the selected weapon preset
 Rename Weapon Preset button: rename the selected weapon preset
 Delete Weapon Preset button: delete the selected weapon preset