Evan
7c151e76ad
## What
Renders the `transportShipTrail` cosmetic effect in-game. Transport
ships already left a trail, but it was always drawn in the player's
**territory color** — this wires the selected effect through to the
renderer so the trail shows the player's chosen **gradient**.
## How
- **Per-player effect texture** (`RGBA32F`, mirrors the palette texture)
keyed by `smallID`, sampled by the trail fragment shader. Each row holds
a gradient color; spare alpha channels carry the color count,
`colorSize`, and `movementSpeed`.
- **Shader**
([trail.frag.glsl](src/client/render/gl/shaders/map-overlay/trail.frag.glsl))
cycles a flowing gradient through the color list: 1 color → flat, 2+ →
animated bands scrolling along the trail. No effect (count 0) falls back
to the territory color; alt-view keeps affiliation colors.
- **WebGLFrameBuilder** resolves each player's catalog attributes (the
in-game cosmetic is only `{ name, effectType }`; the style/colors live
in the catalog) and encodes them. Resolution is decoupled from the
first-seen palette path so it retries until the catalog loads, and
unparseable colors are dropped so bad catalog data degrades to the
territory color rather than rendering black.
## Schema
Collapses the trail attributes to a single gradient shape:
```ts
{ type: "gradient", colors: string[], colorSize: number, movementSpeed: number }
```
- `colors` — solid = one color, rainbow = the spectrum, gradient = two
or more.
- `colorSize` — band width (tiles per color band; `1` is the default, ~4
tiles).
- `movementSpeed` — scroll rate along the trail (tiles/sec; `0` =
static).
## Notes
- Animation is render-only (local time), no simulation/determinism
impact.
- The catalog (`cosmetics.json`, served by the closed-source API) must
ship effects in this `{ type: "gradient", colors, colorSize,
movementSpeed }` shape.
- Band thickness (`4.0` base in the shader) and the gradient frequency
are visual constants picked without in-game verification — easy to tune.
## Testing
- `tsc --noEmit`, ESLint, Prettier, `build-prod` all clean.
- Schema + Privilege test suites updated for the gradient shape (92
tests pass).
- Not yet visually verified in a running game (effect selection is
flare-gated).
🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
OpenFront.io is an online real-time strategy game focused on territorial control and alliance building. Players compete to expand their territory, build structures, and form strategic alliances in various maps based on real-world geography.
This is a fork/rewrite of WarFront.io. Credit to https://github.com/WarFrontIO.
License
OpenFront source code is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
Current copyright notices appear in:
- Footer: "© OpenFront and Contributors"
- Loading screen: "© OpenFront and Contributors"
Modified versions must preserve these notices in reasonably visible locations.
See the LICENSE for complete requirements.
For asset licensing, see LICENSE-ASSETS.
For license history, see LICENSING.md.
🌟 Features
- Real-time Strategy Gameplay: Expand your territory and engage in strategic battles
- Alliance System: Form alliances with other players for mutual defense
- Multiple Maps: Play across various geographical regions including Europe, Asia, Africa, and more
- Resource Management: Balance your expansion with defensive capabilities
- Cross-platform: Play in any modern web browser
📋 Prerequisites
- npm (v10.9.2 or higher)
- A modern web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.)
🚀 Installation
-
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/openfrontio/OpenFrontIO.git cd OpenFrontIO -
Install dependencies
npm run instDo NOT use
npm installnornpm ibut instead use ournpm run inst. It runs the safernpm ci --ignore-scriptsto install dependencies exactly according to the versions inpackage-lock.jsonand doesn't run scripts. This can prevent being hit by a supply chain attack.
🎮 Running the Game
Development Mode
Run both the client and server in development mode with live reloading:
npm run dev
This will:
- Start the webpack dev server for the client
- Launch the game server with development settings
- Open the game in your default browser (to disable this behavior, set
SKIP_BROWSER_OPEN=truein your environment)
Client Only
To run just the client with hot reloading:
npm run start:client
Server Only
To run just the server with development settings:
npm run start:server-dev
Connecting to staging or production backends
Sometimes it's useful to connect to production servers when replaying a game, testing user profiles, purchases, or login flow.
To replay a production game, make sure you're on the same commit that the game you want to replay was executed on, you can find the
gitCommitvalue viahttps://api.openfront.io/game/[gameId]. Unfinished games cannot be replayed on localhost.
To connect to staging api servers:
npm run dev:staging
To connect to production api servers:
npm run dev:prod
🛠️ Development Tools
-
Format code:
npm run format -
Lint code:
npm run lint -
Lint and fix code:
npm run lint:fix -
Testing
npm test
🏗️ Project Structure
/src/client- Frontend game client/src/core- Deterministic game simulation/src/server- Backend game server/resources- Static assets (images, maps, etc.)
🤝 Contributing
Contributions and translations are welcome! See CONTRIBUTING.md for the workflow, the approved-issue process, project governance, and translation info.