App Size Matters

How To: Implement a Fog of War – Part 2 – Smooth

A standard feature of real-time strategy- and tactical games is what’s called a “fog of war”. The term comes from traditional warfare and it tries to describe the situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. What that means in game terms is that the fog of war covers everything that’s not within sight range of units or buildings. The entire map is covered in darkness and the units and buildings have a ‘sight circle’ that reveals the map immediately around them. As the units traverse the level they reveal more of the terrain. This feature is probably best known in the WarCraft series of games. If you have ever wanted to implement such a feature in your game, I’ll show you how. It’s a lot easier than you might think. In this last part of a two-part series, I will describe how to implement a “Smooth” fog of war. (My favorite!)

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