Linedef type 606

"Colormap" redirects here. For the WAD lump that adjusts the palette for light levels, see Palette.

A sector with a red colormap.

Linedef type 606, Colormap, is a type of linedef special which floods every tagged sector with a specific color at a desired intensity. This effect is commonly used to give water and other liquids a colored hue when inside them, but is also used for many other visual effects.

Setup

The color and intensity used is taken from an HTML-like hexadecimal color code, specified in the front side upper texture of the special linedef. The format used for the color codes is #RRGGBBA, where RR, GG, and BB are two hexadecimal digits each that determine the amount of red, green, and blue, respectively. The A at the end stands for "alpha" and determines the intensity of the color. It should be a letter from A–Z, with A being the most transparent and Z being the most opaque. Lowercase letters a–z can also be used and have the same meaning as the uppercase letters. If anything else besides letters is used, or if the alpha value is omitted, it will default to full opacity (Z).

The color specified in the front upper texture is the one that will be displayed if the affected sector is at full brightness. We will call it the light color in the following. As the brightness level of the sector decreases, the colormap will fade towards a different color, called the fade color. By default, this will be black (#0000000). However, a custom fade color can be supplied in the front lower texture field, using the same format detailed above for the front upper texture field. This can be used to create fog effects. Note that the alpha value of the fade color is ignored in Software mode – the fade color will always be displayed at full intensity.

Optional extra settings can be supplied in the front middle texture field, using the format #ABBCC. The two-digit decimal numbers BB and CC indicate the brightness levels between which the colormap will fade from the light color to the fade color. There are 32 brightness levels available, with 0 being the brightest and 31 the darkest. By default, the colormap will fade over the entire brightness range, i.e., it will start fading at brightness level 0 and stop fading at level 31. BB sets the brightness level at which the fade will start. The value must be within the range of 0–30. CC sets the brightness level at which the fade will end. The value must be within the range of 1–31. All brightness levels before BB will display the light color, and all brightness levels after CC will display the fade color. In-between, the colormap will gradually fade from the light color to the fade color.

Giving the control linedef a tag of 65535 will apply the colormap to all sectors in the map, without exception.

The A at the start is a single-digit number from 0–9 that toggles on or off certain flags related to translucent FOFs and PolyObjects affected by the colormap:

Flag value	Flag name	Description
1	CMF_FADEFULLBRIGHTSPRITES	If this flag is enabled, the brightness of sprites with the FF_FULLBRIGHT frame flag will be faded when they are beneath the planes of an affected translucent FOF or PolyObject, like all other sprites. Otherwise, they will be displayed at full brightness.
4	CMF_FOG	If this flag is enabled, fog block-like plane lighting will be used for affected translucent FOFs and PolyObjects if the colormap is applied to their control sectors. This causes the surfaces of such an FOF/PolyObject to be rendered at the control sector's brightness level instead of being displayed at full brightness.

The values can be combined, i.e., a value of 5 will enable both behaviors. The default value is 0.

Note that if two colormap specials are tagged to the same sector, they will not be mixed – one of them will simply be ignored. However, if a group of colormaps share the same target sector but are tagged to different control sectors, their priorities will be set according to the order the control linedefs were created in.

On its own, a colormap will only affect what is actually inside the sector. This means at most all you will see is a colored spot on the floor, walls, and ceiling, as well as any Things inside the sector appearing tinted. Other parts of the map that are simply viewed "through" the colormap sector will appear no differently. If the effect you want is more like a "wall" of color that tints everything seen through it, like a tinted window, use linedef type 202 (Fog Block), and apply the colormap to the control sector instead.

Vanilla colormap values

This is a list of every colormap used in vanilla maps and what they are used for.

For a more complete list of colormap values, see Color codes.

Usage	Light color	Extra settings	Fade color
GFZ water (blue)	#40A0FFJ	None	#0000000 (default)
THZ goo water (lavender)	#B76FB7Z	None	#0000000 (default)
DSZ water (teal)	#008587R	#10032	#1B1B34F
CEZ1 global (orange)	#FF6600H	None	#000819Z
CEZ2 water (blue)	#0055FFJ	None	#071E30
ACZ1 skybox	#000000J	#01820	#A73F3FZ
ACZ2 global (orange)	#EE5000H	#00427	#21224EZ
ACZ2 skybox	#000000A	#01820 or #00124	#2E2E5CZ
ACZ3 outside (orange)	#EE5000P	None	#0000000 (default)
RVZ lava (orange)	#FF7F00Z	None	#FF7F00Z
Alarm floodlight (red)	#FF0000Z	None	#0000000 (default)
Flip-gravity FOF (light blue)	#00AAFF0	None	#00AAFF0
ERZ2 teleporter (yellow)	#999999D	None	#FFFF00Z
ATZ water (blue)	#0070B0K	None	#0000000 (default)
TLZ acid (green)	#00FF00Z	None	#0000000 (default)
Old THZ slime (purple)	#E000E0S	None	#0000000 (default)
FCZ global (cyan)	#3399FFH	None	#000022Z
DFZ water (blue)	#0000FFJ	None	#0000000 (default)
NRZ global (fade to white)	#000000A	None	#FFFFFFZ

Sample

Example file: ex_ld606_colormap.wad (MAP01)

How to use

You may load this file into your favorite map editor, such as Zone Builder. Select MAP01 as the map to load. You may also load this file in the game: Save ex_ld606_colormap.wad into the addons folder of your SRB2 directory. Start SRB2, go to the Addons menu, and then select ex_ld606_colormap.wad. Start the game in Single Player mode. Press the Console button (~), and type in the command MAP MAP01 to access the example map. When you load this file in the game, it replaces Greenflower Zone Act 1.