This map contains exploding walls. They can only be triggered by explosive weapons (rockets, grenades, bombs). I've added some grenades and a new weapon to assist you in finding the exploding walls. Find the next terminal to proceed... (Remember that in a level with exploding walls, only such explosive weapons can trigger switches. As with the smashing windows, the switch texture is a wall texture. Keep this in mind when you blow out the walls.)

[Editor's Note: In the map you are playing you are expected to find and detonate a portion of a wall to reach the next terminal - gls 121/14/2000]

The similarities between this effect and the smashing windows effect are:

1. The switches texture needs to be modified;
2. Only weapons can trigger it;
3. A special alien is required to perfect the effect; and
4. A kill platform is used to cause the death of the alien, which creates the effect.

The main difference is the required use of tags. This is because the kill platform isn't adjacent to the platform that moves out of the way to reveal the opening.

Oh, there's no need for a transparent wall texture, either, though one can surely be devised to add more detail to the effect.

Let's start with the alien, as it is very easy to create. Any alien can be used for this, provided you modify its Physics as such:

• Flags = Cannot Skip; Nuclear Hard Death
• Must be killed by one platform "crunch".

That's it. Well, you'll also want to make sure that it's height falls within the floor and ceiling heights of the kill platform, but otherwise, none of the other Physics integers really matter.

Here's the switches texture I used. It's the same switches texture as the smashing windows effect, but you can pretty much alter which texture set uses which effect as required. For my scenario, I use two identical texture sets of about 60 textures. One set's switch texture is divided into switches and one style of smashing windows.
The second set is divided into a different style of window and a wall texture.

It's probably a good idea to use a wall texture that is used elsewhere in the set to hide it better in your map, if you want the exploding wall to be somewhat concealed... It also helps to use a texture that is constrained within itself (that is to say, the texture's pattern doesn't wrap around or overlap, such as some rocky textures). This simply makes it easier to place the switches texture on a wall without having a visible edge.

There was a problem I ran into while creating this effect; the edge of the texture was very visible, despite attempts to narrow the opening. I had initially run into this problem when using a switch texture that had a dark exploding wall texture and a light other half (I think I was using regular switches on that particular texture). On the switches texture in this effect, both sides of the texture are very similar, which helps eliminate the problem.

If you want to use highly contrasting textures on your split switches texture, here's how to fix the problem:

1. Place the exploding wall in a recess to hide the texture's edges; and
2. Apply some shading to help conceal the edges.

Also, the odd smearing (as mentioned in previous effects) will occur with this effect. As with the others, it seems to happen if there are too many exploding walls in close proximity, and if they are facing each other. You can't make two exploding walls touching side-by-side.

One last pointer: You probably noticed the "exploded" look of the wooden beams once the wall had been destroyed in this map. This effectively means that the wall can only be destroyed from one side, unless, of course, you add another exploding wall on the other side of the destroyed area, concealing the destruction within the two, and using the same tag for each wall.

Hmm, let's go see some examples of this way... Blast the pillars in the next rooms. [Editor's Note: In the map you are teleported to some more exploding walls for you to destroy - gls 12/14/2000]

I tried to get a bit creative with the pillars to give a better idea of how this effect can be applied. The more complex that you make the exploded areas, the quirkier the problems can be. You've been warned.

Remember that the platforms which elevate once the explosion is triggered must not come into contact with each other. This limits what you can do in your map substantially. Notice the negative spaces I had to leave in the pillars...

In this example, as mentioned, an alien with a nuclear hard death gets crushed by a platform with the same tag in a far corner of the map. Basically any alien that can be killed by a platform with one blow could be used here.

If you want to get really hardcore, you could certainly make an alien like the smashing glass alien with a death sequence that ressembles splintering wood (or splintering whatever texture type you decide to use...), and set up the map similarly to the way the smashing windows are created. This would negate the need for the alien to have a nuclear hard death.