How To Make Colored Name in Serious Sam

[Ostap]

Long long time ago ....there was a site - SeriousZone.com
Way before 42 even got on its feet - where people were exchanging knowledge how-to ...
Those were good times...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway - i'll try to explain how name coloring works ...
including some insides

To start with - there are bunch of programs that will do the job for you ...with little effort:

Name Editor - https://42amsterdam.net/samforum/dow...?do=file&id=14
Tag Fader - https://42amsterdam.net/samforum/dow...?do=file&id=52
Nick Gradient - https://42amsterdam.net/samforum/dow...do=file&id=170

Those are nice apps ...all of them offering different functionality from simple name change to even color transition options



Though here I'll try to explain basics of the name formatting:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Formatting implemented by Croteam is rather crude and simple and error prone
but very popular nonetheless

here are the basic rules:
- Formatting tag starts with '^' character (Anything after '^' char within set of chars [abcfior] set - considered as a tag !)
- Formatting consists of 2 types of switches : ON / OFF (in order to control the effect of the tag)
- Switch ON tag may have a parameter attached to define its functionality
- Switch OFF does not - its just a switch off

Croteam defined formatting tags:

Opening tags: (low case)
- a - alpha (transparency)
- b - bold
- c - color
- f - flash
- i - italic
- o - ? - mysterious tag ...no idea what it does

Closing tags: (upper case)
- A - alpha
- B - bold
- C - color
- F - flash
- I - italic
- r - Close ALL tags (low case)

Basically its like in HTML ...- open section & close section - the correct way
but if your next tag will override the previous one - skip the closing tag (for that particular one)..will save you 2 chars
.
Opening tags parameters: (only few require a value - all coded in HEX)
- a[HH] - alpha - (2 char - full byte value - from 0 to 255)
- b - (no value)
- c[HHHHHH] - color - (6 char HEX value of color - defined in form of RRGGBB ...try this site)
- f[H] - flash - (single value - from 0 to 15)
- i - (no value)

Color Coding:
This one is pain in the a.. lower back
Someone at croteam decided to support HTML formatting
if you are interested - dive into it (https://tutorials.freshersnow.com/css/css-colors/)
but preferred value is 6 chars - 'RRGGBB'

Examples:

1 - Lets get the bold out

The quick ^bbrown^B fox jumps over the lazy dog^r

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

2 - Become Italian for a change

the correct way:

The ^c00cc66quick^C ^c663300brown^C ^cFF0000fox^C jumps over the lazy dog^r

optimized way: (every next tag overrides previous one...)

The ^c00cc66quick ^c663300brown ^cFF0000fox^C jumps over the lazy dog^r

The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog

Notes:

Examples above - show only some font changes....
More sophisticated tags like alpha (transparency) ..and flashing - is up to you to try out

But - please keep in mind one simple rule : Close ALL tags at the end !!!
This is a bug in the game - and its very annoying one that some people like to explore
On 42 servers - your name will be automatically corrected
But on other servers not - be polite - terminate your nick with ^r

[red3ninja]

One of my favorite combinations is.

SERIOUS FLASHING
^f0 ^a-f
^a-f ^f0

This is a turbo flashing. Let's call it serious flashing.
I don't know how it works and why it works.
It works both ways.
I think the game led to a mysterious search for options, secrets. It had become something like a religion ritual.