Combat Effects Guide for Crystal Focus X

Prerequisite: Blade & Color Profiles

This guide assumes you already understand how blade profiles and color profiles work. Combat style selection usually lives in the blade profile, while the colors for those effects live in the color profile.

Key takeaway: most combat style keys such as style_clash=, style_lockup=, style_blaster=, style_stab=, and style_drag= are configured in a blade profile. The matching effect colors like fcolor=, lcolor=, bcolor=, tcolor=, and dcolor= come from the active color profile.

1. How Combat Effects Are Triggered

Each combat effect has its own trigger behaviour. Some are automatic and rely on motion sensing, while others are tied to the AUX button.

The AUX button: lockup vs. blaster

The AUX button does two different jobs. A quick tap gives you a blaster deflect. Holding it long enough gives you a lockup.

• Quick press and release gives a blaster effect.
• Hold past the lockup delay starts lockup and keeps it active while held.
• Release during lockup ends the lockup.

The delay before lockup begins is controlled with:

lockup=360

This value is in milliseconds. The default is 360 ms. Setting lockup=0 disables both lockup and blaster behaviour entirely.

More about clash, stab, and drag

Clash is fully automatic. When the saber sees a strong enough impact event, it plays a clash sound and the configured clash visual. You do not trigger this manually.

Stab is also automatic. The firmware distinguishes a stab from a normal swing by detecting movement mostly along the blade's own axis.

Drag is triggered differently from a normal lockup. To start it, press AUX and clash the blade while the saber is pointing downward. If the blade angle falls inside the range set by hdrag=, drag takes priority. Outside that range, the same action can trigger a force clash instead.

2. Clash Effects

A clash is a short visual flash that plays when the blade hits something. It is a quick, one-shot effect that fades over the duration of the clash sound.

Clash style setting

style_clash=N

Set this in your blade profile in font_config.txt.

Default: style_clash=1

Clash color

The clash color comes from your color profile in colors.txt:

fcolor=255,255,255,0

This is the familiar Flash-on-Clash color. The format is R G B W, with each channel ranging from 0 to 255.

Clash flow

clash_flow=N

This acts as a speed limiter. It sets the minimum delay between clash events so the saber does not spam clashes too quickly during rattly contact.

3. Lockup Effects

A lockup simulates two blades pressed together. It is a sustained effect that lasts as long as the AUX button is held beyond the lockup delay.

Lockup style setting

style_lockup=N

Default: style_lockup=1

Lockup color

lcolor=255,100,0,0

This defines the lockup glow color. With the Unicorn style, this color is ignored because the effect uses a cycling rainbow.

Lockup position and size

pos_lockup=40
size_lockup=30

These settings matter for the localized lockup styles.

• pos_lockup is the position in pixels from the emitter.
• size_lockup is the width of the glowing zone in pixels.

So with pos_lockup=50 and size_lockup=20, the center of the effect is 50 pixels from the emitter and the glow spans about 20 pixels with soft falloff.

Lockup mapping

mapping_lockup=N

Default: mapping_lockup=0

With angular mapping enabled, the lockup becomes very interactive. Tilt can slide the contact point toward emitter or tip, and wrist twist can expand or shrink the active zone.

4. Blaster Deflect Effects

Blaster deflects simulate a bolt hitting the blade. Depending on the style, you can get a small impact spot, travelling waves, a flare, or a whole animated sequence.

Blaster style setting

style_blaster=N

Default: style_blaster=2

Blaster color

bcolor=255,255,255,0

This is the color of the bolt impact effect.

Bolt parameters

These settings fine-tune how blaster effects look and behave in the blade profile.

sbolt=5,12
lbolt=15,30
dbolt=0,0
qbolt=30
fbolt=0
rbolt=0

Multi-bolt timings

For advanced setups, you can schedule multiple bolts at precise times during specific blaster sounds.

bolt1=100,400,700
bolt2=150,500

That means blaster sound 1 fires at 100 ms, 400 ms, and 700 ms after the sound starts. Blaster sound 2 fires at 150 ms and 500 ms. If you do not define timings, a single bolt fires almost immediately.

Blaster priority and motion options

blastp=1
blastm=1
blaster_mode=1

5. Stab Effects

The stab effect is triggered by thrusting the blade forward along the blade or hilt axis, optionally with a small shock at the tip. It is not just any forward impact. The effect also checks the blade-angle range defined by hstab= to decide whether the motion should count as a stab.

Since firmware 10.003, stab has its own trigger threshold as the first value in the parameter set, so it can be made easier to trigger than a regular clash. This gives you finer control over how much force is needed before a stab effect starts.

Stab style setting

style_stab=N

Default: style_stab=1

Stab color

tcolor=255,200,100,0

This sets the color for the tip flash or stab spark effect.

Stab trigger angle and threshold

hstab=300,-20,-20

This parameter defines both the stab trigger threshold and the blade-orientation range where stab is allowed to occur.

With hstab=300,-20,-20, the stab effect occurs when the blade is mostly horizontal. If the blade is outside the allowed range and you hit something, the saber will trigger a clash effect instead of a stab, even if the impact is axial.

6. Drag Effects

Drag simulates the tip of the blade scraping along the ground. It only activates when lockup is already active and the blade is held tip-down.

Drag style setting

style_drag=N

Default: style_drag=0, so drag must be enabled explicitly if you want it.

Drag color

dcolor=255,80,0,0

This is usually a hot orange or red color to suggest a searing blade tip.

Drag tip size

dragstrip=N

This sets how many pixels down from the tip are affected by the drag effect. A value of 0 lets the firmware calculate it automatically.

Drag mapping

mapping_drag=N

Default: mapping_drag=0

With Heat or Flare and angular mapping enabled, twisting your wrist makes the drag feel more alive because you can actively push the effect hotter or calmer.

7. Combat Colors

All combat effect colors are defined in the active color profile in colors.txt.

You can use direct numeric values or supported named colors such as white or cyan.

8. Sound Files

Each combat effect also has its own sound file family in the current sound font. The firmware chooses a random numbered variant when multiple options are available.

Tip: when the sustained effect stops, the firmware automatically chooses an endlock or enddrag file depending on whether you were in normal lockup or drag state.

9. Quick Reference

All combat style settings

Lockup parameters

Bolt parameters

Drag parameters

Timing and priority

Combat colors

Example: Setting Up a Full Combat Configuration

Here is a complete example that combines multiple combat effects into one blade profile.

[profile=1]
style_clash=4
style_lockup=3
style_blaster=5
style_stab=2
style_drag=4
pos_lockup=45
size_lockup=25
mapping_lockup=2
mapping_drag=2
dragstrip=15
sbolt=4,10
lbolt=10,25
qbolt=40

And the matching color profile:

[color=1]
fcolor=255,255,255,0
lcolor=255,150,0,0
bcolor=200,200,255,0
tcolor=255,200,100,0
dcolor=255,60,0,0

This setup gives you a localized clash, a noisy lockup with angular control, a wave-and-flare blaster effect, a bright tip stab flash, and a heat-style drag that responds to wrist twist.

Guide based on the provided CombatFX tutorial content and formatted to match the existing CrystalFocus.net guide style.