For as far as the Cosmo remembers, a ship part damage model is made of 3 sets of png files (full health, damaged, severely damaged).
Example of current damage model of a 2x2 floor tile:
A reasonably well-made ship part would have floor, wall, roof and even roof windows graphic with respective damaged versions in png format.
Would it be more efficient (CPU & RAM) for the game to emulate damage via preset burn marks and holes?
- Reduce preloaded png to at least half of current numbers
- Possibly optimize damage model, per zoom level
- Open door for aging/rust media effects in future release
- Modding: Less "crappy" damaged png to prepare