How to break the glass. The definitive answer.

[bend]

Sorry if this is common knowledge. I tried searching but the only answers I could find were the same school yard theories from nearly 30 years ago.

It seems a lot of people have their own strategy for breaking the glass, whether it's using Al Macinnis or letting one rip from the blue line.

The truth is a whole lot simpler than that.

I found an interview with NHL '93 programmer Jim Simmons from Inside EA Sports (Volume 2 Issue 1, 1993). In it they ask what's the secret to breaking the glass.

"I've built a small sweet spot into the glass panel directly behind the right half of the goal - it's only three pixels wide by five pixels tall. That's about the size of the puck. You have to hit that sweet spot right on, extremely hard. Using a player that has a really hard slapshot helps, but luck is usually the strongest determining factor in getting it to shatter."

I look up whatever videos are available of breaking the glass in NHL '93/94 and sure enough, it's always in the same spot. Shot speed is not a factor, but it helps increase your odds of firing a wild puck at the "sweet spot".

The spot is roughly in between the feet of one of the fans. Anytime you hit it, the glass will break regardless.

[smozoma]

Amazing! Thanks!

Found the magazine: https://www.retromags.com/files/file/4608-inside-ea-sports-volume-2-issue-1-1993/

[kingraph]

I don't think it's quite as simple as just hitting the sweet spot, but maybe?  Here's my reasoning:

I forgot why, but for some reason I needed to make a video clip of the glass breaking.  I never really tried to break the glass, but I did know that the glass always broke in the same spot, and always while shooting up.  So I started playing and just taking shots up, and to the extend I could I kept aiming at that same location.  I swear I hit that sweet spot a bunch of times, but it didn't always break.  In fact it took friggin' forever to get the glass breaking animation!  As I thought about it, it really is quite rare that I see a glass break in a game.  Maybe 1/50...75?

I do like that Simmons says it's 3 pixels wide by 5 pixels tall.  It's so specific, and from 1993 when this was fresh in his mind.  GREAT FIND, thanks for sharing. 

[DominikJagr]

Would be awesome to find location of Glass-Spot in the ROM to edit it and make breaking the glass easier and more frequent. 

[illegalsmileIV:XX]

Just out of curiosity, I have spent about two hours trying to hit that sweet-spot... I know for a fact, I hit it a ton of times, I got 2 glass breaking animations. I have probably broke the glass more times, just playing regular games, than I have when actually going for it.

I feel that it's about 30% accuracy and about 70% pure luck.

[bend]

2 hours ago, illegalsmileIV:XX said:

Just out of curiosity, I have spent about two hours trying to hit that sweet-spot... I know for a fact, I hit it a ton of times, I got 2 glass breaking animations. I have probably broke the glass more times, just playing regular games, than I have when actually going for it.

I feel that it's about 30% accuracy and about 70% pure luck.

I just tried it right now on NHLPA '93 (I didn't get a chance to try it on '94). I just used to default teams (Pittsburgh vs Chicago) and 10 minute periods.

I spent a period figuring out my best chances of hitting the "sweet spot." I was having good luck with Lemieux. Right side, before the blue line, right of the faceoff spot.

I reset and started again. Boom. Second period trying and nailed it.

Maybe it was luck. Tried again while restarting after every first period. 5th period, again.

7th period I hit it a third time before calling it quits just now.

[bend]

Just tried it on '94. It took 4 (10 minute) periods to hit it.

[AdamCatalyst]

On 10/8/2020 at 9:53 PM, DominikJagr said:

Would be awesome to find location of Glass-Spot in the ROM to edit it and make breaking the glass easier and more frequent. 

 

Breaking The Glass Hotspot @
Z High / Z Low / Y North / X West / X East

0x14BCE / 0x14BD8 / 0x14BE2 / 0x14BEC / 0x14BF4

Original (29 / 18 / 280 / 13 / 15)

001D / 0012 / 0118 / 000D / 000F

 

Breaking The Glass Velocity Threshold @

0x14BFC

Original (4000 < Worst backhand shot by worst player.)

0FA0

---

FYI, I've been play testing 000E / 0010 on the X-axis, with 16000 as the threshold.

Edited March 12 by AdamCatalyst
fixed typo.

[77]

make it so you can check someone in the same spot

[von Ozbourne]

Damn. I'd been hoping this would be cracked some day.
Annoyingly though, I tried to test this on a ROM where I'd already bumped up the AI aggression. Made the sweet spot the entire area of the broken section, but took four minutes just to get a shot off that wasn't blocked by the goalie, a defenceman, prevented entirely after getting crunched into the boards...

[von Ozbourne]

Just adding this here so all the information is in one place mainly for myself and anyone else interested. After @AdamCatalyst found the code to adjust the glass smashing trigger area I played around with it and noted that it was using the second crowd used colour palette for much of the animation. I wanted to make it share the first palette as used by the main rink so after getting pointed to the section with the goal light animation overlay, I was able to find a small group of numbers that had 2000s in it. Changed those 2's to 0's and it turned out to be it.

Glass Breaking Animation Offset

0x0A3058

Code with Original Crowd Shared Colours:

200D 0002 FFE9 19C9 2008 0000 FFF1 19CC 200D 0000 0001 19D4 2008 0000 FFF1 19D7 200D 0007 0001 19DF 2004 FFFF 0005 19E1 2008 0004 0012 19E4 0004 0000 FFF1 19E6 200D 0008 0006 19EE 2004 0000 000E 19F0 0009 0018 0016 19F6 0000 FFFE 0016 19F7 000C 0000 FFF1 19E6 200D FFFE FFE5 19FB

Edited to Use Rink Colours:

000D 0002 FFE9 19C9 0008 0000 FFF1 19CC 000D 0000 0001 19D4 0008 0000 FFF1 19D7 000D 0007 0001 19DF 0004 FFFF 0005 19E1 0008 0004 0012 19E4 0004 0000 FFF1 19E6 000D 0008 0006 19EE 0004 0000 000E 19F0 0009 0018 0016 19F6 0000 FFFE 0016 19F7 000C 0000 FFF1 19E6 000D FFFE FFE5 19FB