I'm just starting game development and I thought a game like Tank wars or Worms would be nice. The hardest part I can think of so far is making the terrain destructible and I want to know how it's done before doing the easy parts.
I thought that explosion could have a mask texture which could be scaled for different weapons. Then using that mask I should make underlying terrain transparent (and optionally draw a dark border).
(source: mikakolari.fi)
How do I achieve that? Do I have to change the alpha value pixel by pixel or can I use some kind of masking technique? Drawing a blue circle on top of the terrain isn't an option.
I have versions 3.1 and 4.0 of XNA.