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Re: Animation Builder & Fake 2D

To: REALbasic Games <realbasic-games at lists dot realsoftware dot com>
Subject: Re: Animation Builder & Fake 2D
From: Lo Saeteurn <realbasic at miensoftware dot com>
Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 19:33:04 -0700
Delivered-to: realbasic-games at lists dot realsoftware dot com
References: <20050726170032 dot E83A7BDD340 at lists dot realsoftware dot com> <469F25FF-6FD1-4EE3-A7DE-6AEAA5646DC1 at mac dot com>
The 3D animation builder only works on shapes rather than on textures so unless you're using mesh based animations, I don't see how it would work with my Animation Builder.

If you are just using image (texture) based animation, it is easy enough to use just the shape property of an object3D to move frame to frame. Basically, you would preload all the animations of an object using AddShapeFromPicture and switch form one frame to the next by changing the shape property.

The 3D animation builder helps with mesh-based animations because it is very memory inefficient to load each and every frame of a 3D animation as a fully textured model running at least 30 FPS. Using my animation builder and classes, it keeps just 1 set of textures, 1 set of triangles, 1 set of keyframes, etc. for an entire model. You could clone it and all it would copy are the vertex positions (using just a few extra kilobytes of RAM per copy), rather than having to rebuild it and using just as much RAM as the original model. Instead of requiring at least 30 frames of the animation per second, all you really need are 5-10 FPS of the animation (built using a professional 3D app). So in total, a full blown high quality animated character would use only 6 MB of RAM (and in file size) and about 30-50 kilobytes of extra RAM per copy which is only slightly more than a non-animating character.


On Jul 26, 2005, at 6:11 PM, Christopher Rydberg wrote:

Hi,

I had a fighting game project started in 2D on a Spritesurface but moved it to 3D recently when I realized I couldn't do a windowed fade technique in the Spritesurface and that it had no masks. I also decided that using the 3D system to create the game would allow me later to just modify my original code for a 3D sequel.

My curiosity is about animating and whether it would be of benefit to use the Animation Builder with my 2D cutout sprites to animate within the game. I originally was going to recreate the functionality of the Spritesurface that I needed within the 3D display but this might save me time in a 3D sequel if I can get it working.

Thoughts? Would this be of benefit or should I stick to my original plan?

Christopher Rydberg
game_hunter at mac dot com

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