TimeLineFX. Module, or Sprite Sheets?
BlitzMax Forums/BlitzMax Programming/TimeLineFX. Module, or Sprite Sheets?
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| I've been using TimeLineFX for about a month now, and really finding it an invaluable tool for graphics design. However I have a question about how to use it best for my games. Currently I'm just using it to generate spritesheets for my game, mainly the background images. However, I'm finding with all the frames they need to make them look how I want, the sprites soak up a lot of memory (Or too much for my liking anyways.). So, what I'm asking is would it be more efficient to use the Timeline Blitzmax Module, or to just continue using spritesheets? Thanks, W E R D N A |
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| Depends on the complexity of the effect and how many you're likely to have on screen at any one time. The best thing to do is try it. Do all of them programmatically, and then if you hit framerate issues, profile and change the most computationally expensive one to a sprite sheet. Rinse/Repeat. |
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| Depends on the complexity of the effect and how many you're likely to have on screen at any one time. what I'm mainly getting at, is which is faster? I'd like to know if doing them programmatically is faster, before going to the trouble of doing so. Is doing a large complex effect programatically, faster than doing a large spritesheet? If the answer to that questions is no, then I won't bother doing any of them programatically. Cheers! |
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| Sritesheets are the fastest, but consume more video memory. Programmatically is slower, but consumes little video memory. |
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| That answers my question Czar. Thanks a bundle :) That's kind of how I figured it would be, but I wanted to make sure. |
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| A spritesheet basically pre-calculates the effect and stores the results for immediate look-up. It can be handy for explosions that are always pretty samey. For an effect such as a missile that leaves behind a trail, a programmatical effect is probably best. |
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| The other option is to create effects that use animated particles. That can help create more complex effects using less particles and you can reuse those animated particles across different effects. There's quite a few animated particles in a lot of the libraries you can download on the TimelineFX web site. |
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| Already downloaded em Pete. Major thanks for Timeline, it's such an awesome program :) I think I'll play around with some of these ideas, and see what works best for me. Thanks everyone! |
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