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Question about sprites...

by Brent Hild · in Torque Game Builder · 07/26/2005 (7:04 pm) · 3 replies

I have a rather simplistic question about making 2D art for the Torque2D engine. I think the best way to ask my question is to set up a hypothetical situation.

I have a vehicle. I can move this vehicle in 8 directions (N, S, E, W, NE, SE, SW, NW).

My questions: Is it better to make a series of 8 sprites, each sprite has the vehicle pointing in the appropriate direction OR is it better to make one sprite of the vehicle and then use the rotate function (I can't remember the exact syntax off the top of my head) to show the direction of the vehicle?
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Torque Owner Brent Hild

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    Torque Owner Michael Austin
    #1
    07/26/2005 (7:20 pm)
    It depends on what you want your view to do. If it is a straight top/bottom view, then a single sprite would be fine. If you need your different angles to be rendered differently (such as in a 3/4ths view game) then you will need different sprites.

    for instance: if you have a man, and when he is going down you see his head, and when he is going up you see his back: you want different sprites (think zelda: link to the past).

    if, however, you the direction only changes which way the sprite points, one sprite would be fine. I would imagine this to be the case in some top/down driving/shooting games.

    Hopefully I answered the question well enough, and didn't muddle it up too much :)

    Torque Owner Brent Hild
    #2
    07/26/2005 (7:49 pm)
    That was a perfect explanation. Thanks.

    Torque Owner Johan Stenqvist (neochrome)
    #3
    07/26/2005 (11:33 pm)
    Just one more thought - there might be one more valid reason for having 8 different sprites even if it's a pure top-down view game: Light.
    Suppose you've created a nifty 3d model and render your sprite from that - you might want a lightsource coming in from your right (or east) and if so, only one picture would look a little strange with the light/shadow on your object rotating with the sprite...

    Cheers!
    Johan