lucid's Forum Posts

  • i like how the whats next for html5 site just freezes my browser

  • thanks everyone. GenkiGenga, stability won't be a problem. The plugin isn't doing anything unusual that might cause stability problems. However, in the event that bugs are found, they will take priority. There is a long roadmap of future features planned for Spriter, so development won't stop anytime soon. We will be outlining some of those future plans after release, btw.

    — Yes it still counts. Every current owner of Spriter and any new purchasers until Spriter's impending release will get the C2 plugin for free.

  • Sorry vidi, I thought I had responded to your last post already. but Yung is exactly right. Look at that pic again:

    <img src="http://atomicrobotdesign.com/blog_media/sprite_movement/images/gb_walk.png" border="0" />

    now this isn't completely scientific, but on disk that image takes up 168k. The next image is a rough example of the size of a cut up version of the character. If you made the images specifically for spriter, they would be in separate files, so you wouldn't even need to have that waster in between space.

    <img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/Spriter%20Releases/spritered.png" border="0" />this image takes up 12k. I'm not sure how directly the disk space translates to VRAM space, but it should be a similar ratio.

    There is some white space in the large version, but if you were to fill it with images, you'd have 18 frames worth of space. This means a sprite would use about 14 times as much vram, just to have 18 frames of animation, for this particular character. Want 36 frames, then the regular sprite would use about 28 times the space as the spriter version. The spriter version would still take up 12k of VRAM, even if you had a total of 1,000 frames. This will help not only VRAM usage, but eventually download size as well.

  • But its fact that is 2D, in GM you can make a lot 3D games If you have knowledge and for me the structure of the program (windows, boxes) I like more GM. But I like also CC because really its very easy to use and its simple.neither is a 3d game maker, but CC has limited 3d of it's own as well

    http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/mega-thumb-dream-match/screenshots/3161/

    also, C2 seems like it's about to get an exe wrapper. I used gamemaker a long time ago. imo, cc and c2 are both much better at what they do. for the amount of scripting required in game maker, you may as well just learn action script and use flash

  • Also Spriter, is a outside program and export png sequences of frames.

    But the question is ould using bone movement in an outside program and exporting it into .png images be too much? vs. construct classic bone movement ?

    I'm not completely clear on what you're asking, but I will try to provide a general answer in those areas. There will be a plugin for Construct Classic, and eventually C2, that will animate the character for you in real time so you don't need to use export to PNG unless it's for a platform that doesn't have a Spriter plugin yet.

       Like Bone Movement for Construct Classic, running it through the plugin instead of using exported PNGs would require much less VRAM. Spriter will cap off the VRAM usage with whatever the total size of all your images are, no matter how many frames of animation you have(with tweening you have effectively unlimited tween frames). Using the plugin, the vram usage won't increase with any amount of additional frames and animations.

       With export to png, or any traditional frame by frame solution, you could potentially fit an entire Spriter character's VRAM usage in the same space that a frame or two of normal images take. With each additional frame, you're using that same amount again. There's a huge tradeoff you have to make in either image size or animation smoothness - one of Spriter's goals is to alleviate this problem.

    Did any of that answer your question?

  • Thank you very much. It's up to you, and either way, we appreciate the enthusiasm, and the purchase.

       Also, if you have some additional questions, I encourage you to ask them now. This feedback will be helpful as we approach completion by providing ideas for last minute tweaks and additions.

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  • <font color="red">Update 3/23/12:</font>

    At long last, Spriter Beta Free Version Release to Scirra and Brashmonkey Board members this coming week! The price will be increase to a $25 beta version price at that time, so now is the last time to grab it at the current price (once all pro features are fully implemented, and it's been battled tested as stable, the final price will be announced and take effect). We wanted to give you one last warning of the price change, but if you can afford to wait, we'd prefer you to wait until next week's release as we will be starting a Kickstarter.com funding campaign on the same day as well, and a pledge of $25 or more will get you your pro version of Spriter, and help us reach are funding goal. Kickstarter is all or nothing crowdfunding. If we don't reach our pledge goal we get no funding, so we'll be needing all your help not only in the form of pledges, but also in spreading the word to any developers, animators, and even gamers who want to see more great looking 2d games coming out, especially if you're an active or well known member of a community or forum that specializes in one of these areas. Spriter won't just be a Construct and Construct 2 tool. The idea will be to get Spriter supported on every major gaming platform and engine. We will be doing some of this ourselves, and third party developing of extensions for other game engines has already begun as well.

    We will be announcing Spriter's full feature set, as well as our potential future feature set if we get enough funding to take Spriter beyond it's current scope. A few of you might be pleasantly surprised and/or amazed at what's in the cards for Spriter. We've worked very hard over the past 6 months to make Spriter as awesome as possible, but there's still a bit to do to get it from beta to 1.0, from polishing the pro features, to fixing the bugs that will inevitably rear their ugly heads once hundreds or thousands of users get ahold of something. This process will be much quicker with a fully funded Spriter. Spriter's come very far from it's humble beginnings in November. I left my fulltime job to work on Spriter. I've been funding this development time out of pocket, and sacrificed 4 years off the end of my life with caffeine, because I believe in this project, and I think it's something developers have wanted for a long time, and not just us Scirrans. This is a labor of love, and I'd like to continue to respond to every "could you make it so when you press this it does that" with an immediate "YES!!" and for that we're going to need your help.

    So get your trigger fingers ready to click on every like, favorite, and share button we can throw at you. We're putting the finishing touches on our Kickstarter video, and preparing the Kickstarter site with as much information as possible. Once again, the full Spriter feature set is supremely wonderous, but the feature set for what we can do if we go beyond our funding goal will blow your minds. Thank you everyone for your patience and support, and to those who have already purchased Spriter, worry not. Everything that has been promised will be delivered. The funding is to help get everything to you as quickly as possible, as well as everything you'll learn about next week. Thanks again everyone!

    <font size="1">3/16/12:vid at the bottom of this post</font>

    Update 3/11/12:

        The beta for the free version is now complete, and in the hands of a small group of testers, so we can iron out any last minute bugs for the latest features, and address any last minute usability concerns that may arise. Over the coming week(s) we'll be updating our website, and getting together basic tutorials and videos to get you started, and then at last it will be released to the general public. Once again, a reminder the price will be increased upon this upcoming release. Now will be the last time to get Spriter at the super-low preorder price.

       The development of the actual c2 plugin hasn't yet begun, and tweening is not fully supported by the editor as of yet, however preliminary testing with a proof of concept version of the C2 plugin seems to indicate that WebGL as handled by C2 is more than capable of handling many characters on screen with tweening enabled, animating smoothly in the browser! This also means of course this will work with exe wrapped games as well, as those features become available.   

       I will have a demo of this in-browser tweening as soon as possible, but suffice it to say - the smoothness and speed of the animation especially given the size of the sprites used, was very exciting.

       The HTML5 canvas version of the display will most likely not be fast enough for tweening, but should be fine for frame by frame animations. You will be able to use the same animation file for both the tweened and non-tweened versions, and easily toggle tweening on and off versions in Spriter when tweening is fully integrated.

       

       Stay tuned and bear with me a little longer, expect a flood of information, screenshots, and vids soon as we are gearing up for release.

    Update 3/2/12:    

       The alpha of Spriter is now closed. Current users may continue using their current version, but we no longer require bug reports. The interface has been completely redesigned.

       For those new to Spriter - It will be a tool for creating multisprite animations. It allows you to rapidly assemble characters from many images, and then either export them to .png sequences of frames, or better yet, load them into a Spriter plugin. Plugins load and manage the display of the images you used to create your character. This allows you to have very large, very smoothly moving characters, because you are reusing a set of small images, instead of a having one separate large image for each frame choking up your VRAM. Spriter has a wide feature set that will be outlined upon release.

       The new version is a vast improvement on the alpha version from the last public video, and in the hands of testers.   Expect more news soon. We are putting the finishing touches on the beta, and most likely the release candidate, of the editor and the Construct Classic plugin.

       While non-classic users will still be able to export to png, and still take advantage of Spriter's superstreamlined interface - after initial release, top priority will be the development of the Construct 2 Plugin. Plugins for other engines are being pursued, Torque_2d being the most complete at this time, but there will be more news on that when those plugins approach completion.

    <font size="2">here's a screenshot of the latest iteration</font>

    <img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/Spriter%20Releases/screen.png" border="0">

    <font size="1">(right click - view image for full view)</font>

    Even though the alpha is closed, you can still preorder Spriter at it's $5.99 price tag. The release price will be announced the day of release. The site can be used to preorder, but has yet to be updated with content from the next version. Preorders include the price of the C2 Plugin. When the plugin is complete it will be a small separate price, as will other exporters, this way you pay only for the exporters you need. The Construct Classic plugin will always be free. Also, there will be always be a free version of Spriter with a useful feature set. The updated differences in the Free and Pro version will be announced upon release.

       Finally, again if you're new to Spriter, everything about the interface has been completely redesigned as you can see from the screenshot above, but

    Subscribe to Construct videos now

    will give you a basic idea of the workflow.

    we're very very close to release now. just wanted to release this little teaser vid before the big day comes:

    having some fun with spriter:

    runs much smoother when I'm not screenrecording:

    watch in Original or 1080p please if your PC and Bandwidth can handle it:

  • thanks arima

    Arima is correct. I am working on a program called spriter. I'll relink the thread, as I've just updated it to explain the basics of the software, and give the latest information. Expect much more information about what it can do and how it works upon release:

    here's a link to the latest info thread

    <img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/Spriter%20Releases/screen.png" border="0">

  • a closed test with a few users resulted in some more ui improvements. Expect the next release this weekend:

    <img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/Spriter%20Releases/screen.png" border="0" />

  • right click - view image - to view full image

    <img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/spriterspam/bookabeeekie.png" border="0" />

    Spriter version R1b release imminent.

    [edit]possibly in a future version yung. for now the converter is separate.

  • right click - view image - to view full image

    <img src="http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013446/spriterspam/bookabeeekie.png" border="0" />

    Spriter R1b release imminent

  • put the enemy in a family

    we'll call the enemy sprite Badguy, and the family Blue, and your nearbyness radius we'll call Radius:

    Badguy-sees Player

    ---Blue-Pick by comparison-distance(Blue.x,Blue.y,Badguy.x,Badguy.y) less than Radius

    ------Blue chases Player too

  • was pretty awesome, and so true

    also, see you asked if anyone knew of it's origins in your youtube description. googled it -> the author comments here give information about it's creation and it's creators

  • It basically comes down to whether you want html5(c2), or exe (classic).

    c2 is also more stable, while cc you have to save more often in case of a crash, and occasionally you'll find a bug that you have to work around. Don't get me wrong though, its just quirky, not completely broken, and the games it makes are stable and run superfast, and with that extra speed comes the ability to make much more graphically complex games. Add to that pixel shaders and sprite distortion, and cc has the ability to do the gfx from any 2d aaa title given the right artist

    Also, as far as documentation, most of what you learn in c2 can be used in cc. The logic is the same, and after learning one, you don't have to really learn the other. There are small differences, like in c2 solid is a behavior, cc still has behaviors, but for things like solid, that don't involve movement, its a property.

    c2 for the streamlined editor/ide, and the multiplatform webbased html5, or cc for the quirkier construct editor, with more plugins, and a windows only, but more powerful runtime.

  • wow, that's awesome, people are gonna love this