Various tidbits

[durnurd]

Sprite size defaults to 32x32, even when frameset is not that size.

Copying frames/tiles in the frameset/tileset/sprite editor is confusing.  Once has to click in the tile, then press alt, then drag and then let go of the mouse.  Otherwise, unpredictable behavior occurs; I usually press ALT before clicking.

Could Right-clicking on a tile in the map editor pick up that tile as the current tile?

Is there an existing method for checking what frame of animation a sprite is currently in?  Specifically, to play a sound whenever the sprite's foot hits the floor.  Also, is there an easy way to check what tile category the sprite is standing on, for differentiating between sounds of different floor-types?

ReactToPlatform speaks of a "Sliperiness" variable that doesn't show up when I select it as an action.

When running in debug mode, if playing audio as soon as the game starts, the volume doesn't take effect immediately.

I've come upon a strange error... When I try to generate the project, it comes up with a message saying "Stack Empty", then a .NET error saying it can't find solidity.cs in the project directory.  I've tried resetting the source, I've tried deleting all output files.  In the end, it ends up with only 12 files and the Sprites folder before it quits out on me.  (By the way, why are the sprites separate, but not the maps?)

I've got my solidity set up like this:


Name: StandardSolid

Category            Shape
Solid               SolidTileShape
Uphill              UphillTileShape
Downhill            DownhillTileShape
UphillShallow1      UphillLeftTileShape
UphillShallow2      UphillRightTileShape
DownhillShallow2    DownhillLeftTileShape
DownhillShallow1    DownhillRightTileShape


I had some problems with defining the solidity, such as errors coming up about requirements for unique keys as I was fiddling with the difference between DownhillLeftTileShape and DownhillRightTileShape.  Could that have anything to do with it?  It loads and saves just fine, and the solidity editor opens up just fine.

[Edit] This problem has gone away after closing and opening SGDK2.  However, I would like to add one more thing:

When importing a sprite definition, can there be an option to rename it?  And it would search through all the rules and replace it in there as well.  For example, I imported the standard player and renamed it, but this broke the state changing code, because it was checking if the sprite was in state (int)Sprites.Player.State.Left while it should have been checking something else, of course.  Or maybe an option to automatically search and replace when changing a sprite definition's name?

Also, the sprite in the SHFL game, as well as the one you can import as a template (presumably because they are the same) do not stop animating when moving to the left and are blocked by a wall (but do stop when moving right).  Moving the Animate rule to after ReactToSolid fixes this.

[bluemonkmn]

Sprite size defaults to 32x32, even when frameset is not that size.

That's because framesets (frames) don't have a size.

Copying frames/tiles in the frameset/tileset/sprite editor is confusing.  Once has to click in the tile, then press alt, then drag and then let go of the mouse.  Otherwise, unpredictable behavior occurs; I usually press ALT before clicking.

You mean Ctrl, not Alt, right?  The behavior is the same as Windows Explorer.  If you press Ctrl before you click, it's going to add the item that you click to the selection before copying.  You can press it while you're dragging to specify a copy after you've started.

Could Right-clicking on a tile in the map editor pick up that tile as the current tile?

It could... if you're in tile mode.  I'll try to remember to add that.

Is there an existing method for checking what frame of animation a sprite is currently in?  Specifically, to play a sound whenever the sprite's foot hits the floor.  Also, is there an easy way to check what tile category the sprite is standing on, for differentiating between sounds of different floor-types?

I believe the frame property of the sprite determines the animation frame, but there isn't exactly a function to determine the tile type the sprite is standing on.  IsOnTile will see what tile is *inside* the sprite's boundaries at a particular position.  IsBlocked will determine if a particular direction is blocked by a solid.  One could probably create some function half-way between these two to do what you're talking about though.

ReactToPlatform speaks of a "Sliperiness" variable that doesn't show up when I select it as an action.

Whoops... guess I forgot to remove that from the description when I realized it didn't apply because other inertia functions took care of it.  Fixed.

I've come upon a strange error... When I try to generate the project, it comes up with a message saying "Stack Empty", then a .NET error saying it can't find solidity.cs in the project directory.  I've tried resetting the source, I've tried deleting all output files.  In the end, it ends up with only 12 files and the Sprites folder before it quits out on me.

I'm guessing this has something to do with a screwed-up/extra end if in some rule (though I've never seen this error myself) which caused the code generation to abort before generating the remainder of the files.

  (By the way, why are the sprites separate, but not the maps?)

I think that's because sprites came after maps, and so when there was the possibility of namespace collisions, they're the ones who went into the folder.  Then they won't collide with the names of maps.  It seems more natural to have sprites in a nested namespace and folder than maps because maps are major objects that kind of deserve to be globally visible... more so than sprite definitions.  Idunno.

[Edit] This problem has gone away after closing and opening SGDK2.  However, I would like to add one more thing:

When importing a sprite definition, can there be an option to rename it?  And it would search through all the rules and replace it in there as well.  For example, I imported the standard player and renamed it, but this broke the state changing code, because it was checking if the sprite was in state (int)Sprites.Player.State.Left while it should have been checking something else, of course.  Or maybe an option to automatically search and replace when changing a sprite definition's name?

I think that's one reason why importing a sprite definition doesn't allow you to rename it.  Code that SGDK2 can't parse may be depending on it.  But I suppose there should be some way to import the same definition more than once for different purposes.  Hmmm....

[durnurd]

A few more things:

Why 32 pixels?  I understand, it's natural for this, but maybe automatically set the size based on the first (or largest?) frame the first time frames are added?  You say they don't have sizes, but the graphics they're based on have sizes, and they have transformation matrices that allow you to figure out what size they end up as, no?  It's just that if you're working on, for example, a game with a lot of 64x64 graphics, having it default to 32 can be tiresome to change every time.

Yeah, I mean't CTRL.  I guess in that particular case, I think of the editors more as text editors, where copying text can be done in the manner I've described.

Can there be a way to define a default value for a sprite parameter so that you don't need to set it each time to something other than 0?  And then if you change the default, automatically change all the sprites who's value is equal to the old default to the new default.

Changing the X and Y values of coordinates in a plan does not update the values in the Plan coordinates list until refreshing the list (selecting a different plan and reselecting it).

The "Next Undefined" in Enter New Tile Value dialog doesn't work (doesn't change when it is defined).

Could the custom value default to the selected tile value and if you click on the custom value textbox, automatically select that radio button?

Also, can there be/is there a way to slow down the FPS?