I must be missing something. Aren't sprite definitions made up of framesets? And aren't framesets in turn made up of tilemaps? And isn't it true that each element of a tilemap is able to have its own alpha values? As such, shouldn't it be possible for every frame of a sprite's animation to have its own, unique alpha mask? And can't collision be tested based on the sprite's alpha value?
So if you are using exact collision detection based on the sprite's alpha values, don't you just need to make sure that each frame has its own unique alpha value? Or am I just crazy with this assumption? I've been importing a crap-ton of sprites into the trial project that I'm playing around with, and every single frame has its own unique alpha values.
Also, I've been thinking that double-checking for collision detection would probably be the most efficient method for exact collision testing. For the more experienced users here, tell me if I'm wrong. If you were to use an "If" statement to test for basic rectangular hit detection, you would get the most efficient collision detection in terms of speed, yes? And if you put a call to alpha collision detection within that "If" statement, that collision check would only be performed if the rectangular check had evaluated to true, correct? Ideally, using this method for any instances of exact alpha collision detection would result in better performance, since the alpha collision check would only be performed if the faster rectangular checking had already proven true. Just tell me if I'm off base there, because I'm going to be getting more in-depth on collision testing in my trial project soon.
