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[Arathel]

Hello

So I am working on my first Adventure and of course, WME came right into my mind when I thought about what Engine out there I should use.
But before I go deep into the development process with WME just to find out some of my ideas cannot be realized at the moment, I thought I should ask here first.

1- Parallax Scrolling is possible. Now, if used together with the Sprite Resize Feature, is it possible to have the background not only scrolling but  actually getting bigger and bigger as character is moving farther away from the camera into the background? A character who is getting smaller the more he moves away from the camera into the backtground?
This may sound weird at first, since it'd look very unreal to have the background become even larger as the character as he is moving farther away, a character sprite that decreases in size the nearer he comes to the background, but I still would like to use an effect of that sort for my project.

2.- I read that with WME it's possible intregrate videos into our projects, but I'd like to know if it's possible to simluate a video by working with various animated backgrounds/spots, transparent layers, sound effect scripts, and the other features WME has to offer. Would that be to difficult to script or is it an option to producing a full video sequences?

3.- I read its no problem to switch between "3rd person" and "1st person" perspective in WME. So I take it should be no problem with WME script Engine to have certain scenes to be played in 1st person, while for others the 3rd person perspective would be utilized? Also, I wonder if panning is allowed in a "1st person" view (for large backgrounds).

4.- Parallax layers can be animated by scripting just like the most foreground/background layer, I take it? So there should be no problem to have animated bushes or whatever in every layer, the proper PNG animation picture sequence provided?

Thank you for your time.

[Spellbreaker]

Hey there. First, yes you can "switch" between 3rd person and 1st person. No problem to combine. About your animation stuff: Of course, you can create sprites for everything, but I guess it's more performant to use video files for it, but that is just a guess. You can use the Sprite-editor to create Sprites like bushes etc. for that purpose, or you can simply create a small Theora video, which is not hard.

[Arathel]

So, theora videos can be used as layers as well? I see. I will look into it.

About my first question, let me rephrase it.
Instead of (just) scrolling I want the background layers to change their size based on how near the character gets to them. Just like the characters becomes smaller and smaller, I want the background layers to increase in size.

[odnorf]

You can scale entities and you can track character's position so it's possible to script such behavior.

And yes, videos can be used everywhere, not just full screen.

[Arathel]

That sounds great. Thanks for your time.

After reading this thread: http://forum.dead-code.org/index.php?topic=3379.0 , I have some more questions regarding my video ideas. Judging from this thread, transparency is possible thus the theora video is suited to be used as one of the parallax layers. I checked http://res.dead-code.org but I didn't find an answer to my questions:

Lets say I have a full layer of animated bushes:

What would work at all - Figure 1 or Figure 2?
Is it even possible to have a transparent video?

Oh and Theora requires the res to a mulitply of 16. So I take it 512x128 or 1024x256 would work (line of bushes) and not just squares like 256x256 (1 bush)?

[odnorf]

I'm not sure I understand the first part of the post so I'll make no attempt to answer it.

As for the others...

Is it even possible to have a transparent video?

Yes, as you can see in wme docs, PlayTheora() method accepts an alphaimage. That is a simple rgp image with a 8bit alpha channel which wme will use to mask the video.

Oh and Theora requires the res to a mulitply of 16. So I take it 512x128 or 1024x256 would work (line of bushes) and not just squares like 256x256 (1 bush)?

It doesn't have to be square to work. 512x128 & 1024x256 are still multiply of 16 so they'll work just fine.

[Arathel]

The first question is the same as the second question but rephrased. So it is indeed possible to have several lines of bushes and trees as animated theora video parallax layers, while preserving/adding their transparency via a png with alpha channel.

I used a picture for better understanding, but I guess it was more confusing than my rephrased question

Thanks for your help

[odnorf]

Just to be sure, the alpha channel is static for every video and can't change realtime.

[Arathel]

I will add some effects to the main character sprite. Is it possible to have the character look like that he constantly in motion by using the actor idle sprite set?
think of it as an overlay effect I will add to most of my backgrounds and the character. I want to keep the possibility of idle animations, but I also want to have that aforementioned constant effect being displayed on the character.

Since this is hard to explain, I made a animated crappy GIF:

http://img3.imagebanana.com/img/77iokmid/1.gif

The lines will be displayed constantly on the character, but he still has normal idle animations.

[Jerrot]

Should be easy. You could create a separate entity which only displays your line effect.
Attach a script to that entity, which simply positions the entity to the current position of your actor in an infinite loop.

Well, that's it already. The actor and its animations are not affected by this method and the effect will just move together with the actor.

[Jyujinkai]

You could create a separate entity which only displays your line effect.
Attach a script to that entity, which simply positions the entity to the current position of your actor in an infinite loop.

I use this exact method for over laying stuff on the actor in my game in some situations.

Also remember that you are not limited to the default "animation sets" that you see in the demo actors. You can make as many animation sets as you like in the actor3d or actor file. Anyways, these other animations can be triggered and set up anyway you like. So you can have 5 idle animations, that is chosen randomly when you stop doing anything on screen, also you can have any other animation set loop and act just like the default idle.. eg - a dance animation.

[Mnemonic]

Also see actor.AddAttachment() method.