png vs scml

[yamada0000]

Can you please tell me what is the difference between importing animations as a bunch of png an scml files in spriter, and are there some disadvantages with either of those two?

[Mike at BrashMonkey]

Using actual scml files in a game engine means silky smooth tweened animations instead of non-tweened animations, it means using a handful of images instead of a huge amount, saving a huge amount o file space, texture space etc.. It also means you can use collision boxes, variables, sound effect triggering, etc, all edited right in Spriter for your game. That and the ability to swap out images on the fly to allow for characters to get new outfits, weapons, armor, etc etc in an extremely efficient manner.

Have you watched the Spriter videos on youtube, or read about Spriter from our web-site?

cheers,

Mike at BrashMonkey

[yamada0000]

Yes, i have read everything about spriter and watched all the videos and I also have a pro version.

The reason I asked this question is because, as a traditional artist and a designer I have good knowledge of anatomy and want to implement at least part of it in my own game. Good visuals are pretty important here because of very particular way I want this game to look.

So, if I want it to happen this way, I would need to draw every frame in the animation (which is not a problem because there need to be 12 at most). Otherwise i would need to draw every part of the body from few angles (right?) which is going to create a huge pile of images. Btw, I am using Construct 2 and the game is sidescroling platformer with a very fast type of combat.

Can you tell me something I don't know, is there any better solution that I don't have a clue about? O_o'

[Mike at BrashMonkey]

If you need limbs and bodies in diferent angles of perspective (foreshortening), then yes, you need to draw at least those specific parts for each angle you need.

The nice thing about Spriter is you can animate with body parts or full frame images, not only for each animation, but even at diferent parts of the same animation.

It's very possible some of your animations, like walk or standing idle, could be accomplished to very high visual quality using the bone method and just a single image for each body part..and you're free to do so... but other animatrions would be better represented by creating each frame as a full image. You can do both.

To assure the style of animation looks the same between all animations, you can set all key frames to not tween.

In a future release of Spriter Pro, there will be an option to do such things automatically, but we can't promise how soon.

cheers,

Mike at BrashMonkey

[yamada0000]

Thanks for the help! :)

[MelVin]

on the same topic sort of. Ive been wondering for a while, could to many spriter objects effect performance on tablets and phones. I guess my question is, how many spriter objects can be on screen at the same time without a negative impact, or at what point would it be smart to start supplementing png images for some of the lesser animated items like pickups?

[Mike at BrashMonkey]

Hi MelVin,

This is a tricky question that depends very much on specific situations...If the Spriter object is replacing very large full frame images that are eating up all the draw calls of the device, then you'll likely gain performance by using the Spriter object, but, if you're replacing a bunch of tiny effects that appear in high numbers all over the screen (rotating coins, explosions etc) then those specific items are most likely best kept as full frame regular C2 sprites.

This is especially true if you are using the more sophisticated speed curves in your Spriter animations.

Long story short, the best thing to do is perform benchmark tests at the start of your project and regularly to make sure you're not killing performance with too many of either type of object (really big full frame sprites, or complitacted spriter files with lots of speed curves etc.)

That said, we do have some speicific optimization features in mind for the future which should definately give you more and better options for optimizing each animated aspect of your game. We can't say more until we get that further developed.

cheers,

Mike at BrashMonkey

[MelVin]

Thanks for the info Mike. Really I'm only using it for the main character and the enemies, the pickups and all the rest are png's. Max count for spriter objects should be about 20 on screen at any time( and that is a very high estimate), each averaging about 8 pieces without any speed curves. Does this sound achievable for low end tablets?

Cheers