[Kde-games-devel] Kapman sprite system (also, connecting-tiles systems)

[Matthew Woehlke]

Eugene Trounev wrote:
> I agree with Mauricio here. As an artist I love the ID system, as it makes my 
> life so much easier.

133 invisible bounding rects, groups, and id's is easier than 26 id's 
and NO groups or invisible bounding rects? Sorry, I just don't follow.

Ok, in fairness you'd only need 36 invisible bounding rects, but you DO 
need 133 groups and id's to match the example I posted. And don't give 
me the "but you don't need to worry about pixel-perfection" argument, 
because it's wrong; if you omit the bounding rects and skimp on pixel 
perfection, then your animation is off with either system. My way gives 
you the same precision with - at worst - the same amount of effort, 
without having to type 133 id's. And that's for only four frames of 
animation on the ghosts and /one/ on the items (except the energizer, 
which has two).

My system also means I can delete all the sprites and redo them from 
scratch without having to touch the id's at all (unless I change the 
number of frames, animation hints, etc.)... which also makes it a lot 
easier to create new themes.

In fact, I'd bet someone with no idea what they are doing (i.e. that 
hasn't encountered our id system before) could open an existing theme 
and create a totally new one with exactly one piece of hand-holding: 
"don't delete the big solid-colored rectangles, they're important". Can 
you say the same for the current system?

> Also I really would like us to keep all the artwork in 1 
> file per theme.

I honestly don't get why this is so important. KPat is a mess because it 
doesn't have a consistent theme (as far as backs, I've argued that's a 
good thing, and for backgrounds also, but decoupling the placeholder 
elements is probably not such a good thing). Being in separate files 
isn't the problem, it's that they have no relation to each other.

I don't see what's so bad about one folder with multiple svg's. That 
said, except for hashed mazes, I don't think there is anything stopping 
you from lumping everything into one svg with the system I described in 
README; since everything has a unique ID for orientation, there is no 
reason I can think of why you couldn't put everything in one huge file. 
(And, actually, this just gives theme authors the choice.)

For hashed mazes, you're talking what might be a /very/ complicated 
graphic, possibly several times over. I'm not sure I want that in the 
same file as the sprites. At the least, it makes editing the theme a pain.

Note that I'm NOT talking about mix-and-match of the elements; Kapman 
will have one theme choice that will theme everything.

-- 
Matthew
Please do not quote my e-mail address unobfuscated in message bodies.
-- 
"Who wants to sing?" -- Orcs (Warcraft II)