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

[Matthew Woehlke]

Ian Wadham wrote:
> But if you really want to make your mark, library-wise, why not look at
> the SVG animation standard and what is needed to implement it in
> a KDE/Qt/Inkscape environment?  It is ridiculous that artists have to
> hand-draw or clone every animation frame in KDE Games.

Sounds interesting, I'd be concerned about what Qt support would be 
needed though. However I will look into it. (Also not having a usable 
editor does not help! :-) )

> I think you have got off on the wrong foot by taking this rather negative
> line.  And how can said IDs be the "bane of your existence since 4.0"
> when you are not on the list of KDE Games maintainers and you do
> not AFAIK have a KDE Game of your own authorship?

Perhaps I should say, I've made attempts at theming (I have a 
part-finished mahjongg tileset, for instance, a card deck in limbo, and 
obviously I just did a set of Kapman sprites), and every time I work on 
a theme I get frustrated and fed up with assigning id's to everything.

So yes, I will grant that my "existence" in this respect is "limited", 
but in what little there is, id's nevertheless feel like a bane :-).

> If you would like a game where you can have a free hand, as author,
> how about reviving and re-writing KSokoban, from KDE 3 Games?
> It is currently in a "black hole" somewhere in the SVN repository.
> That would be better, IMHO, than stirring things up in Kapman.

...because it doesn't interest me?

> If you really want us to "see the light", as you put it, start by
> being positive, do the work and give us a demonstration of your
> ideas, e.g. in KSokoban.

As I stated in my reply to Mauricio, sokoban doesn't *need* the 
technology I want to work on, animation-wise. Kapman IMO does 
(understand, when I say that, what I mean is that it would be really, 
really nice to have animation beyond the enemies moving around).

Besides, Kapman is where I have by far the biggest head start. I have 
graphics that are not only usable, but "complete" (for what they aim to 
achieve), I've already *done* the code changes once (for wall tiles 
anyway)... and most importantly, it interests me.

> Personally, I find grouping and invisible objects to be a rather elegant
> way of protecting against accidental editing

Locked layers? Adequate, and much less invasive? Less effort to create, 
less effort to undo, no effort to redo?

> and maintaining precise
> alignments of the whole picture and all parts of it within the frame.

I don't think I follow you there.

> In your example SVG the drawings could accidentally "float" and make
> the animation look odd - perhaps not a problem with simple animations
> like the Kapman player, but definitely one if there are physical
> "reasonableness" constraints, such as "feet on the ground".

...only if you're not paying attention, and I don't see how you would 
avoid that with any /less/ effort with invisible bounding objects.

-- 
Matthew
Please do not quote my e-mail address unobfuscated in message bodies.
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