DizzyAGE General Coding Queries

[delta]

I can't remember exactly how it's set, but the G_WATERX and Y code, in the games that use it (try IID) is set constantly whenever Dizzy is not in water. Therefore if he enters water, the last point it's set as is the point directly before he went in the water, and you can therefore re-spawn him back there as a fairly safe non-water point.

[Grandad]

Thanks Jamie, after much faffing around, the problem was in the Player.gs file in the PlayerUpdateWaterPlay function where there's a bit at the end where you can 'set the cause of death if needed' and the default is is set to zero. So changed it to '5' and the respawn worked fine.

Now a happy bunny!

[delta]

oh yeah I forgot about that.

[Noggin the Nog]

Hi,

Could anyone tell me how to use the SampleStop() command? I can't get it to work.


[EDIT] Don't worry - problem solved. Instead of finding the voiceidx, just had to go through all 16 voices as follows:

if(SamplePlaying(0)==id)
SampleStop(0);
if(SamplePlaying(1)==id)
etc.

[Grandad]

Is there a limit to the size of tiles that can be used in DizzyAge?

I've just spent ages drawing a dance routine for a Paris nightclub which I wanted to use as a static tile so that any conversation with the patrons wouldn't stop the routine. It ended up with 66 frames (each about 93px by 84px), which gave a tile size of just over 2 meg, but when adding it to the tile list and reloading the tiles it won't register.

[delta]

sorry but that's far too big. Older computers will only register up to a certain size (pixel-wise). The fire and water animated tiles in CoTM were originally much larger, but I had to cut frames out to make them smaller so that they'd show up on older computers.

The fire tile is 810 pixels wide, and the water one is 920. Quiggie had the problem of not seeing those tiles in the game when she played it, so I simply made them smaller and smaller until she could see them!

On a related note, 2MB?!?! My water tile is only 129kb! :P

[Grandad]

My 'dance' tile is 6138 pixels wide in total (66 frames by 93 pixels wide) hence the 2015 kb size. It included arm and leg movements, body turns and moving across the stage (and some facial changes). Oh well c'est la vie de la biscuit.

I had thought about smaller tiles and using an update room function to increase an object's status each cycle and when it reached a certain figure to switch tiles and start again with a different object, but have found in the past that unless the specific status to switch was identical for each object in the function it tended to act silly.

But I suppose it might work if I can cut the tile into identically sized smaller tiles, say 11 frames each ...that and make sure I set them on the map at the correct x axes.

[entropy]

Or you could do this:

- cut the tile into 11 tiles, each with 6 frames.
- set the animate status to play (so it doesn't loop).
- use the update_room function to check the frame number.
- if the frame number is 5 (because there is a frame 0), change the object tile to the next one, and the frame back to 0.
- at the end of frame 5 of tile 11, switch back to tile 1 (frame 0).

Basically this is the same as your idea, but cuts out using statuses, and gets the info direct from the frame number.

Bear in mind when switching tiles that the game will wait for a set delay before changing frame. if you do the above, there is a good chance that when you get to frame 5 the game will change the tile *immediately* without leaving the same time delay.

[Grandad]

Cheers Entropy, nice idea but because 'cycles' are still involved having a conversation with someone else does cause a 'pause' whilst the conversation is being displayed. But, took the basis of your comments and tried using one invisible object as the check and set the brush tiles to anim = 0 and draw = 0. That way I could make a function that added '1' to the status then added a whole series of 'if status = x, do something and return' checks to draw and switch the frame number of the brush tile being displayed and switch the tiles too. Works nicely, but also has the advantage of being able to move the frames back and forth if you want to extend a particular sequence. Also, it means that the 'speed' of certain parts of the animation in a tile can be changed by increasing or decreasing the number of status updates between the frame switches. I shall have fun playing with this.

[Noggin the Nog]

Is there a limit to the size of tiles that can be used in DizzyAge?

I've just spent ages drawing a dance routine for a Paris nightclub which I wanted to use as a static tile so that any conversation with the patrons wouldn't stop the routine. It ended up with 66 frames (each about 93px by 84px), which gave a tile size of just over 2 meg, but when adding it to the tile list and reloading the tiles it won't register.

My game might have this problem. I've got one tile that's 1.4MB, another that's 1.2MB and a couple more over 500kB. Had no problems myself, but my computer's only a couple of years old. Are other people likely to have problems with these? The big tiles are all flashy effects which could easily be changed.