DeleD Community Edition

Mike · Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 7

Hi,
I wonder if you guys can help me with this. I want to place sprites and billboards in my map and then load them in my game with the dmf file (I use Irrlicht for rendering). How can I achieve this? I'm writing in the plugins section because I suppose this is what I will have to write.

Jeroen · Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2006 10:33 pm Post subject:

Hi there mike, and welcome!

Quick answer: maybe using simple rectangles and their Tag property might help for sprites? Just a thought. Smile

Mike · Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 7

Thanks, that sounds reasonable.
So after that I need to load the file, check which are sprites (using for example a name prefix) and add them myself?

Jeroen · Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 5:36 pm Post subject:

Using the name of the object is another way to distinguish objects from eachother but it is less flexible than using the Tag property. In other words, I would not mix the name with other info you would like to store with the object. The Tag property is a simple string field in which you can use any information you need. For example, you could put in the word "sprite" in the Tag propery, load your file and check each object's Tag property for the word "sprite".

Anyway, when talking about sprites, I think of 2D objects rather than 3D objects. However, using 3d rectangles might be helpful here anyway, and more flexible too as you can manipulate the geometry easily. Btw, why do you need sprites anyway?

Mike · Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 7

I got it working. I still need to calculate the rotation from the vertices. I use the name and tag property.

//Btw, why do you need sprites anyway?
I need sprites for objects that don't need polygonal representation. Billboards are a good example, for placing stuff like lights, or for making trees, grass. I think a map editor needs something like this, I don't know why I'm the first person to ask for this.

Daaark · Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2006 10:16 pm Post subject:

CMe · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:58 am Post subject:

Billboards still have a place in modern scenes, and are becoming more popular. Scenes are getting more complex. Imposters are becoming quite useful for caching a detailed mesh as an image for rendering at a distance where the difference in quality will not be that noticible. We generally focus more on things in the foreground. Especially useful if there will be many instances of the same object. So basically it works as level of detail (LOD) system.

Daaark · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:03 am Post subject:

CMe · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:09 am Post subject:

yeah I agree, static placed billboards aren't really that appealing these days.

Mike · Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 7

What about clouds? Grass? I think nobody uses polygons for representing a single straw of grass?
And don't tell me lights are done with polygons, unless they are dynamically created.

EDIT:
Any tips on creating a plugin for automatic creation of these sprites? To generate the tag properties from some edit boxes for example.

Daaark · Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2006 9:39 pm Post subject:

Mike · Member Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 7

I understand what you are saying, it's just that my engine is kind of unique because it mixes 2D with 3D. I already have it working, but I would like to add sprites automatically. Because now the artist must place a rectangle and fill carefully the tag properties. There are 7 or 8 properties because I define animated sprites. What I would like is a little window where you would define the sprite and then it would automatically fill the tag property with values frm edit boxes for example.