220?!?! That's Really Too Much!!!

[metal_head]

I want the game to make a good impresion when it begins,so I decided to do the following:
Because the player has sci fi sunglasses,which show him the radar and the health I want to make them kind of switch ON when the game starts. So I decided to make a flipbook effect(http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?m0dztymlkyn),which with a script will be shown on the screen,but this time the problem isn't the script,but the huge ammound of bitmaps and alphamaps I'll have to create for the game.There are 220 bitmaps to be exported,than 220 alphamaps to be made ..this will take a whole day! The worst part is that 440 bitmap files will require more HDD space than the demo itself.
I have the feeling that it could deal with scripting,so that's why I'm posted this topic here.

I know that it's nearly impossible,but can this be done with a GIF or an AVI file? Or is there another way that I can make this effect to rewuire only 10 bitmaps,and still look cool.

[Danimita92]

Okay, so I'm guessing this'll happen in a certain moment of the game. Supposing the player is going to be looking at somewhere in specific, what you could do is add a seemingless cutscene, that you create by taking a snapshot of what the player is looking at when this happens, and adding this effect on top of it with a video editing software.

I uploaded an example of what your cutscene could be. Just imagine the background image to be the snapshot of your game:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ojimmdy2j ... l_Head.rar

[metal_head]

No,no, you got me wrong. I ment when the level starts,and I want the player to be able to look freely,and jus ttat effect to appear only once,I think it will be awesome If I manage to make it somehow.So the player can look and even walk,just want that effect to be activated once the player has started the game. Just for a cool start and that's the bad thing,I'll have to make 440 bitmaps in order to make the effect

[FridyWorm]

I think you can make it a GIF.

[metal_head]

Will the gif be transparent? Does RF even support gif transparency? I was thinking about making a GIF,but really not sure how I'm gonna do it.

[Danimita92]

What I meant was to make that effect with what the player sees at the beginning, and then suddenly to continue in the game as if the cutscene was part of the game.

[metal_head]

Yeah,I know,but I want the player to be able to walk alk and look arround during this effect

[Allanon]

Use the same process I described before except use the VideoTextureReplacer entity and a transparent GIF.

[metal_head]

OK,so now the problem is how do I generate the transparent GIF. I'm working with Particle Illusion (that's the program that makes all the effects in th game). Particle Illusion can export in bmp,jpg,gif,and many others,but what the background of the gif should be (what color). And after that how do I make this effect? The video texture replacer is for textures,right? than how will I be able to put the effect on the screen?

[Allanon]

There are a lot of tools out there that make transparent GIF files, it is not specific to RF. I used the free trial of Neomesh Image Converter to make the transparent GIF file I used for testing. But the trial version will only convert 10 bitmaps. I suggest searching for a transparent animated GIF tool using Google.

[metal_head]

Yeah,but the problem is that I want this speciffic effect,and particle illusion CAN export gifs,but the problem is that I don't know how to make the background transparent,do I have to make a speciffic background color behind the effect or I just need to do some settings,I know that you may haven't even heard of Particle illusion,but I'm asking about transparent gifs (what makes the gif transparent)

[Allanon]

With Neomesh Image Converter you tell it what color you want transparent. I've seen others programs that use alpha maps. It all depends on what program you use. Also, I haven't tried this but you might be able to use the transparent animated GIF as the bitmap for a HUD item. This will allow you to look around while the gif is playing.

[metal_head]

OK,so I'll get started tomorrow,since I'm a little sleepy right now and I'll see what I'll be able to do.

Well,there's that script command:

Code: Select all

DrawHudElement();

I think it was like that,which shows a hud element on the screen,if gifs are alouded,which I think are,it could be pretty possible.

[Jay]

You could make the characters a font and then use a script which makes several of them visible at a certain time. It's hard to script something like this, but it is certainly possible. You would use an array of the characters for each line and then draw them with the DrawText(...) command with alpha values.

[metal_head]

That will be too hard for me,and actually the numbers aren't that important for me,but the scan light that goes through the screen.