[MC84]

I've got a general question regarding custom characters/monsters and weapons...

I'm currently in the process of modelling characters and weapons in Blender and would like to know whether there are any limitations on the sprite dimensions of custom characters/monsters/weapons. If I wanted to export sprites directly from blender at a much higher resolution than the original game would mapster be able to handle it?

For example, frame1 of the liz trooper is 55x78 pixels. Let's say I wanted to have a character with an average frame size of 360x512 pixels. Obviously the .art file would be MUCH larger, but theoretically could the game engine handle it?


It goes without saying that I'd be scaling these sprites down in-game so that they're in correct proportion to the player.. the point is just to have crisp, hi-res sprites.

Likewise with custom weapon sprites; can I use hi-res art and then scale it down to improve the visuals?


And just to clarify, I have no interest in importing 3d models into mapster.. I prefer the 'artsy' sprite look.

[Danukem]

It should work fine at the resolution you suggested. You could potentially cause performance issues if you have a lot of enemies at those resolutions and each one has a lot of tiles. There is an upper limit to pixel dimensions in .ART files, but I know tiles can be at least 512x512. I have never actually tried filling an .ART file with such big images, though. A potentially big headache for you is tile offsets. For example, in a frame where an enemy has a gun pointing to the left, you would normally offset the image to the right so that it doesn't appear to be sliding across the ground when the enemy is turning to aim at something. But the bigger the tile is, the more times you have to click to move the image in the .ART viewing program.

To be safe, I would first try making an enemy that uses only a single big tile. Make it do all the things: move around, shoot, get shot. Verify that clipping, shooting, etc. work correctly at that size. After the test, export the rest of the tiles for it.

[MC84]

Well if the worst thing I have to deal with is pressing the left or right key a bunch to get the alignment correct then that's fine by me.

Also this is somewhat related - from what I understand Duke3d uses 5 perspectives to display a total of 8 viewing angles. Can this number be increased? Say to 12 angles?

Thanks

[Danukem]

https://wiki.eduke32.com/wiki/Action

viewtypes 7 and 8 are the best for giving an enemy lots of angles. DRONE uses viewtype 7. Most other enemies use viewtype 5.

[MC84]

great, thank you

[Hendricks266]

In addition to 5 and 7 mirrored and 8 unmirrored, we support 9 mirrored, and 12 and 16 unmirrored.

[Mark]

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[MC84]

Hendricks266, on 02 October 2018 - 09:02 AM, said:

In addition to 5 and 7 mirrored and 8 unmirrored, we support 9 mirrored, and 12 and 16 unmirrored.

Well I suppose I'll have to at least attempt 12 or 16 unmirrored; I reckon with a hi-res sprite that would look pretty sweet.. is that just a matter of using 12/16 as viewtype in the Action command?

[Hendricks266]

Mark, on 02 October 2018 - 10:10 AM, said:

.

This is more true than you know. Just ask the Warmech. (And Cage.)

conoklast, on 02 October 2018 - 01:57 PM, said:

Well I suppose I'll have to at least attempt 12 or 16 unmirrored; I reckon with a hi-res sprite that would look pretty sweet.. is that just a matter of using 12/16 as viewtype in the Action command?

Yep.

[necroslut]

I seem to recall being some hardcoded behavior causing sprites exceeding a certain size (height?) to always be shown unshaded. I don't remember what the limit was, but it might be something to keep in mind.