I have an animation with 44 frames. It is set to play as the hero picks up an item. My problem is that the animation starts and plays about 5 frames and freezes on the screen without completing its cycle. It does not stop the game, it just won't play itself through. There are no flags in this animation. It is not looped. I trashed the first one that did this and rebuilt another and the problem is still there.

Any suggestions?

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Quote

Originally posted by Rubber Ducky:
**I have an animation with 44 frames. It is set to play as the hero picks up an item. My problem is that the animation starts and plays about 5 frames and freezes on the screen without completing its cycle. It does not stop the game, it just won't play itself through. There are no flags in this animation. It is not looped. I trashed the first one that did this and rebuilt another and the problem is still there.

Any suggestions? **

By chance have you selected a directional animation instead of a standard animation? There is a series of radial buttons at the bottom of the animation editor screen with the various types. Make sure you have standard selected, else it will divide your frames up by the number of directions and only display the direction you are facing.

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Quote

Originally posted by Stark Bledfast:
**Make sure you have standard selected, else it will divide your frames up by the number of directions and only display the direction you are facing.
**

Nice try. I thought you might be on to something but, after double checking, the standard button is selected. In the animation editor when I chose "play" it cycles through all frames.

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My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
Find those areas you missed the first time around. You'll want to explore those hidden areas now made accessible with Spells Expander.

Quote

Originally posted by Rubber Ducky:
**Nice try. I thought you might be on to something but, after double checking, the standard button is selected. In the animation editor when I chose "play" it cycles through all frames. **

Darn.

How are you calling the animation? I assume that you have it set up to be a stamp and place it with the Stamp Control event?

You might, for testing purposes, create a new animation that starts on the frame after where it has been stopping. Just to see if it continues to the end, or stops at the same number of frame iterations.

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But shouldn't it be directional 8 and not standard? I'm assuming that the animation is part of the Hero_NPC animation. You've got the default at walk (0-default), 1-attack, and 2-block. You want another set (add a new animation to this animation file), so you add into the Hero_NPC animation 3-pickup. You then add the 44 frames under 3-pickup. At the end of each direction picture of the pickup set, place a switch animation frame flag, perameter at 0 (takes it back to default which is your walk). If there's only one direction of the pickup, then you'd place a switch animation frame flag at the last picture.

Of course, you can do this in any NPC animation, not just the Hero.

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions

(This message has been edited by Debra (edited 05-22-2003).)

Okay, then the problem would be to actually pickup anything, as I don't see any more engine keys to do such things. The attack key is the same as the pickup key. At least, the Player will pick something up when he attacks it, so I know that it would work. I'd use the 44 frame pickup animation as your main hero under "attack" when your hero doesn't have a weapon in hand. In that case, you'd have to have another hero with weapon that switches via an Event (Player map icon I think) when the Player uses a weapon via his inventory. That means that the Player would have to put his weapon away in order to pick up anything, or, at least, to use the pickup animation you've got. A global and conditional should help form this. Zelda does this, by the way.

Or does anybody know how to use another animation set like 3-Pickup within the hero animation file? If you're not using the cast, you could use that key.

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-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions

(This message has been edited by Debra (edited 05-22-2003).)

Explanation for Stark and Debra: On a PoG map an item marked "remember" does not work because every time you re-enter the map the item reloads. Therefore, if you want these items to be taken only once, you have to create a pseudo-item with a global to prevent its re-appearance. Each pseudo-item has a unique number. I can't select "take" or the 300 individualy numbered items would show up in inventory. The pseudo-item adds one real item to inventory, increases the item count by one, and sets its own global to not appear again.

Because "take" is not selected, the floating label which usually appears when you pick up an item is not there. The real items which are on my own maps have this label occur normally. I took a screen shot of this label and created a series of pictures with the word one pixel higher in each frame. The last frame has to be totally white so that the item name does not remain on the screen. (When you open a chest, the last picture of the open chest stays on the screen.)

This animation is called on the "used" spot on the item editor's second tab "display." It should work like a chest animation except that it should not remain, thus the final blank frame. My problem is the the item word starts floating up but then stops part way and does not disappear off the screen as it should. I know the animation is only playing about 5 or 6 of the 44 frames and I don't know why. GRRRR! :frown: ~RD

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My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
Find those areas you missed the first time around. You'll want to explore those hidden areas now made accessible with Spells Expander.

Ahh, you're using the item's animation call. Ok, I understand now.

I really don't know. Here's a thought though: perhaps an item animation can only have a finite number of frames?

Here would be my suggestion as a test:

Create a dozen or two squares with numbers from 1-12(or 24 if you make 2 dozen) and join them together into an animation. Plug this into your object and see what number it gets to. This should tell you how many frames it can have in it.

If this theory is correct(object animations are limited) then your only alternative will be to use a stamp control to place your animation and then remove it. Since you are placing the object on the map, you should have its coordinates and thus should be able to do this without much trouble.

Also rememeber that the floating label is a code-level thing and not an item animation, so it doesn't have to follow the normal rules that we have to abide by.

Let us know what you find...

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Quote

Originally posted by Stark Bledfast:
perhaps an item animation can only have a finite number of frames?
Also rememeber that the floating label is a code-level thing and not an item animation, so it doesn't have to follow the normal rules that we have to abide by.

That may very well be it. I've checked out every other avenue I can think of.

Quote

Originally posted by Stark Bledfast:
Since you are placing the object on the map, you should have its coordinates and thus should be able to do this without much trouble.

HaH! Not much trouble, he says! There are 300 of them to convert movement tiles to stamp pixel coordinates, and each one will have to be checked and most likely tweeked. I know how to launch a stamp from within the item, but each item is in a different location. :frown:

Quote

Originally posted by Stark Bledfast:
Let us know what you find...;)

You will hear from me again on this. I don't know how soon, I think you just gave me a couple of weeks more work but it's gonna work or else!

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My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
Find those areas you missed the first time around. You'll want to explore those hidden areas now made accessible with Spells Expander.

Quote

Originally posted by Rubber Ducky:
HaH! Not much trouble, he says! There are 300 of them to convert movement tiles to stamp pixel coordinates, and each one will have to be checked and most likely tweeked.

Actually, I knew about the 300 items, and thus the "not too much trouble" was pretty much tongue in cheek at your expense.

I do sympathize, though. If this is another one of those undocumented limitations, it is quite an irritating one.

(edit) stupid smiley (/edit)
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(This message has been edited by Stark Bledfast (edited 05-22-2003).)

Quote

Originally posted by Stark Bledfast:
your only alternative will be to use a stamp control to place your animation and then remove it. Since you are placing the object on the map, you should have its coordinates and thus should be able to do this without much trouble.

I have placed the animation via a stamp launched by the pick-up action and it works perfectly. I do not have to remove the stamp because the last frame of the animation is a completely blank small picture. The only noticable difference from the hard coded floating labels is that the animation is on a different level than the "true" floating labels and it floats up under trees and other PoG stamps. That's not a big problem. On the first trial I found 44 frames to be insuficient. The floating label did not float high enough. I had to extend its path and the animation now has 93 frames.

I bit the bullet and dropped my many item coordinates into a spreadsheet which then did the movement tile to pixel conversions for me. Why didn't I think of the spreadsheet capabilities sooner? It saved 300 individual calculations. Now I only have to install a stamp in each of the item action windows (copy/paste and re-set coordinates) and I'll have that segment done.

The item animation is definitely limited to what I believe to be five frames. Here's one more bug to add to the list.

Thanks for your brain-storming help. The information above can serve as a tutorial for anyone who wants to create their own floating labels. Problem solved - on to the next. ~RD

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My Doctor said I was having too much wine, women, and song - so I gave up singing because 2 out of 3 is not so bad.
The (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/rduck/")Kingdom of Garendall(/url) sectional map is easily printed from gif format pages.
Find those areas you missed the first time around. You'll want to explore those hidden areas now made accessible with Spells Expander.

Quote

Originally posted by Rubber Ducky:
The item animation is definitely limited to what I believe to be five frames. Here's one more bug to add to the list.

I'd be happy if this limit didn't adversely affect things. But I'm glad you were able to find it and report it. Thanks!

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