Cinema image and text switching efficiency

Fodder76Fodder76 Member Posts: 154
edited November -1 in Working with GS (Mac)
Hey there helpful friends, another question for you.

So I'm making a game that has some cinemas. Its got a lot of change image, interpolate, display text, and most/worst of all, Timers. Lots of Timers. I read somewhere that Timers are real memory hogs with GameSalad, so I'm concerned about the number of them that I've been using, and I'm wondering if there is a better way.

My flow has been looking like this

Timer = After X seconds
Change Image
Interpolate = self.alpha = 1
Timer = After X seconds
Timer = For X seconds
Display Text
Timer After X seconds
Interpolate = Self.alpha = 0
etc etc

The above is a simple example for a single frame of a cinema, so repeat that over and over again in a single Scene.

Worse, I have to add up the time each frame takes, then start the next frame at the beginning of that point.

Anyway, it just seems really inefficient, AND as usual I'm worried about keeping the performance up so I was wondering if there is a better way that I'm not aware of. Thanks!

Chris

Comments

  • frariofrario Member Posts: 164
    Hi Fodder,
    can't you use animation behavior?
  • QbAnYtOQbAnYtO Member Posts: 523
    i usually just make a cutscene on flash, export to sequenced png and make the sounds on garage band. then i play them at the same time in gs. low memory usage, low files size, high quality :p
  • Fodder76Fodder76 Member Posts: 154
    frario- I'm not sure. I haven't played with that yet, but it sounds more like it would be used for animating than switching out frames. But I'll check into it.

    Obanyto- That seems like it would be wildly inefficient for what I need to do. Most of my art will be still frames, so it would add a lot of unnecessary frames. That seems like an ok solution if you wanted to get a fmv into a game though. Does GS not support the playing of any movie format?
  • QbAnYtOQbAnYtO Member Posts: 523
    No it doesn't. Still frames? I have an idea of how I will insert still frames and I might use collisions and rules in stead of timers. But timers are obviously easier lol. But some of my cinema combines both stills and moving objects so thats where collisions come into play :)
    I guess it all depend on what you are doing. But sounds like timers is a good way to go
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