Animation and memory usage

jackhammer

I am developing a game that relies heavily on actor animation. This is my first game and I am unsure about the limitations of the animate feature in terms of memory usage etc. Can anyone offer any advice/guidelines on limits to frame numbers, fps, file sizes, memrory usage etc? At the moment I have about 4 actors with 30 frames (each approx 80kb) running at 20fps. I want to maximise the animation effect by increasing the number of frames but I am concerned about the effect on performance.

IsabelleK

I have a nice way to cut memory usage for animations - open folder with your images (animation), and delete every second image in order:
so
Leave the 1., remove the 2., leave the 3., remove the 4., leave the 5. etc.

And in your animation rule change the speed of animation to: Your Current Speed /2 - so, if your animation speed = 30 FPS, change it to 15 FPS.

Works great for my games.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Yeah the animate behavior can bog down the system. I usually go with ten FPS and export my animations at that frame rate. What software are you using for your animations?

jackhammer

Thanks guys.

I am using Adobe Flash CS5 for animation and exporting a png sequence.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Then yeah set the output to 10fps for flash and match it in GS. Just a note when you go higher than 10fps in animate behavior the frame rate starts to become inaccurate.

jackhammer

Thanks for the tips - I will give it a try.