partly transparent?

3absh

Hey guys,
I have an actor in my game that is clickable every x seconds. (like spells in MMO's)
I need to make a similar effect to that actor (spell) which is basically transparency (opacity) fading away in a clockwise direction

something similar to this

how can i do this?

Armelline

There are a few ways, but to get that exact effect you'll probably have to animate the frames of the effect and place it over the button.

3absh

@Armelline said:
There are a few ways, but to get that exact effect you'll probably have to animate the frames of the effect and place it over the button.

I'm gonna try to avoid animation since it will likely use more cpu and also because I need different speeds (higher levels have faster spells)

tmann

I guess you can do something groovy with one or more alpha masks and some nifty transformations. Do you mean you don't want to use the animation behavior - have you looked at using socks's super animation methods ?

Socks

@abuabed84 said:
I'm gonna try to avoid animation since it will likely use more cpu . . .

The Animation behaviour is pretty light on the CPU, it simply supplies the name of the image to be displayed, there are no complex calculations involved.

@abuabed84 said:
and also because I need different speeds (higher levels have faster spells)

Using this . . .

https://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/63454/fast-frame-swap/p1

. . . you can play the animation at any speed you like.

Armelline

What @Socks said. Animating is almost certainly going to be your best bet here. You could approximate the effect using actors etc. but you're going to end up going to more effort, it will be more demanding on the cpu, and the effect almost certainly won't be quite as good.

3absh

Any other methods?
Animation would do well for spells that cycle fast like 4 to 5 seconds or so.
But my spell requires minutes, so unless the animation has tons of frames the clockwise animation won't look smooth.
I'm currently experimenting with
-rotation behavior
-timer every 1 seconds change self rotation to self rotation -2 (for a more 'clicky' effect)

3absh

I think I could easily pull off a similar effect if I put a dark transparent layer above it
As for the image being partly transparent, and decreasing in transperancy in a clockwise direction I simply have no clue how to do it, without using animation

Armelline

I think you're dismissing animation much too quickly. A few hundred frames would take up almost no disk space, require almost no CPU processing and would be smooth enough unless someone sits there watching it like a hawk. Even 120 or so frames would be more than enough.

The_Gamesalad_Guru

Heck if the spells take minutes to take effect you could do a change image and adjust in larger increments say every ten seconds.

tatiang

I got creative. Is it better than an animation? Probably not.

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/comment/567305/#Comment_567305

Edit: I can't seem to delete the attachment at the moment but the newer version of the demo is available in the link.

AlchimiaStudios

@Lost_Oasis_Games said:
Heck it the spells take minutes to take effect you could do a change image and adjust in larger increments say every ten seconds.

Yeah people really wont be looking at an ability with multi-minute cooldowns that often anyway. I don't think a perfectly smooth 100+ frame animation is even needed.

RThurman

Here is a classic from @firemaplegames:

RThurman

or perhaps this power-meter might spark an idea:

Nalycan

I would go for animation. Maby no more than 6 frames, or less. Depends on how fast the animationscene is visible.

Good luck!

The_Gamesalad_Guru

@Lycan said:
I would go for animation. Maby no more than 6 frames, or less. Depends on how fast the animationscene is visible.

Good luck!

The issue with this is he needs it to happen over minutes.