Sprite attributes (properties)

[agraham]

Originally Posted by merli

Except I did not know that I will need to put them invisible then tick and visible and tick

I didn't say that you would need to do this, only that you might need to as I haven't tried using Sprites that way. Try it without first as that would be more efficient

[merli]

Thanks for help. It is working OK without invisible/visible trick, but there is one problem. If I delete sprite with sprite.MarkForDelete and gw.DeleteMarkedSprites and then I add same sprite again through gw.AddSprite or gw.ReplaceSprite then I have to set this sprite.IsActive=True to be seen on screen. Is it feature (planned to work this way) or bug?

I wonder how fast it will be when I will need to reorder (delete insert) this way 20 or more sprites each tick. We'll see

[agraham]

Originally Posted by merli

Is it feature (planned to work this way) or bug?

It's a feature that occurs because you are using the sprites in a way that they were not really designed for.

[merli]

I am sorry, but that is the only way I found how to make redrawing objects fast.
now
1) I draw 3d objects using drawer to create sprite graphics.
2) then I sort objects by visibility
3) I put objects in right order into GW.

When I tried to do it directly into form I ended with slideshow presentation.
Now it works.

Is there any way how to cast shadows? I mean one sprite is casting shadow 10 pixels to the right and bellow objects are visible through that shadow. I mean some kind of transparency. What I am try to do is something like this:
Fenstalker Studios It is in flash, but I really don't understand how that guy is making shadow.

[agraham]

I don't understand why you are using the Sprite library for this. You have to draw your objects to bitmaps anyway so why aren't you drawing directly to a Bitmap using Drawer.DrawImage? It should be faster than messing around with Sprites.

[merli]

I am using now Sprite library because I need to move objects on form (it should be a kind of game) and there are problems with moving objects on form. For moving object I need
1) delete object
2) restore somehow all what was covered by deleted object (it could be background or another objects or just their parts)
3) move object in selected direction
4) recount visibility - order of ojects can change
5) draw object moved

When I wrote som kind of algorithm for above it had bugs and was slow like hell and I had big problems with point 2) that is exactly what sprite library is doing for me ... Libray remembers what is covered by Sprite when moving. Just order of sprites has to be OK. If I swith collison off (because i need to calculate collision by myself in 3D) and most objects won't move maybe I will manage to be fast.

[agraham]

You don't need to do 1) and 2). Keep a copy of the background in one bitmap and every frame use DrawImage to draw it onto another bitmap and draw the objects on the second bitmap in the order that you want then when you have finished use DrawImage again to copy that bitmap to the one being displayed in an Image Control.

[merli]

You are right, but in this case I have to draw all objects each game tick, which I wanted to avoid and redraw just what is needed :-). But anyway I know that now using sprites I do the same thing. When sprites won't work for me I will change drawing routines again