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FGlayer addition suggestion

AlexDC22

AlexDC22

Well-known member
so the more i get acclimated with all this new stuff that i didnt have before... i have been loving fglayers so much.. best thing since slice bread if you ask me lol
anyways i was wondering if it would be to hard and or to complicated and or if theres a ways around this besides creating an entity for just a simple and single frame.

was wondering if one of the settings for the fglayers could be graphic shadows? I think it would be beneficial and help cutting back on making an entity just to have that as opposed to having it as an fglayer and turn it on like all the other great features that the fglayer already has... just a suggestion and if this is in the wrong section please move it. thanks for the great work all you have done with the engine... wish i was younger so i could dive in head first and full time lol... anayways just a suggestion that i think would be beneficial... but i could be very wrong as to the benefits and not know it lol.
 
AlexDC22 said:
was wondering if one of the settings for the fglayers could be graphic shadows?
Click to expand...
It's possible to simulate shadows with scripts via "drawsprite", or with an additional fglayer mirroring the same sprite with alpha enabled, or even with additional screens.
I think shadows were not added as a fglayer parameter because it's a "too dynamic" feature and requires additional info about the reflected object in order to draw a proper effect, something which layers do not have but entities have. In the end, having a simple entity is an easy solution with a good cost x benefit relation.
 
thanks for the reply, and yes if it benefits the engine not having it then am all for it...never thought about the mirroring with the alpha transparency... will have to try that... sorry still getting used to all the new stuff... well new to me since i hung around here... been a while xD
 
@AlexDC,

I just posted this the other day, but to give you an example, pay attention to the city and reflection in the water. It's an example of some of the things you can do with transparency and creative use of layers.

The reflected skyline is done by setting the water with alpha transparency, and then putting the reflected city layers under that, and scrolling them with an affine transform to match the water. Throw in the same color cycle neon as the regular city layers, and you're done. The only entity in use at all in this stage is the "Metal Mesh" sign.


The whole point of layers is they are simple and ultra efficient. If you want to go beyond what they're able to do, then use use entities and be done with it. That's how ALL Neo-Geo games work - it doesn't even have layers.

To put it in perspective, think about how good we all thought Neo-Geo games looked. Those are made with nothing but sprites (entities) at 15 colors each. You can't have any more than 96 on a scan line and they are limited to 16*512 pixels in size. And the special effect NG can do is shrink. No up-scaling, no rotation, no special effects, no transparency, no nothing. OpenBOR has unlimited layers and 5000 sprites anywhere on screen of any size you like at 255 colors each, with every special effect you can name. And that's not even getting into subscreens and scripting. If you can't do it with OpenBOR, you can't do it at all.

DC
 
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yes you did and shamefully i didnt noticed it then smfh..thats really cool...just like the reflections on SORX..i have much to learn... thanks for the reply brother :)
 
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