Next Gen Metroid

2010-06-07 08:50:09 pm

do you think you could make a frame between every frame movement for the character? for example, if you move the gun at a angle, there would be a smooth movement of 3 frames instead of 2 which is looking right to looking at a angle. if you could have a frame between it, it would be superb.

J_SNAKE

2010-06-08 06:56:45 am

Quote from Blarget2:

do you think you could make a frame between every frame movement for the character?

For some animations it is true but not in general, I am also cleverly reusing existing frames to smooth out the animation. SM does it in less cases, for example if you aim straight up, you see a short frame of diagonal aiming between. There are two reasons why I am not making more animation-frames. The first is that I think it will be a waste of time since it looks good enough now. The second is the contradicting SMTac-Philosophy. SMTac is fast in aiming, it means if you push up the logic allows you to shoot immediatly up (only the animation lags one single frame behind it (one diagonal frame between) so that it looks a bit smoother. If I would make it 'too' smooth like in MSR388-vids it will be too slow and the visual feedback would fake and provide a non-relyable impression of the actual physical-state of Samus. Another problem with smooth animation frames is that once you add something like smooth aiming and smooth morphing to ball...it wont look consistent but often distracting unless all other possible transitions are added to appear smooth (and for SM that are not few). I think some people are underestimating this issue.
For example my ballmorphing has 2 more sprites than SM. I want it to be the strict limit. I can put 5 extra sprites to make it ultra-smooth, really no problem for me.
But overall it will look distracting and inconsistent because it will be too smooth compared to other animations. A general note for a game with more content: Now imagine if your samus is very smooth you have to make all of the actors, enemies, moving flora etc. the same work to keep the 'one-flowing' feel without any distractions.

[quote="Blarget2"]do you think you could make a frame between every frame movement for the character?[/quote]
For some animations it is true but not in general, I am also cleverly reusing existing frames to smooth out the animation. SM does it in less cases, for example if you aim straight up, you see a short frame of diagonal aiming between. There are two reasons why I am not making more animation-frames. The first is that I think it will be a waste of time since it looks good enough now. The second is the contradicting SMTac-Philosophy. SMTac is fast in aiming, it means if you push up the logic allows you to shoot immediatly up (only the animation lags one single frame behind it (one diagonal frame between) so that it looks a bit smoother. If I would make it 'too' smooth like in MSR388-vids it will be too slow and the visual feedback would fake and provide a non-relyable impression of the actual physical-state of Samus. Another problem with smooth animation frames is that once you add something like smooth aiming and smooth morphing to ball...it wont look consistent but often distracting unless all other possible transitions are added to appear smooth (and for SM that are not few). I think some people are underestimating this issue.
For example my ballmorphing has 2 more sprites than SM. I want it to be the strict limit. I can put 5 extra sprites to make it ultra-smooth, really no problem for me.
But overall it will look distracting and inconsistent because it will be too smooth compared to other animations. A general note for a game with more content: Now imagine if your samus is very smooth you have to make all of the actors, enemies, moving flora etc. the same work to keep the 'one-flowing' feel without any distractions.

J_SNAKE

Edit history:

J_SNAKE: 2010-06-22 05:59:59 pm

2010-06-20 10:14:07 am

SMTac-Philosophy part2:
direct input supports fast control, one important point in movement-design is to make everything possible for ordinary fingers(safe and fast control), the player shall not be rewarded too much for having quick fingers, instead room is given for more interesting skills: for example planning, tactical movement-chaining and pre-adapting(will be introduced later)

Blarget2

2010-06-21 07:45:34 pm

this will be the most epic 2d multilayer game ever!

Blarget2

2010-06-22 07:27:49 pm

Oh i forgot, but you should make a blog for this.

J_SNAKE

Edit history:

J_SNAKE: 2010-06-24 01:35:40 pm

2010-06-24 01:26:22 pm

I want first make some quick vids just to give a bit of sense for the philosophy. By the finish of the game I will try to make some proper quality tutorial vids so that you will have a solid understanding for its rule-set. But revealing SMTac's true potential will be up to you and I hope to see some decent fights on the net! ;)

I think making a blog is waste of time for me. Critics are most fruitfull when the game is finished, less before. At this scope fine-tuning afterwards will surely be needed but I developed a sophisticated suitpower-model that helps regulating balance-issues.

J_SNAKE

2010-07-21 06:57:39 am

If some are wondering about performance:

J_SNAKE

2012-02-01 09:27:05 am

In case there are some newcomers, I want to briefly give you a reason why to keep an eye on me. Other than that I am sometimes ask when SMTac is going to be finished since people cannot read channel descriptions. So here is the vid: