Graphics Enquiry

is it even possible?

Would it be possible to make a ship that, when it turned, it would turn like a snake, in sections instead of all at once? I think the ship would have to be inertialess for it to work properly. Even if you don't think its possible, I would like feedback. I wanted to know if this was possible before attempting to do it.

I think the closest thing that you can do is use ship banks, and set the extra frames to the turning image.... Not sure though...

I wondered about that too but I don't think that it would work.

Likely you could do it, but what you're looking for is more of a morph I imagine, which would not be possible. You would have to blend sprites and masks in PS, it would probably end up being jumpy and seemingly random. Perhaps an unfold when firing and an invisible weapon so it could be a smooth animation? I dunno...

By the by, Inquiry is not spelled Enquiry

Your only real option is to use the banking frames, and even then that will only simulate the effect you're looking for at a specific speed and turn rate. Anything else will just look horrific.

And what turn rate would that be, Hudson? Inquiry, enquiry. Tomato, tomato :huh:... wait... that should be... oops, can't spell that on the boards

Impossible to say. You'd have to match the curve of the ship sections to the rate at which the craft turns at an optimum speed - but it'll only look right at that speed. So basically, you might as well forget it.

I don't think its really possible. Part of the ship would still have to preserve part of the sprite that it was once in while the other is in a different sprite angle and I don't think I see a way to do that.

This post has been edited by Coraxus : 01 November 2004 - 08:58 AM

What he's talking about would require the engine to support multiple sprite objects per ship - which simply can't be done.