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animation techniques

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Posted by Retnur   (9 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Fri 19 Nov 2010 06:10 AM (UTC)
Message
I'm venturing into animated sprites, scrolling images, animated selection boxes, etc. I'm working on handlers for various animation types. I'm interested in tips or pitfalls based on the miniwindows implementation details. Currently I'm using the ontick callback for granularity in progressing frames.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (22,975 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #1 on Fri 19 Nov 2010 06:27 AM (UTC)
Message
The first thing to think about is the difference between Redraw () and Repaint ().

Redraw schedules an update of the whole MUSHclient window next time the Windows event loop is otherwise empty (eg. no outstanding keystrokes or mouseclicks). In practice, MUSHclient calls Redraw internally when new output arrives from the MUD (and is placed on the screen), and you do a WindowShow, and at various other spots.

There is no particular harm in calling Redraw hundreds of times, they simply will result in a single screen update when there is nothing else to do. Usually this results in a quite responsive screen update.

However Repaint () causes a screen update now. And if a dozen plugins all call Repaint () then you get a dozen screen updates. Now this is likely to slow things down, what with all the text drawing, copying of miniwindow images etc.

Having said that, there might be a case for calling Repaint. In another thread recently it was pointed out that the mapper "seemed unresponsive" as you quickly speedwalked from one place to another, because this caused so much incoming data to arrive, that the redrawing of the screen was deferred so much that the mapper seemed jerky.

I definitely don't think every plugin should call Repaint "just to make sure" its changes are seen. This is likely to cause major slowdowns. However OTOH not calling it at all may make the system seem slow to respond.

If you are implementing sprites, then you probably need to call Repaint to make sure the sprites are actually visibly moved around. Bear in mind that repainting the screen 25 times a second might impose quite a load on the system.

One possible approach might be to make sure that Repaint is called at least a few times a second (eg. every 5th time through the tick callback) and at other times call Redraw. That way you are guaranteed that at least some sprite movements will be drawn, and with luck, more will be.

Remember, on a slower PC, forcing 25 repaints a second might actually be using so much of the CPU that there is none left for actually doing something useful.
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (22,975 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #2 on Fri 19 Nov 2010 06:31 AM (UTC)
Message
I spotted this on YouTube yesterday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3f_h9tPLVs

Someone (is that you?) seems to be making a 3D interface to Aardwolf, using MUSHclient.
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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Posted by Twisol   USA  (2,257 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #3 on Fri 19 Nov 2010 09:27 AM (UTC)
Message
Looks like that person is using an external window with MUSHclient, since they're using C# and there's a visible second window.
'Soludra' on Achaea

Blog: http://jonathan.com/
GitHub: http://github.com/Twisol
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Posted by Retnur   (9 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #4 on Fri 19 Nov 2010 12:41 PM (UTC)
Message
No, that's not me. I'm using mushclient for a dedicated client for a from scratch project I've been quietly been working on for a few years. Its actually coming along nicely. I'm just not looking forward to digging into the cpp that's inevitably coming.

I actually got sprites working pretty smoothly. I have animated boxes and animated sprites currently finished.

I'm really debating going relatively fully graphical. Some other things I'm trying to work out on MC includes drag and drop functionality for various objects, a robust sound system for smooth transitions in loops, and text boxes for forms.
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Posted by Worstje   Netherlands  (899 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #5 on Fri 19 Nov 2010 02:22 PM (UTC)
Message
I tried animating miniwindows in the past, and long story short: don't.

Even on fast computers it is painfully obvious MUSHclient was designed with miniwindows changing 'infrequently', as opposed to a number of times every second. My testcase was a bar that counted down as a visual indicator of when I'd be able to do something again, but it was either too jerky to use (or not get distracted by), or MUSHclient got so sluggish due to all the updates that it made the timer a bit of a moot point.

However, I must say.. I did that test with gradient thingies. With those updated in a recent version, I might retry it some time, but I'm not sure how big the difference would be.
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Posted by Retnur   (9 posts)  [Biography] bio
Date Reply #6 on Fri 19 Nov 2010 10:06 PM (UTC)
Message
That's kinda what I was afraid of. :(

So far I've only been animating small 32*32 areas 4 times a second. Its been doing okay. That may change once I have more than a few.
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Posted by Nick Gammon   Australia  (22,975 posts)  [Biography] bio   Forum Administrator
Date Reply #7 on Fri 19 Nov 2010 10:57 PM (UTC)
Message
I had a reasonable size 3D window going a while back. It updated quite well as you walked around. However that might not have been 25 times a second.
- Nick Gammon

www.gammon.com.au, www.mushclient.com
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