GameMaker (6) Sprites make no sense!

Yes, I read the help file. The most good this does me is work as an index for GML, which isn't the problem atm.

The problem is the way GameMaker 6 handles Sprites. I don't ****ing get it. All I know is that Sprites are applied to an Object, and you can swap an Object's currently selected Sprite to whatever the hell you want whenever you feel like it.

Please don't tell me I need to make *separate* Sprite files for every animation, because this would be absolutely retarded. I was hoping I could import an entire sheet as one Sprite and divide it into tiles like with a Background.



While we're at that, how do you ... make background obstacles? Do they have to be Objects?

This post has been edited by Draco Icebane on Jun 30 2008, 08:04 PM

There is a way to use spritesheets as animations, but I wouldn't recommend it until you've used Game Maker for a while and understand how it works, even if just a little. Yes, you have to make a new sprite for each animation, but it's not as bad as it sounds.

As for your other problem, tiles cannot do anything other then sit there and look pretty. You must create an object that you use as a solid object of some sort. I'd suggest finding some basic example of some sort and looking at that for a little.

What!? That sucks! fjdsfjsdjf

Basically, I make invisible Objects (with proper collisions built-in) and stick them everywhere a tile is and hope I didn't leave any holes?

What a silly program ;_;



i really need to know this damn spritesheet trick btw, is that done in gml? i'll do it that way if i have to, i hate single-sprite importing

It can be done in Drag and Drop also.

No I don't think there is a drag and drop function for drawing part of a sprite

Oh, is that all? All I need to learn is the GML-specific syntax / commands and I can do that without much of a problem :x I did crap like that when I was messing around in PHP and once or twice in C++

Mostly I need to figure out how GameMaker stores all its ****, so I can call it all with GML after I spend years studying the *******o language.

This post has been edited by Draco Icebane on Jun 30 2008, 08:19 PM

It's actually simple, if you've used ANY other programming language at all then GML should be like taking candy from a mentally disabled baby.

And it stores stuff with resource names, which can be changed by opening said resource on the left-side list. Just be sure if you're using GML to not use anything other then numbers, letters, and underscores.


Also you need registered to use spritesheets, I believe.

in dire circumstances that can be arranged, but my main gripe is that you have to register just to bloody rotate a sprite what crap is that!?

EDIT: Drawing part of a sprite is available in free, but any functions involving rotations or stretching require registration

This post has been edited by Draco Icebane on Jun 30 2008, 08:32 PM

Different animations per sprite are really easy. You won't die. Stop being lazy; you can do it! I mean, Game Maker does all the rendering and stuff for you, so I don't see why you need to complain about simple things like that. Or, would you rather code it in C++?

dude i struggled in mmf2 which gives you even more problems than gamemaker does so i'm not lazy >:(((

it's mostly that i have to go tear this sheet apart and save every image individually when in klik products, you can crop each frame out of the same image, saving you a couple hours or so of time

i could do that since i have the dx8 sdk and stuff all set up but it's too much effort to figure out the technicalities

^ just found the Create from Strip option to do something very similar to this, even if it isn't perfect it still lets me use spritesheets

It's not that hard to hide objects in the room editor

invisible objects are visible in the editor... in fact, you can use any sprite of any colour. Just uncheck the visible object, and at RUNTIME it will be invisible. (but collision works)

I figured that out already, but it is still a hassle and an eyesore. :/

I like a half-transparent mask for invisible things



Or you could just leave the outline itself which still won't affect collisions if precise collision is turned off.

This post has been edited by Littlink on Jul 1 2008, 05:36 PM

I made an example of how to have all your sprites for a character all in one sprite...
i'll upload it when I find it...

Once you know what to do (and how to do it), gm is a very hand program. It's just really hard to grasp, especially if you're used to c++ or any other programming language.

What I can't stand, is how gm handles variables. If you want a variable to stay the same even after you exit a room, you have to have "global." in front of it's name, which is rather annoying.

ok, I got the link:
http://willhostforfood.com/access.php?fileid=26048

This post has been edited by orange452 on Jul 2 2008, 05:49 PM

Yeah, but this is true for all coding languages. Variable scope is a rather frustrating mechanic in everything

The object should have a tab that says "sprite" when you go to edit it. This is the sprite that it uses at default (when it is created).

You can change the sprite later in GML (multiple different animations for example). The way to change a sprite in GML is "sprite_index = *sprite name*".

Also, for background obstacles. If your making say a Mario fangame with multiple different ground pieces and other obstacles (because of world themes), you can usually just make a 16x16 invisible block and place tiles over them.