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Graphics > Newbie question about sprites

#3166 - Anavel_Gato - Wed Feb 19, 2003 11:04 am

I am new to this forum and have recently got interested in GBA development. My experience with game development is limited to making 3d models and animating them for Quake3 MODs but I want to get into GBA development and in terms of production the art side of it.

At this moment I am writing down my ideas for a small GBA action game into a small game design document and I am trying to figure out the possibilities for the character sprites.

I was wondering if somebody can answer the following questions that I am stuck with.

- Do sprites always have to be square like 8x8, 16x16, 64x64?
- Can sprites consists of separate images? For instance for a human character lower body images for walk and jump animations and upper body images for aiming, shooting and blocking.
- Can you have sprites with "layers". For instance fire from a weapon is a separate image that you place on top of the character sprite when firing and a separate image for a shield that can be destroyed (this will probably be a separate sprite too).

Sorry to drop a bomb of questions in my first post :)

#3167 - jenswa - Wed Feb 19, 2003 11:21 am

they don't have to be a square, they can also be
16x8 or 8x16 or 32x16 or 64x32, etc..

but if you want a sprite to be 64x8, you can use eight 8x8 sprites or,
four 16x8 sprites and so you can do other combinations.

and they can consist of separate images, but it's best way to split
those 2 animations in two sprites.

Sprites have priorities, so the priority of the fire sprite should be one
higher then the character sprite, so that the fire is displayed on top.
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It seems this wasn't lost after all.

#3186 - CoolMan - Wed Feb 19, 2003 2:42 pm

Actually, if i remember correctly, the higher priorities are drawn first, and get overwritten by the lower priorities, which are drawn last. (So higher goes on the bottom.)

So, basically, yes, you can use any combo of sprites and sizes, and they can be layered.
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