INgame animation framerate
Hi, I'm new in here (Karen from Norway,,hi everybody!:),, I'm doing some reseach on Lassie for a fan project (KingsQuest4 remake)I'm working on http://www.waywardmind.com/KQ4/SMF and it seems Lassie is just what we're looking for I'm a complete novice in java scripting..but when I add animated bgs-backgrounds, they run fine in the library window view (config in LAssieAS) but when I publish and run the game the framrate is through the roof, way too fast (the movie isn't this fast when I run it outside lassie, the framerate is much (s)lower,, why does lassie speed it up?? (and is there something I can do to solve this? :) thanks, kudos to a fantastic game engine!! Karen

Karen, Thanks for the post, and welcome. In RE: the Lassie player is running at 24FPS. Match your animations to that. Oftentimes when animating characters or limited-frame animation, I'd suggest using 2's and 3's (single images spanning two or three frames). These will allow your movie to play at 24FPS while appearing to animate at 12 or 8 FPS.

ah,, that's clever, never thought of that (I love how you can incorporate lotsa different frame layers in flash and use it as 'one' file in lassie (it's so much smarter than a bunch of animations you have to individually program (within traditional game engines).. I'll try that, thanks Bigmac though I'm not sure if my team wants to go in the direction -of using a flash engine (people supporting ags is going nuts over my flash suggestion)..so I might start my own project cause we haven't really done one single playable screen yet,, I've just made all the bgs and cutscenes,, also,, I did the wiki lassie tutorial (was great) and as of now I cant really see the limitations of lassie in respects to for example ags (adventure game studio),, with lassieAS through flash I would think it's the oposite (that there are more possiblitites with flash and lassie) Our remake is an old Sierra classic,, King's Quest 4, and while some of the game is nice I think we need a major shift in style and gamplay, that's why I think lassie is such a great alternative, I mean it's even easier to do scripting in lassie than in AGS so.. (we'll see.. the ags community doesn't seem too happy about flash games though! I dunno what's up with that!? :) thanks, Karen

yeah the AGS forums are pretty much set in their ways.. i learnt to shut up about flash or anything 3D lol Lassie is still in development.. the way i see it.. bare in mind I'm not doing the developing! once Greg gets away from the Adobe Director issues, things can only get better! Its surprising what you can do combining Flash and Lassie, my la-*test*-('") attempt, not the grea-*test*-('") game in the world but it did show that complicated puzzles are possible, and it was very easy to get a totally flash puzzle to work along side Lassie.. I'm glad you find the tutorial useful, and it was understandable! i'm normally not very good at explaining things :oops:

no, on the contrary,,the tutorial was very informative and useful, got me into the engine and features in no time yeah,, I have to learn more about actionscript 2.0,, but it seems MUCH easier and quicker than CC++ and the other hardcore stuff (doing 'cpu' programming etc.. and I love the fact that you can just double click the script options commands in the TIm'es and just save and edit with one click of a button,, ( it seems much more intutive than ags in alot of ways)

I'm so excited to start some real programming! :) btw,,can you animate inventory items (when they're displayed on the inventory row? thanks, Karen

Animated Inventory
Yes, you can animate inventory items. Check out "Something Amiss" chapter two. I've got a bug that flaps his wings and a torch that's on fire. You can also animate cursors, background images, etc. Just use nested flash movies. There's really no limit except your imagination. LASSIE is quite versatile that way.

oh, very nice,, I did some nesting while trying to make another character, there is still some programming left also,,when I add items to the inven file in flash (put in new items in the movie frames) I can't seem to bring them up in lassieAS using the item window (like the other inventory items on the list, they quickly appear when you insert their name),, , is there something I've missed? (I saved and published too) probably a stupid question .. :) also,, is there someway you could program lassieAS so characters can enter and change rooms based on x&y coordinates? (instead of programming startpoints)..that way you could exit a screen while the character is set to min scaling (very small) and appear in the next room in the same size(and place)? -instead of using an arrow to change screens( I guess you have to program alot of start and 'end' points along the edges of the screen?) Karen

Hey Karens, I'll just field your first question right now since it's a simple one (I'll need to reread and concentrate on your later question later when I have time). You just need to A) republish the _inven.swf move (assets will not be available from your FLA file... it must be published to a SWF), then the SWF must be reloaded into the Lassie editor. In the library, select the _inven lib item and click the spinny arrow icon to reload the source of the file. it will update the movie to the newest source file.

thanks alot,,it works like a charm (should have read the manual some more! :) also,,(lotsa questions here now..but is there a clever way of intergrating image layers that you can walk both in front of and behind (adding a foreground-ambience would probably not work with that),, I tried to put in alot of walk squares but it kinda messed up the walk of the character (maybe add an extensive grid of walk points, would be possible?) thanks (and take your time, I'm just happy someone would take the time in the first place :) and I'm having such a great time in LassieAS, learning lotsa new stuff about flash,, and finally grasping the concept of nesting movies and graphics 'within' frames,

While I haven't used Lassie yet... I do happen to know a lot about the engine. I believe what you are looking for is "z-shift"... It's a property you can apply to a sprite.

oh, thank you Seancyrustowel, that's excactly what I meant :)

Z-Shifting
It all hinges on the sprite's registration point. If the z-shift box is selected then whenever your character walks "above" the registration point it will go behind the sprite. But if it walks "below" the point it will walk in front. Just be careful with your walking grid because when z-shift is selected its real easy to walk through a sprite like a ghost!