Slight animation/graphical niggle - walking on water

Post by **thespaceinvader** » August 30th, 2007, 6:38 pm

Firstly, let me mention: i'm new to the game and forum, so sorry if this is in the wrong place or anything of that nature (if it is, please move it to the appropriate place, thanks =)). I did a quick search and couldn't find anything that seemed to match this, so also sorry if it's been posted before...

It concerns those flying units (the only ones i've noticed so far are Drakes and Gryphons) which land at the end of their movement (as opposed to bats etc which don't). When they land on water, they appear to walk/stand/float on the surface, which looks decidedly odd to me.

It seems to me that two possible solutions to this problem exist - one would be to have the units use their flying animation/frame when stopped over water - as i understand it, this ought to be possible for (most of) the drakes, as i think they fit into the hex when they're moving, but not for gryphons, which do not. The second would be to have them use the same half-submerged look as the other units when they land in water.

Can anybody shed some light on whether this is possible for me? Thanks.

Post by **torangan** » August 30th, 2007, 10:15 pm

Animations can be filtered by terrain so it should be possible I'd guess. Just some special casing to have them use an alternate frame for standing while over water. Of course, the required art needs to be present as well.

Post by **zookeeper** » August 30th, 2007, 10:34 pm

torangan wrote:Animations can be filtered by terrain so it should be possible I'd guess. Just some special casing to have them use an alternate frame for standing while over water. Of course, the required art needs to be present as well.

Actually, it'd be really ackward to do it in WML.

I'm not quite sure how this one could be solved. It doesn't indeed make any sense for a drake or gryphon to stand on the water, as they're not flying in their base frames (unlike bats and ghosts for example). Movement animations for these units would still need to be "floated", but the standing animations/frames not.

Post by **turin** » August 30th, 2007, 10:52 pm

IIRC Drakes don't fly, they kind of glide and jump along the ground, and when they're in water they kind of swim along the top... so the drakes-on-water could actually show them submerged. I really don't know what I'm talking about though.

Post by **thespaceinvader** » August 31st, 2007, 7:11 am

I'm just sorry that I can't currently help to do something about it, but WML is well beyond me at present.

Post by **Boucman** » August 31st, 2007, 9:12 am

it can't be done right now... (the is_flying flag is the one deciding if a unit can be submerged in water)

there are all sort of special cases in the animation code, and flying is one of them... it would be great to get rid of it, but it's not trivial.

I plan to do it when the rest of the anim engine is ready to have it, but the time has not yet come...

Post by **CIB** » August 31st, 2007, 10:06 am

I think gryphons standing on water looks ok, they look like they still were flying, but drakes don't, they don't even if they move, except you consider them some sort of DBZ guys.

Post by **thespaceinvader** » August 31st, 2007, 10:17 am

O_o a landed gryphon looks like it's flying to you? The don't have their wings out...

But meh, it can't be done right now, and it's not exactly something I can't live with =)

Post by **Boucman** » August 31st, 2007, 11:48 am

what could be done is to use a flying anim as the standing anim when on water/swamp

the unit would be flapping its wigns permanantly, but it would work...

Post by **thespaceinvader** » August 31st, 2007, 11:52 am

That was one of the workarounds i thought of myself (particularly for the Gryphons, which it strikes me, would be unlikely to be able to swim/be submerged and then actually take off again...) but i was under the impression that a basic standing (or in this case, flying) still frame had to fit inside the hex, which the gryphons' flying animations (and some of the Drakes' too i think) do not. Or am i wrong about that?

Post by **CIB** » August 31st, 2007, 1:51 pm

thespaceinvader wrote:O_o a landed gryphon looks like it's flying to you? The don't have their wings out...

Ahhh, I was thinking of the 1.1 gryphon. Yep, with the new icon it looks weird.

Post by **thespaceinvader** » August 31st, 2007, 2:27 pm

Ah, no worries =)

joshudson · Post by **joshudson** » August 31st, 2007, 5:57 pm

turin wrote:IIRC Drakes don't fly, they kind of glide and jump along the ground, and when they're in water they kind of swim along the top... so the drakes-on-water could actually show them submerged. I really don't know what I'm talking about though.

Try stopping one on top of chasm.

Post by **thespaceinvader** » August 31st, 2007, 6:08 pm

Dagnabit i knew i'd forgotten to mention something >.<

Post by **Boucman** » September 1st, 2007, 7:47 am

thespaceinvader wrote:That was one of the workarounds i thought of myself (particularly for the Gryphons, which it strikes me, would be unlikely to be able to swim/be submerged and then actually take off again...) but i was under the impression that a basic standing (or in this case, flying) still frame had to fit inside the hex, which the gryphons' flying animations (and some of the Drakes' too i think) do not. Or am i wrong about that?

true...

my way of diong won't work either...

well, you'll have to wait, then, I'm afraid..