Animated Menus Possible?

posted on April 17th, 2004, 5:59 pm

One question for the experts.
I read somewhere, that it´s possible to save animations as TGA somehow.
So I ask myself, if there is a way to realize animated menus for A2 or FlOps with it, anyone knows s.th. about it?

posted on April 20th, 2004, 1:50 pm

No, it is not, simply by that fact that armada is using bmp files for the menus. The only animations you see is the main menu with small bink video files which cannot be integrated in the remaining parts of the menus

DOCa Cola

posted on April 20th, 2004, 6:15 pm

Thx, Doca.
But I didn´t mean the loading screens. I was talking about the GUI files. There are some animations like the shield-strength etc. I think they´re hardcoded, but maybe it´s possible to add some fancy effects to the GUI, especially for LCARS.

posted on April 20th, 2004, 8:56 pm

You mean in ingame GUI? Yes it is possible to animate it, but TGAs can't store animation data. It is possible to animate them using "flipbox animations" (i think that's what the armada engine calles them). It's the same like you animate a torpedo or another sprite

Optec

posted on April 21st, 2004, 7:27 pm

Hi Optec, there are some programs to save animations as TGA.
Your idea is interesting, but how do you define the "texture" for the flipbook animation and where do you have to store the information?
I didn´t understand the Tex_Anim_GUI.spr at all, I can´t find anything about it in the WWW.

posted on April 21st, 2004, 9:11 pm

these programs may be able to generate the squares for the box-animation, but TGA files cant store animation data. it doesn't happen often, but that's a thing i'm absolutly sure about. its beyound the capacities of this format and no program can add new features to a file format
well the sprites for the gui are definied in the gui and sprite files and the animation parameters can be defiened there, too. yep i think in this Tex_Anim_GUI.spr are some animations. you do just have to add the sprite, create a animation (or use an existing one) and assign everything you need in a gui sprite file.. i think it should work
perhaps there are some sprite tutorials on armada sites, but i'm not sure about.

Greetings,
Optec

posted on April 22nd, 2004, 11:45 am

I've been trying something similar for CF2's GUI's, so i can have like moiving pieces and flashing lights. Haven't had any luck YET though, but soon....

[DOCa Cola]

posted on April 22nd, 2004, 2:17 pm

Last edited by DOCa Cola on April 22nd, 2004, 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

what is my concern with animated menus is that animations could annoy the user and distracts from the game itself. A big red blinking button (exaggeration) would just be disturbing.

DOCa Cola