jueves, 27 de marzo de 2014

AnimationNinja - Frames with individual frame durations

Last week when we were going to code some animations for Ninja Trials, we realized that the 'Animation' class from libGDX would't let us making animations with different durations for each frame, which we need for almost every animation in the game.

For example, if we want to make a face whith eyes that blink, we'd like to get something like this:
 
(eyes blink for 0.1 sec)

But if every frame's duration needs to be the same, we'll get something like this:

(unless we insert several duplicated frames, and that doesn't seem to be efficient)

As you can see we needed more control over animation's time. We didn't mean to reinvent the wheel, so we searched again and again but found nothing, then DanPelGar started to modify the 'Animation' class. Now we are using the 'AnimationNinja' class.

These are the additions to the original class:
/** Constructor, storing the frame duration, key frames and play type.
     *
     * @param frameDuration the time between frames in seconds. An array is given with the different times.
     * @param keyFrames the {@link TextureRegion}s representing the frames.
     * @param playType the type of animation play (NORMAL, REVERSED, LOOP, LOOP_REVERSED, LOOP_PINGPONG, LOOP_RANDOM) */
    public AnimationNinja (float[] frameDuration, Array keyFrames, int playType) {
        this.constructorArray = true;
        this.frameDuration = frameDurationArray[0];
        this.animationDuration = 0;
        this.frameDurationArray = new float[frameDuration.length];

        for (int i = 0; i < frameDuration.length; i++) {
            this.animationDuration += frameDuration[i];
            this.frameDurationArray[i] = frameDuration[i];
        }

        this.keyFrames = new TextureRegion[keyFrames.size];
        for (int i = 0, n = keyFrames.size; i < n; i++) {
            this.keyFrames[i] = keyFrames.get(i);
        }

        this.playMode = playType;
    }  

 //A different method is used if an array of frames was set
    /** Returns the current frame number.
     * @param stateTime
     * @return current frame number */
    public int getKeyFrameIndexIfArray (float stateTime) {
        if(keyFrames.length == 1)
            return 0;

        //With the difference between the actual time and the animation duration we will know the exact frame
        float frameNumberFloat = (stateTime % animationDuration);
        float frameTime[] = new float[keyFrames.length];

        //the float framePosition is the sum of the duration of the actual frame plus all the previous one -> Accumulated duration
        float framePosition[] = new float[keyFrames.length];
        for (int i = 0; i < framePosition.length; i++) {
            if (i == 0) {
                framePosition[i] = frameDurationArray[i];
                continue;
            }
            framePosition[i] = frameDurationArray[i] + framePosition[i - 1];
        }

        //With the framePosition and the actual time we can know which frame Number is the actual one
        int frameNumber = 0;
        if (frameNumberFloat < framePosition[0])
            frameNumber = 0;
        if (frameNumberFloat > framePosition[frameDurationArray.length - 1])
            frameNumber = frameDurationArray.length - 1;

        for (int i = 0; i < frameTime.length - 1; i++) {
            if (frameNumberFloat < framePosition[i + 1] && frameNumberFloat >= framePosition[i])
                frameNumber = i + 1;
        }

        //the rest of the method stays the same
        switch (playMode) {
        case NORMAL:
            frameNumber = Math.min(keyFrames.length - 1, frameNumber);
            break;
        case LOOP:
            frameNumber = frameNumber % keyFrames.length;
            break;
        case LOOP_PINGPONG:
            frameNumber = frameNumber % ((keyFrames.length * 2) - 2);
         if (frameNumber >= keyFrames.length)
            frameNumber = keyFrames.length - 2 - (frameNumber - keyFrames.length);
         break;
        case LOOP_RANDOM:
            frameNumber = MathUtils.random(keyFrames.length - 1);
            break;
        case REVERSED:
            frameNumber = Math.max(keyFrames.length - frameNumber - 1, 0);
            break;
        case LOOP_REVERSED:
            frameNumber = frameNumber % keyFrames.length;
            frameNumber = keyFrames.length - frameNumber - 1;
            break;

        default:
            // play normal otherwise
            frameNumber = Math.min(keyFrames.length - 1, frameNumber);
            break;
        }

        return frameNumber;
    }
If you are starting using libGDX there are high chances that you are in the same situation as we were, so we thought that putting here the solution we got would be a good idea. Here is the class AnimationNinja.java

 Code's license is the same that libGDX uses, the Apache 2.0 (you can use it free of charge, in commercial and non-commercial projects).

Greetings!

jueves, 20 de marzo de 2014

Ninja Trials - Character Sheet (1) - Ryoko

Hi! Today we are introducing the Ninja Trials female main character.

Her name is Ryoko (涼子) and it means "refreshing girl".

Greetings!

lunes, 10 de marzo de 2014

Ninja Trials

Hello again! :)

We'll try to update the blog about once a week to tell you about progress we are making, but before that I'll tell you a little about the first game we're developing now, Ninja Trials.

We started developing it in 2013, at first it was going to be a very simple game (like Track'n'Field), because we were still gathering the team, and we primarily wanted to test the engine AndEngine for Ouya (originally it was going to be an Ouya exclusive game, and maybe also for Android smartphones ), but gradually the ideas emerged and we saw that the game had lots of possibilities, so we added several things: new game modes, achievements, history...

These are the first sketches of the game:






We have been learning and improving, and when December 2013 arrived, we took a major decision, we left AndEngine in favor of libGDX. There were many advantages and disadvantages that we had in mind to decide, but mainly we took that decision because that way we could also distribute the game on PC (Windows, Linux and Mac), and even iOS thank to RoboVM.

Right now we are finishing the rebuilding of the "skeleton" of the game, so we hope to have a Beta version running soon.

We'll continue reporting! ;)

domingo, 2 de marzo de 2014

Hello World!

We got a new Blog and Website! :D

We are starting as game development team, but have great expectations and ideas.

Our first project is Ninja Trials, we have been developing it for a while, learning a lot at the same time.

We started making the game using AndEngine (for Ouya and Android https://github.com/jjhaggar/ninja-trials), but recently decided to move to libGDX, mostly because of multiplatform support.

We'll be reporting on progress :)