As many of you have noticed, MKF has things like external backgrounds, sounds, and sprites. How does Game Maker open external files?
Allow me to walk you through the world of Everything that can be accessed in game that isn't actually in the game.
This tutorial assumes that you're somewhat familiar with Game Maker (You should be able to do anything in Sup's tutorials).
But first, I'm going to copy and paste something from the Game Maker Documentation that you need to keep in mind before you EVER change resources in game:
Full Version: CC's External Stuff Handling Tutorial #1
| QUOTE |
| • Don't change resources that are being used. This will lead to errors! For example, don't change a sprite that is being used by an instance. • When you save the game during playing, added and changed resources are NOT stored with the save game. So if you load the saved game later, these might not be there anymore. In general, when you manipulate resources you can no longer use the built-in system for loading and saving games. • When you restart the game during playing, the changed resources are NOT restored to their original shape. In general, when you manipulate resources you can no longer use the action or function to restart the game. • Resource manipulation can be slow. For example, changing sprites or backgrounds is relatively slow. So don't use it during the game play. • Creating resources during game play (in particular sprites and background) easily uses huge amount of memory. So be extremely careful with this. For example, if you have a 32 frame 128x128 animated sprite and you decide to create 36 rotated copies of it you will use up 36x32x128x128x4 = 72 MB of memory! |
Changing sprites is slow? Might be why it takes a few seconds to load Tails in MKF...
==SPRITES==
There are two things you need for the game to recognize external sprites:
1. The sprites (duh)
2. The code (also duh)
First, I'm going to go out of order and discuss the code. From the Game Maker Documentation:
QUOTE
sprite_add(fname,imgnumb,precise,transparent,smooth,preload
,xorig,yorig) Adds the image stored in the file fname to the set of sprite
resources. Many different image file types can be dealt with. When the image
is not a gif image it can be a strip containing a number of subimages for the
sprite next to each other. Use imgnumb to indicate their number (1 for a
single image). For (animated) gif images, this argument is not used; the
number of images in the gif file is used. precise indicates whether precise
collision checking should be used. transparent indicates whether the image
is partially transparent. smooth indicates whether to smooth the edges.
preload indicates whether to preload the image into texture memory. xorig
and yorig indicate the position of the origin in the sprite. The function returns
the index of the new sprite that you can then use to draw it or to assign it to
the variable sprite_index of an instance. When an error occurs -1 is returned
sprite_add(fname,imgnumb,precise,transparent,smooth,preload,xorig,yorig) is your function to use. The argument "fname" is the file you want to open. It is stored as a string, and therefore should be enclosed in quotation marks.
"sprites.bmp"
"sprites.gif"
If your sprites are in a subfolder, then you should refer to "folder\sprites.bmp" if it's in a folder "folder", "folder\folder\sprites.bmp" if it's in "folder" inside another "folder" or... yeah, I think you get the point here.
imgnumb splits your sprite file into the number you put for imgnumb. If you have an imgnumb of 4, it will split the file into 4 equal pieces by width for animation. It is therefore key that you KEEP YOUR SPRITES IN NEAT ORDER.
How wide your sprite file should be depends on how big your subimages are and how many there are.
File width = subimage width * imgnumb
There are quite a few more functions that modify sprite resources, but that one is the one you need for now. Note that the function returns the index of the new sprite, which you'll need to do anything with it. You can store the index in a variable, like so:
global.spr_lol=sprite_add(...
Sprites can be deleted with the sprite_delete(ind) function.
==SOUNDS==
Sounds are a bit simpler to load than sprites. In addition, they can also be deleted.
fname works the same as it did with adding sprites, so no need to mention it again.
The kind depends on what file you're going to use. 0 should be for .wav files. 1 should be for .mp3 and .mid files. 2 is for, um, .wav files that you intend to be 3D sounds, and 3 is for any file type Game Maker cannot play (like OGG files).
To delete a sound, just use sound_delete(ind). Like using sprites, you're kind of in trouble if you don't keep track of the index that sound_add returns.
Well, that should be everything. Post to report mistakes, give praise, etc.
EDIT: sprite_delete(ind) derp
,xorig,yorig) Adds the image stored in the file fname to the set of sprite
resources. Many different image file types can be dealt with. When the image
is not a gif image it can be a strip containing a number of subimages for the
sprite next to each other. Use imgnumb to indicate their number (1 for a
single image). For (animated) gif images, this argument is not used; the
number of images in the gif file is used. precise indicates whether precise
collision checking should be used. transparent indicates whether the image
is partially transparent. smooth indicates whether to smooth the edges.
preload indicates whether to preload the image into texture memory. xorig
and yorig indicate the position of the origin in the sprite. The function returns
the index of the new sprite that you can then use to draw it or to assign it to
the variable sprite_index of an instance. When an error occurs -1 is returned
sprite_add(fname,imgnumb,precise,transparent,smooth,preload,xorig,yorig) is your function to use. The argument "fname" is the file you want to open. It is stored as a string, and therefore should be enclosed in quotation marks.
"sprites.bmp"
"sprites.gif"
If your sprites are in a subfolder, then you should refer to "folder\sprites.bmp" if it's in a folder "folder", "folder\folder\sprites.bmp" if it's in "folder" inside another "folder" or... yeah, I think you get the point here.
imgnumb splits your sprite file into the number you put for imgnumb. If you have an imgnumb of 4, it will split the file into 4 equal pieces by width for animation. It is therefore key that you KEEP YOUR SPRITES IN NEAT ORDER.
How wide your sprite file should be depends on how big your subimages are and how many there are.
File width = subimage width * imgnumb
There are quite a few more functions that modify sprite resources, but that one is the one you need for now. Note that the function returns the index of the new sprite, which you'll need to do anything with it. You can store the index in a variable, like so:
global.spr_lol=sprite_add(...
Sprites can be deleted with the sprite_delete(ind) function.
==SOUNDS==
Sounds are a bit simpler to load than sprites. In addition, they can also be deleted.
| QUOTE |
| sound_add(fname,kind,preload) Adds a sound resource to the game. fname is the name of the sound file. kind indicates the kind of sound (0=normal, 1=background, 2=3d, 3=mmplayer) preload indicates whether the sound should immediately be stored in audio memory (true or false). The function returns the index of the new sound, which can be used to play the sound. (-1 if an error occurred, e.g. the file does not exist). |
fname works the same as it did with adding sprites, so no need to mention it again.
The kind depends on what file you're going to use. 0 should be for .wav files. 1 should be for .mp3 and .mid files. 2 is for, um, .wav files that you intend to be 3D sounds, and 3 is for any file type Game Maker cannot play (like OGG files).
To delete a sound, just use sound_delete(ind). Like using sprites, you're kind of in trouble if you don't keep track of the index that sound_add returns.
Well, that should be everything. Post to report mistakes, give praise, etc.
EDIT: sprite_delete(ind) derp