Re: In-game GUI

[Ingo Ruhnke]

Gervase Lam <address@hidden> writes:

> Do you mean _100%_ alpha-less? If that is so, then you would not be
> able to have the rounded rectangles that you have on the screen for
> the buttons.

alpha-less as in not having 8bit alpha chanel, but a simple 1bit alpha
channel (a pixel can be 100% transparent or 100% opaque, but not half
transparent)

> Anyway, I had a go at using GIMP to turn the buttons into Indexed
> 256 colour bitmaps with 1 bit alpha, while still keeping the marble
> effect as intact as possible. There is a noticeable speed up when
> you scroll around a level.
> 
> Do you also want the SmallMap to be "alpha-less" as well? Should the
> fonts be "alpha-less" as well?

I have already converted all the things to alpha-less images on my
hard-drive, but havn't yet decided if I should commit them to replace
the old ones or keep the old ones for OpenGL mode (alpha isn't a
problem there).

> I suppose that the Pingus Released and Pingus Out could be
> represented by stationary icons. However, I think it will be tricky
> to do with an Exiter. Having had a look at each sprite frame of an
> Exiter, I don't think any one frame would represent an Exiter very
> well as an icon.
 
The exited Pingus could simply be represented by an exit itself,
instead of a Pingu.

> The only alternative I could think of is to have a stationary Walker
> which is immediately next to another Pingu, who is in the middle of
> exiting. Got this idea from how comic books would represent
> characters performing an action. They do it by freezing the
> 'crucial' steps of the action.
 
One could also go about to morph the complete animation into a
stationary frame, with first frame 10% visible, second frame 20%
visible, etc.
 
> Also, how should a player increase and decrease the release rate?
> There is no way to do this in Pingus.

That is currently not implemented, since release rate is currently
local to an exit, not global for a level. Haven't yet decided if we
should leave it that way or change it. 

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