Playing with Cycling...

[TheGeepster]

I was curious about timing animated combos with different numbers just in case it might be handy, and I think I discovered the rule that you can use to make every combo in a series the same length even if they have different numbers of frames.

It's simple, really. You just add one to the animation speed before multiplying it by the number of frames. An example of what I mean.

2 frames at a speed of 23:
2 * (23 + 1) = 48

This should match 6 frames at a speed of 7:
6 * (7 + 1) = 48

Try it out, and it should work. It might glitch now and again, but it should time out exactly right.

Next I'll see if I can make one combo last exactly twice as long as another.

[idontknow]

i still dont understand why combos must be the same animation length in order to cycle...why not have different lenghted combos cycle?..it just doesnt make sense to me

[TheGeepster]

Well, there's no rule they can't IDK. Some people try to use them for timing events or for other nifty tricks which require precisely identical timing for combos. It's for those people I post this information.

[System Error]

Nice work figuring that out. Good luck on figuring out more on animation! :) It's very useful for precise timing indeed.

[C-Dawg]

You know, I think you might have something- but I think you're adding one to the wrong part of it. The problem with animated combos is thus:

Cell 1 : 10 combos animating over 2 tiles at a speed of 4
Cell 2 : 2 combos animating over 10 tiles at a speed of 4

Now, inuitively you think "Hey, 10x2x4 = 2x10x4, so the tile animation for the two cells should match up exactly." Except that this isnt what happens in Zquest. They get quickly out of synch. And Geepa has noticed that they seem to be off by "1". But I dont agree that it's off by one SPEED- I think the speed is the same- I think that it takes a cell just as long to animate to the next combo as it does for a combo to animate to the next tile.

If this is true, the one should be added to the number of tiles, not the speed... can you check if this cures your "occasional glitches"?

-C

[TheGeepster]

I tested this before posting it. I'll test it further of course.

Adding one to speed makes sense, because it sets the number of tics each frame remains after initial drawing before moving on to the next frame.

I only had one glitch actually. Not sure what caused it. I'll take a lookie.

[System Error]

Hmm...I wonder what exactly your problem was. It probably was within Zelda Classic or something. It's a buggy little bastard, that ZQuest. >_<

[TheGeepster]

I worked on making a 4 phase ground block using 2 frame animations for the non-animated combos.
{Stay Down} => {Stay Down} => {Come Up} => {Go Down} and loop (where you can't walk through it when it's not completely down)

I had a bit of a problem in that you could work your way against the flow of a spot, but it would work if you substitute damage tiles or pits for the solid tiles. The cycling itself works just fine though.

The next step is to see if I can make one combo animate exactly twice as long as another. I'm not sure if this would be near as useful.

ADD-ON EDIT: The glitch seems to occur whenever you walk on the tiles. Not sure what to do about this.