At 12:32 AM 10/2/2002 +0200, you wrote:
I hope I understand you correct and you mean it like
this:
http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/sfshot2.gif
Would this be better?
Yeah, that looks as good as a sprite would at that angle.
Or should I try the middle (2 lines) sized one between
this very thin (1 line) and the old very thick (3 lines)
one?
That might still look okay. You might try a variation where the thickness
transitions from 3-2-1 so you can try to give the lasers some (very coarse)
scaling for perspective.
Now that I think about it it makes sense to use the playfield.
You get two lasers for free because of the playfield reflection.
Because of the speed of the animation, being limited to 4 pixels of
horizontal drawing per frame is okay.
You also might want to experiment with keeping 4 stubs of playfield visible
in the corners to imply the cannons themselves.
I know it's ideal to start the lasers at the actual corners of the screen
but I think it's just too aliased that way.
One complication I can think of is if any of the enemies take multiple
shots you'll have a case where the lasers always pass through the ship but
the ship doesn't explode. Since both lasers have to always be in sync,
they have to do the full firing sequence or both stop at the same
time. But that would be an okay compromise I think.
If you just went with a photon torpedo approach it would be easier to just
multiplex sprites, of course.
You'll also not be able to simulate any sort of inertia effects on the
laser beam. As you are turning, the laser will always travel straight
ahead rather than in any sort of arc or curve. So that might be less of a
challenge than a Star Raiders type game where the crosshair doesn't
necessarily indicate where the shot goes.
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