Layer effects

[Zewo]

I've been spending time on a private project with a few friends of mine, and we've ran into something we are really curious about. 

I was wondering if the Eclipse Engine has the ability to equip items, and show them visually. Example being if I was to equip armor, would it show graphically on my character?

If not, I was wondering how could we get that function started? Are there any tutorials for such, or someone that can quickly explain how? 

I'm looking for a nice clothes shop/item show for players so they can buy these things, and equip them with ease. Overall customization would be dependent on the players, and not the staff. 

ALSO! If there is a way to make more item/equip slots, I remember seeing something, but I figured I'd put it all here. Any help would be EXTREMELY grateful~

[BeNjO]

Thats called Paperdoll,  its already added in most of the engines released here, just not sure what engine you started using as a base for you're current project.

[Zewo]

Oh, awesome! Would you know where I can read about Paperdoll more at? If not, this helps practically enough~

[BeNjO]

It would make things alot easier if you let me know what engine you are using so I can help you further :)

[Mohenjo Daro]

Well, I was trying to find one, but sorry, no luck. But they are easy to figure out.

Ok, so open the paperdoll folder, it should be in "\client\data files\graphics\paperdolls\". Every game has a default color that the game registers as "clear" (it doesn't show up in the game). From here you can make new paperdolls and edit old ones.

Important: Make sure you stay in the boundaries (All the graphics have a "cut off area", if you go past this the game will cut it off and add it to the next part of the graphic. This makes it weird when you walk around.

Tip: The first row is for walking down, the second row is for walking left, the third for walking right, the last for walking up.

Tip: you can use the Characters (there's a folder for that) for a good idea of an outline for what you want to do. (I would actually take the basic #1 character and use that for an idea of what to make and how it will work and look)

Important: If you want to add them to the game and have EO 2.0 or up, or most others then there is a paperdoll area in the item editor, should be at the very bottom. You then select the right number paperdoll to use.

[Zewo]

I'm using Eclipse Worlds actually, and what if I have my own spritesheet/character base? Or must I use the ones given?

[BeNjO]

hi yeah EW does have paper doll, 

add the image in the same format as the one at the bottom of this post, then in the itme edit bottom left of the frame theres the paperdoll options :)


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Result

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[Mohenjo Daro]

If I recall correctly, the background for EW is a pink-ish with the paper dolls, and TehDoug, just in case he can't see if, want to circle the Paperdoll spot in red? But the paperdolls are layed out in the same way, so you can try to figure out my tips and all that.

[BeNjO]

As i remember its more common for the engines to register the first pixel as the "empty" color. Hence why my picture worked :)

[Mohenjo Daro]

Hmm, is that really how it works? If so then I need to go fix some things, thanks!

[Growlith1223]

Not sure if this is relevant anymore but, the very first pixel(at 1x1) is known as the clear pixel or as doug said, the "Empty" pixel. it's known for this due to whatever color is inside that pixel, the game reads it as its opaque color, so it removes the color from the entire image, so if the first pixel was, for example red, if there were anymore pixels in the image that had red in it, the graphics library would then clear out all pixels of that color and leave it transparent where it did take the color out.

Hope this helped!

Sincerely,
Growlith1223

[abhi2011]

I thought with DX8 the feature of the empty pixel/mask color was removed since DX8 just uses transparency and the 1x1 mask color was used since dx7 didn't support alpha blending.

[Growlith1223]

You are correct actually. however you can still use the same function even though it's pretty much useless since png supports true transparency