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So, I have been trying to use the arrange command to get my sprite objects to draw in the correct order. But I seem to have one object (a counter) that won't allow me to move it forward or back. All the commands are grayed out. Has anyone run into this before and is there a workaround?
Mobichan
Well, I don't know if I dare say this given this thread right below, but... have you unchecked Display as Background?
Well shoot me in the head... no sooner did I start reading the post below, I tried unchecking it and I have sorting order control again.
I have to agree with the ranters in the other post. I am a relatively new user (2 months now) and I am often burned by specific boxes being checked by default. Maybe I haven't worked out a good routine/workflow for using MMF2, but I have yet to find an actual use for the "save as background" option. I'm sure the veterans have learned to live with unchecking some things out of habit, but I like the suggestion about having preference control.
Now that I have searched through the help file and the wiki, I actually can not find ANY info about what this option does. The only reference to "Display As Background" is in the Active Object - Actions section of the help file. And it actually makes a direct reference to my problem. But I have to say that unless you know to look there, it is pretty useless to a new user. But to avoid this post becoming a seedbed for ranting, let me just say that that is just my opinion...
mobichan
i'm not entirely sure, but i think 'display as background' just draws your objects like a backdrop object, which are supposedly faster to display than active objects or the like
all objects above layer 1 are drawn like active objects (even backdrops), which is slower but i think there's no other choice since the display buffer could get completely trashed if backdrops were drawn "normally"
and of course, an object with DaB enabled can't be reordered above actives since backdrops can't (unless they're on a higher layer, which in that case MMF probably ignores DaB entirely)
i could be totally wrong, though
Even though I can change the draw order, it seems to not be working at runtime. I thought that setting the order when creating the objects would work, but it doen't seem to always do the trick.
Does anyone know if you can set an object's exact number position in the draw order? or if you can retreive that info and set it to a counter?
I have a case where I have 3 objects that I need in a specific order. I can get them to display in the proper order by:
+create the farthest object
+bring to BACK
+create middle object relative to that first object
+move middle object in front of the farthest object
+create nearest object relative to the middle object
+move nearest object in front of middle object
But now my player object (which sits in the frame at #4 in the draw order) appears behind my middle object. I have also been trying to get my enemy bullets to appear on top of everything, but they seem to end up in the middle of the sort order.
Can anyone explain how the order is handled when you Create active objects through code?
Mobichan
the layer object lets you move objects to a specific z-index
i believe newly created objects are automatically moved to the top of the z-order (on their own layer, anyway)
Thanks for pointing out the layer object. That's just what I needed.