Active object vs Active picture

[stillhawk]

Greetings,

The game I am developing is very large.

If both an active object and an active picture will do what I need, which one should I choose.

I'm thinking that all things being equal, using an active picture is better because it will be stored in an external file and the active picture object is just a place holder for the file whereas the active object stores the image in the frame.

If a background picture will also work, which of the three would be my best choice.

Thanks

[sublim]

Active Objects are faster (they don't lower the framerate as much), and they can load external images. So........ Yea, don't use Active Picture. :eek:

[stillhawk]

Thanks sublim. Does anyone disagree?

[stillhawk]

Hey sublim,

Active objects -- they can load external images.

Do you mean that you can paste an image into the Active object using the image editor? If yes, I thought that is why they would be more resource intensive.

Also, can anyone tell me how "load on call" works and whether it is worthwhile do for lots of Active Objects that are external images?

[sublim]

No, you use the "load frame" action for the Active Object in the event editor to load an external image. Pasting an external graphic using the image editor will just make it internal.

[stillhawk]

Thanks,

I used the "load frame" as you suggested.

I removed the image that I had imported into the Active Object.
I then discovered that I had to have a non transparent something in the Active Object. So I put a small square of color. I guess that was replaced by the image that was loaded.

One nice thing about pasting the image into the Active Object is that I can resize it right on the screen to fit my needs. If I use "load frame" I assume I will have to have the images sized exactly before loading. Also exact positioning will be trickier. Guess I'll just have to experiment.

I have thousands of images in my game, so these decisions are rather important.

[sublim]

Yes, use start of frame.

Also, I was wrong about the speed, I just did a framerate test comparing the Active Picture Object with the Active Object and they are both exactly the same speed. However, Active Objects are much easier to animate so I would still recommend using those.

For backgrounds you should use the backdrop object, because it is by far the fastest, although it can't be animated.

[stillhawk]

Thanks again, sublim

[MechatheSlag]

So staying on topic, is it faster to use an Active Picture to paste
an image into the background, or will an Active Object run faster when loaded and pasted?

I've had troubles with Active Pictures on 20000 x 50000 images. Haven't tried Active Objects yet because I'm off my computer.

[sublim]

The Active Picture object is similar in speed to the Active Object, so it's not good for backgrounds. I have found that the plain vanilla Picture Object is actually much faster for backgrounds. If you want externally loaded backgrounds, it's best to use that.