96 Objects

[ffomega]

Ok, this is probably not a new question--in fact I'm sure of it.

I have used counters, SubApps, Background System and Active System Boxes, the Text Blitter and List Boxes to name some of what my application can do.

However I have 96 Animation Objects which all have to be loaded on screen at all times. The application works great, but runs slow (obviously).

I will tell you what the objects do:

13 animation objects load different 'body parts' to characters, all of which are layered in precise order. Think of this game as one of those 'animated paper doll' programs. The idea is that you are able to change the color of everything...hair, eyes, skin, and hair of a 'naked' character.

The character can then be dressed in different clothes (Hats, Armor, Shoes, Cuffs, Weapons, Wings, and Capes).

The skin, hair, eyes, and shorts/bikini make up 16 of these objects (each 'part', as well as red, green, and blue masks of each 'part'.

The remaining objects are for the other clothes:
9 clothing types, each type needing up to 9 masks to recolor the equipment for a total of 10 object types per clothing type. Here is an image to reflect my explanation:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v39/ffomega25/Misc/chart.png

[Konidias]

Hmmm I'm not sure why you are separating out each color into its own image? Why not just have the RGB all in one?

There is a shader for HWA that lets you set R G B Y C M for a single object. (red green blue yellow cyan magenta)

Maybe if you explain this a little better... Not sure what the issue is other than you're saying it is slow right now? Is that the issue?

[Looki]

Going to write you a shader.

[Looki]

There you go:
http://www.clickteam.com/epicenter/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=246859&

[ffomega]

Thank you could this shader be upgraded to accomodate several dozen different color replacements?

Here is what I am trying to accomplish:
I created a tiny program showing you what my intended result is:

http://wlo-koori.comoj.com/color%20masks.mfa

[Looki]

Sorry but that mfa doesn't have any events and the animations are empty.

EDIT: Never mind... you..updated it? Um, I also made a shader which lets you set 6 colors and uses the shading of the color to replace... e.g. let [color:#FF0000]RED[/color] be [color:#0000FF]BLUE[/color], then [color:#990000]DARK RED[/color] would turn into [color:#000099]DARK BLUE[/color].

[Konidias]

I'm really confused as to what he is wanting... Why does the mfa have 3 masks using add/subtract effects and then he has the object replacing colors? Why not just use the shader method as Looki has shown?

It isn't really hard to go to the shader menu and click the "Editor>>" button and figure out how to add in more colors if needed... I would imagine you could add in as many colors as you want with little effort.

[ffomega]

I have figured out how to add colors (I have a lot to add as a matter of fact) However, I do not know how to actually replace them using the event editor. I see the option to "set effect parameter" but it is disabled. I'm also not skilled in using HWA and this application was started before it came out so of course it's inefficient This was why I came here for help on how to do it

[Konidias]

What you want to do is color one object with pure red or pure green or pure blue, etc... You can use all the colors as long as they are the pure values (255,0,0) (0,255,0) (0,0,255)

This much you probably know. So do this for an object. Then click the object and go to its properties and then the Display Options panel. Then for "Effect" you want to change that from None, to the shader that Looki provided.

You need to put the two files in that archive into your MMF/Effects folder

Then you can either load up MMF, or go into the Effect panel (by choosing an effect for the object in its Display Options by clicking "None" and then clicking the "Edit" button that pops up. From there you can click the "Refresh" button to display the shader you added.

It is called "Color Replacer" If you double click it or click the Ok button, then you apply that shader to the object.

So then it should pop up a whole bunch of colors and columns in the Display Options table under that Effect.

From there you can change the color to whatever you want. So if your object is pure red (255,0,0) and then you tweak that Red (R) option, then it should change the color of your object to whatever you choose.

This goes for all the rest as well.

But I'm assuming you're going to also want to do this during runtime, so for that you want to use events and go to "Effect > Set Effect" and set the effect first. Then for the next action you'd want to go to "Effect > Set effect parameter". Here is where most people get lost... because it asks for the parameter name... So what you do here is go back to your frame editer and open the object's properties again, and then look at the letters in parenthesis. Should be like (R) (G) (B) etc... This is the parameter name

So to change your red object's color, you would set effect parameter with the name "R" to some color like "0,50,32"

[ffomega]

I saw all of that. However when I tried clicking on one of the colors, it would not let me set a new color. And in the event editor set parameter is grayed out and is not selectable:

http://wlo-koori.comoj.com/grayedout.PNG

And to hopefully clear up Konidias' confusion, the tiny little palette in the upper left corner of the frame contains non-pure red, green, and blue values ranging in intervals of 25, 50, 75, 100, and 125. The add and subtracting ink effects were the only way I knew how to give the results I needed. The only way I think I could possibly explain to anyone here what exactly it is I am trying to achieve here is to have you download this:

http://www.mediafire.com/?wlyw3i94zwbov8w

THIS is what my program is in a sense, even with all the files crammed into archives the application still runs flawlessly and very fast. I have opened up these archives and there are no alpha channels or masks, yet it was still achieved. MY application was supposed to be an upgrade to this one, kinda like its successor.