Rain in my game, some kind person, please help..:)

FirstDanFirstDan Member Posts: 208
edited January 2012 in Working with GS (Mac)
For the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to create rain for my game without loosing performance. I have tried using particles and animation etc. I have looked at the snow particles gamesalad demo, but all of which are performance hungry.

If anybody can help with a template or advice, this would highly be fantastic.

My scene is 320x480.

thanks

Dan

Comments

  • tutysestutyses Member Posts: 134
    well, there are 3 options in my head now
    1) the worst one would be using a 320x480 animation with the rain in it, not a good idea
    2) using particles, you already tried and u didnt like it
    3) you can create an actor called drop, with the drop image in it, then interpolate x and y position to make it look like rain, and creating and rule making it recycle when it hit the floor (when it hit the floor you change its x and y position to the original, or to a random one to make it look like another drop)
  • FirstDanFirstDan Member Posts: 208
    @tutyses - thanks for your help, I have tried your approach 3 before and just couldn't get the consistency of the rain falling to look good.

    I hope others can shed some light :)
  • Rob2Rob2 Member Posts: 2,402
    edited January 2012
    There is a snow demo currently available which you could easily modify. Type 'snow' in the new file browser.
  • The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922
    Hmm let me see if I can make a ten frame animation in motion for you. I use them in my games and with only ten frames it doesn't bog down performance even at full screen.
  • CodeMonkeyCodeMonkey Head Chef, Member, PRO Posts: 1,803
    You could try this...
    Make a smaller seemless animation and tile it. So instead of a 320x480 10 frame animation which would take 512x512x10 in RAM for images you could make a 128x128 animations for 16 frames and it would as much RAM for images as one 320x480 image.
  • Rob2Rob2 Member Posts: 2,402
    might also help http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/10199/syn-demo-weather-effects-snow-and-rain
  • The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922
    edited January 2012
    All set made the rain animation and it's a FREE download to anyone who would like it! Just go to Unoffical GSguide it's at the bottom of the first page. it's only ten frames @ 1.5mb for whole file and it is in PNG and can be compressed down as it hasn't had any compression applied. also the rain file has a transparent background.




  • FirstDanFirstDan Member Posts: 208
    Much appreciated, thanks for all your help, and special thanks to . Can't wait to try it when i get home :)
  • The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922
    edited January 2012
    No problem gives me a chance to keep my Motion skills fresh!
    Gleeson Group Media
    UNoffical Gamesalad Guide
    FREE and easy to use. Contains all well done video tutorials for Gamesalad.
  • HoneyTribeStudiosHoneyTribeStudios Member Posts: 1,792
    @Frying Bacon Studios - The rain vid looks quite nice :)

    @FirstDan - Also you can try using small static images (lots of big images will kill performance of a busy game) in combination with:
    The replicate behaviour
    Interpolating the alpha up and down.
    Randomly changing the x/y positions.
    If you choose prime numbers as your time intervals/position changes you can avoid obvious patterns for a more natural feel.

    Shaz
  • The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922
    edited January 2012
    I'd test it and see, we do mostly ipad apps so they are more powerful but in our experence a small ten frame like that doesn't kill my performace and as I said I ran it in the ios simulator @ version 4.2 and was getting 60FPS. I think you have to factor in the current 3g, 4, 4s and future phones have much more power in their graphics engine. We always opt for a long term view with our games or apps so if we expect our games to have a 3 year life span then we design it with that in mind, we go one step back in hardware version (3g right now) as a minimum and the latest as a max. If you're not on the cutting edge with your stuff, you'll be on the bleeding edge. Tech moves fast so plan appropriatly, if you always go for the lowest common denomiator you risk losing the customers with the latest moden tech and those are usually the people with money to spend..marketing 101.
  • The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922
    Let it rain again :D
  • calvin9403calvin9403 Member Posts: 3,186
    edited January 2012
    let it ra1n lol

    @FBS thank you very much for the rain files, looks very nice

    Calvin
  • The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922
    edited January 2012
    My pleasure, I resurrected it so others could enjoy it as well. If anyone has something like this they'd like to see, let me know and in my spare time I'll make a few and put them out for free. It keeps my skills sharp in motion and makes the practice useful!
  • FirstDanFirstDan Member Posts: 208
    Mr bacon, I got the screen resolution wrong initially, I required the rain to be in the format of 480 in height and 320 in width, also can you make the rain drops thinner? Finally can I use ur rain in my game?

    Much appreciated
    Ciao
  • Braydon_SFXBraydon_SFX Member, Sous Chef, Bowlboy Sidekick Posts: 9,273
    I just noticed I was mentioned on here. Wow.
    RKS - Are you calling me a Porkchop?

    Hope my tutorial can help someone out there.
  • The_Gamesalad_GuruThe_Gamesalad_Guru Member Posts: 9,922
    no problem I can make the adjustments tomorrow and yes it is free so anyone can use it.
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