Alpha Merge

ID:132652
 
Jan 18 2010, 5:56 am
I'm not sure what you'd call it how how you would implement it, but it would be nice if there was a way to make colors with the same alpha merge without darkening. Here's an example of what I'm talking about.



See how the shadows merge into the same greyish blob? That's what I'd like to do.
Jan 18 2010, 6:14 am
The problem with that is that the shadows merge because they're shadows. That picture is from a 3D environment. Using 2D sprites to simulate 3D, you'll never get the exact same results. I don't think there's actually any precedent for the kind of drawing you're looking for.

Lummox JR
Jan 18 2010, 6:30 am
In response to Lummox JR
I didn't mean cast 3d shadows using 2d sprites, I just meant merge 2d shadow sprites. I'll try to give a better example.

Jan 18 2010, 6:38 am
In response to SuperAntx
Basically a way to have it so that your character's shadow doesn't show up when your character is in the shadows, and that sort of thing. Without having to actually remove the shadow.
Jan 18 2010, 6:46 am
In response to Foomer
Yup, that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Right now it's kinda possible to do by manually adding and removing shadows or just creating custom shadow sets for the map. It's really tedious though and there's no practical way to have shadows meld into each other when the player steps into a shaded area.
Jan 18 2010, 6:50 am (Edited on Jan 18 2010, 7:23 am)
In response to SuperAntx
SuperAntx wrote:
Right now it's kinda possible to do by manually adding and removing shadows...

That seems like it would leave off relevant shadows in the non-overlapping areas. ie: if you removed that guys shadow in the WoW screen shot, just because it was overlapping, like 90% of his shadow would be missing.

...or just creating custom shadow sets for the map. It's really tedious though and there's no practical way to have shadows meld into each other when the player steps into a shaded area.

Though it would be CPU intensive, you could use Blend() and SwapColor() to dynamically create the necessary icons during run time.
EDIT: But that may not look very good during the transition between tiles...