Playing an icon frame by frame

ID:266009
 
Jan 4 2011, 12:25 pm
I've noticed that using any icon procs is always a terrible idea, I once had a project where size constantly changed; most of the total cpu was from IconRsc.


I have a swing animation for weapons, and I want them to play frame-by-frame i.e:
for(var/frame=1 to animlength)
 sleep(delay)
 icon = icon('sword.dmi',"swing",frame,)


If I make sure to delete the atom whose icon is changing via the icon proc, will that help...

A better question:

Should I even be worried about this... at all? (yes swinging will happen very often)

Or should I just tediously go through and separate each icon's swing animations, frame by frame (including the fact there are two swings, obviously)
Jan 4 2011, 1:15 pm
This here does exactly the same thing with less CPU usage and is more flexible in a sense.

while(Swinging)
    icon = 'Swinging.dmi'
    icon_state = "1"
    sleep(1)
    icon_state = "2"
    sleep(1)
    icon_state = "3"


You'll get something that looks exactly like any normal animation. I don't fully understand why you would want to do this but that's how I would do it.

Jan 4 2011, 1:21 pm
In response to Kyle_ZX
Because I've alerady made the icons in a certain manner, and plus when I leave flicking up to BYOND problems generally ensue, but I could try it :D
Jan 4 2011, 1:30 pm
In response to The Ending Cross
Yea, try it just with a few states to start with then go from there would be my advice. Don't want to disappoint yourself if it's not what you're looking for.
Jan 4 2011, 10:43 pm (Edited on Jan 5 2011, 12:36 am)
Don't create a new icon everytime you want to change it. You can continue using the for() loop, just make sure you name your icon_states swing_1 swing_2, etc, and just change your icon_state.
[edit]
This does require you to change how you have your icon set up, but this is the best way for now. We've been requesting this for quite some time.
Jan 4 2011, 10:53 pm
In response to DivineTraveller
There's no creation of an icon here. It's simple editing of the icon state.
Jan 5 2011, 12:19 am
In response to Kyle_ZX
The Ending Cross wrote:
> for(var/frame=1 to animlength)
>  sleep(delay)
>  icon = icon('sword.dmi',"swing",frame,)
>


icon() creates a new icon every time it is used.
Jan 5 2011, 12:41 am
In response to DivineTraveller
O sorry, I see.
Jan 5 2011, 1:07 am
Maybe you are looking for flick() proc?