Problems with Animate()

ID:1693261
 
Oct 5 2014, 8:22 am
(See the best response by Kaiochao.)
Problem description:
I can't manage to get animate() to work properly on my Show_Damage() proc:

Code:
#define DMG_Font_Width 14

mob/proc

    Show_Damage(var/Damage)
        
        
        var
            Num_Pos     = 1
            Num_Length  = length(Damage)

        while(Num_Pos<Num_Length+1)

            var/Number = copytext(Damage, Num_Pos, Num_Pos+1)

            var/image/i = image('Damage_Font.dmi',"[Number]",pixel_y = 36, layer = MOB_LAYER+2)

            switch(Num_Length)
            
                if(1)
                    i.pixel_x = Num_Pos * DMG_Font_Width - 4
                if(2)
                    i.pixel_x = Num_Pos * DMG_Font_Width - 12 
                if(3)
                    i.pixel_x = Num_Pos * DMG_Font_Width - 18
            
            src.overlays += i
            Num_Pos += 1
            spawn(10) src.overlays -= i


I have tried putting it in various places such as:
            src.overlays += i
            animate(i, alpha=0, pixel_y=64, time=5)


And:
                if(1)
                    i.pixel_x = Num_Pos * DMG_Font_Width - 4
                    animate(i, alpha=0, pixel_y=64, time=5)


Both which end up making my code nonfunctional.

Any help would be appreciated.. :)
Oct 5 2014, 9:05 am
Best response
Overlays can't be animated. However, you can animate images that are attached as an image would be.
var image/i = image(..., loc = src)
(something) << i
animate(i, ...)
spawn(10) del i

Images attached this way must be explicitly displayed to specific clients. If you had a reference to the attacker, you could display the number only to the mobs involved:
// (something) = list(src, attacker)
list(src, attacker) << i

Or you could probably simply display it to every client in the world, as an overlay would be:
world << i
Oct 5 2014, 9:18 am
Thanks, solved the problem! :)