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Feature
Three Ways to Animate in REALbasic
Issue: 1.1 (August/September 2002)
Author: Joe Strout
Author Bio: Joe Strout is a senior software engineer at REAL Software, and likes to dabble in making games with REALbasic.
Article Description: Three different animation techniques
Article Length (in bytes): 27,202
Starting Page Number: 18
RBD Number: 1004
Resource File(s):
1004.sit Updated: Friday, October 17, 2003 at 12:18 PM
Related Link(s): None
Known Limitations: None
Excerpt of article text...
Nearly every software developer has a need to generate some animated graphics sooner or later. Animation is the bread and butter of game developers, but it can be used effectively in many other places as well, from an eye-catching About Box to a custom progress indicator. REALbasic provides several different ways to produce animation, each with pros and cons.
In this article, we'll pose a moderately simple animation problem: an image of a rocket flying over a starry background, trailing little puffs of smoke. Then we'll solve this in three different ways: using a simple Canvas, using a SpriteSurface, and using an Rb3DSpace. By the end, you should be well-equipped to use the right tool for any animation job.
The Problem
For the sake of this article, assume you need to make a rocket fly over a background of stars. Every now and then the rocket emits a little puff of smoke which should move in the direction opposite that of the rocket, expand a bit, and then disappear. If possible, the smoke puffs should be translucent (because translucency is cool).
...End of Excerpt. Please purchase the magazine to read the full article.
Article copyrighted by REALbasic Developer magazine. All rights reserved.
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