DST wrote:
What would add another dimension to this is if we added rgb boosting. I'm frustrated at most software that only offers rgb dimming. Its a standard in video games for enemies to flash when they get hit. Yet all the game creation software i can find only offers rgb dimming, and not boosting. Its seems like it would be a simple enough thing to implement, and it would reduce my animation count to half(!), because i won't need an extra set of flashed animations.
RGB boost is my #1 feature request.
I get it now, why GE doesn't have rgb boosting. Since all images start at 255 in each color, reducing them is simple math.
But to perform a boost, you can't just up the colors, because 256 or higher does not exist.
So you have to run a pixel search and raise individual pixel colors, but that does not result in a simple 'brightening'. All rgb colors are a ratio of the three colors, and that ratio must be maintained. If you have a color that's 33, 55, 100, and you add 100 to each color, you will not have the same hue, because the differences become relatively smaller. You could double each color, and that should maintain your ratio, but what happens when one color is 160 and you double it?
That color maxes out at 255, loses the relative ratio to the others, and you end up with strange colors that aren't even close to white. In reality, even though it can be scripted (i've done it in java and made it work nicely), it had to be customized to the specific image it was to be used on. It also requires resaving the image in some internal format so that it can be used quickly, like an animation, rather than a standard array of pixels.
It's the kind of thing you'd use OpenGL to do, and so far, that kind of thing isn't the direction GE seeks to go in, the 3d and all that. And I'm not unhappy with that, for a simple reason:
Look at the actor control panel in GE, now compare that to any single screen from a program like Blender, Antiryad, or Reality Factory. The million-options-per-screen is a real turnoff for most artists, and I for one love GE's combination of power and simplicity.
That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement, but it's a help to everyone involved if we understand what GE is meant to be, so we can ask for and contribute for features that are useful to what GE is, rather than wanting the moon and everything else too.
It's far more important that we solidify the current abilities of the program, like increasing the functionality and stability of the script editor, increasing export capability, and overall program stability on the ever increasing number of OS platforms that are in use nowadays (current stats show XP is still the OS leader worldwide, yet GE (editor mode) was originally designed for a small family of x86 windows systems, and that demand for GE OS compatibility has tripled since then, hasn't it?).
Just thought i'd get that out there, and perhaps give my game a shameless bump.
The round moving across the screen is an awesome effect, I'm embarrased to say this, but I couldn't find out how you did it. Could you explain please? And thank you.
