Guild of Writers

Is it possible to "play" an image sequence on a texture plane? (I've seen those flames, or burning fire in Jonnee's age - I assume he did this with images sequences on sprites, or maybe video sequences)
So if yes, how can this be done?

I have already tried to play with image maps (e.g. a 8x8 map) and to do the sequences with IPO curves and the offsets, say 1 image = 1 keyframe, but this does not come out well in URU, not as expected;
then I tried to setup playing the image map with the Real-time properties in UV Image editor (tiles and anim stuff); it played well in the Blender game engine, but does not export to URU. Or I may have missed some steps, no idea.

Any hints in the right direction would be great.

It is possible to use a bik file as layer, but I doubt Jonnee did that for his fire. It is only used for animated linking panels.

It might be possible by using a long texture, with a number of different sub-images of the sequence in it, and use layer animations to shift the image to the next sub-image in the sequence.
Needless to say that the texture has to be mapped to allow only one sub-image at a time

I would use a bink layer for something like fire. I've used it before and it works excellently. You can't currently add this in PyPRP but you can with libPlasma. If you know something about PRC this is fairly easy.

This is a link to a tutorial on it that I never quite finished. http://www.guildofwriters.com/wiki/Bink_Movie_Layers

Unfortunately PageEditor no longer exists. You'll have to use prcd and then prcc to change the plKey references. After creating new objects (po/uof's) and new versions of pre-exiting objects, you'll need to import them in with something like PlasmaShop or PrpExplorer.

Yeah, after some searching for BINK I found this old thread: viewtopic.php?p=27452#p27452

Lontahv wrote:If you know something about PRC this is fairly easy.

Umm - seems I still have to learn a lot.

Lontahv wrote:Unfortunately PageEditor no longer exists.

Yes - already searched for it without success.

Lontahv wrote:You'll have to use prcd and then prcc to change the plKey references. After creating new objects (po/uof's) and new versions of pre-exiting objects, you'll need to import them in with something like PlasmaShop or PrpExplorer.

PlasmaShop or PrpExplorer, okay, I already used them. But give me a hint: What do you mean with prcd, prcc and uof's ?

Is it possible to change the blending mode of the material? For instance to have an additive blending more for a fire movie.

Trylon wrote:It might be possible by using a long texture, with a number of different sub-images of the sequence in it, and use layer animations to shift the image to the next sub-image in the sequence.
Needless to say that the texture has to be mapped to allow only one sub-image at a time

Hmm, ya, I tried that; but maybe it did not work because I tried to animate it too fast. Frames were lost or not played in the correct sequence.
I will give it a try again with a much lower framerate later.

Aloys wrote:Is it possible to change the blending mode of the material? For instance to have an additive blending more for a fire movie.

Blending mode? Not sure what you mean, but if you're talking about the Alpha thing, yes, this can be done with a layer animation for Material IPO, Alpha curve.

tachzusamm wrote:PlasmaShop or PrpExplorer, okay, I already used them. But give me a hint: What do you mean with prcd, prcc and uof's ?

Prcc is a command line tool that comes with the libPlasma tools zip. The "c" at the end stands for "compile". This will make prc XML (the stuff you can view in the alpha version of PlasmaShop 3.0) into a Uru Object File (uof) also known as Plasma Object (po) file. This object can be imported into your prp by write clicking on the page and selecting "import" in PlasmaShop. Prcd decompiles prps and uofs/po's. This can make the objects you export from PlasmaShop into prc XML.

Usually editing/adding stuff to a prp works something like this:
#1. export a certain Uru object from your prp
#2. use prcd to make it into xml
#3. edit the xml
#4. use prcc to make the xml back into an Uru object
#5. import the Uru object back into your prp after deleting old copy that's still inside the prp
#6. update the sum
If you want to put a completely new object in, start at step 3.

Aloys wrote:Is it possible to change the blending mode of the material? For instance to have an additive blending more for a fire movie.

I think a Bink layer has all the regular layer flags... you're opening a scary can of worms where we could have movies acting as lightmaps with multiplied alpha

Paradox wrote:

Aloys wrote:Is it possible to change the blending mode of the material? For instance to have an additive blending more for a fire movie.

I think a Bink layer has all the regular layer flags... you're opening a scary can of worms where we could have movies acting as lightmaps with multiplied alpha

Disco!