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ffomega
Registered
05/04/2005
Points
216
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25th October, 2010 at 11:31:35 -
Okay, I'll just get right to my problem:
I am making an application which will function as a fully customizable character maker, which will then allow you to take screenshots of poses of character. Users will change skin, eye, underwear, and hair. You can dress the character, and then you can change the color of the clothes it wears.
What I have attempted so far:
Method 1: Each aspect which can be changed has at minimum 4 active objects (the element itself, then 3 masks.
the pro: This is simple, since all frames are located inside the program and it doesn't have to look for anything.
the con: the more active objects that appear, the slower the application runs and the more system memory it hogs up. (It actually crashed my laptop once).
Method 2: I thought of using Active picture to speed up the program a lot. This would use counters to load 1 frame at a time into active picture. It would look for images located within subdirectories and load them accordingly. I even tried text blitter and animation object to look for external images.
The pro: System resources would appear to be spared thus making the whole application run more smoothly
The con: The external images will load and display but ONLY when I run the frame/application from within MMF2. Once I build and try to run the program without using MMF2, NONE of the external images load.
I am pulling my hair out and do not know how to solve this problem. Can someone help me figure this out?
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Sketchy
Cornwall UK
Registered
06/11/2004
Points
1970
 
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25th October, 2010 at 13:06:36 -
Something like this shouldn't be a strain on the system at all, and certainly shouldn't affect the framerate. You must be doing something wrong (if you're using fastloops then the problem may be related to that).
The second problem - where the app works from within MMF2 but not when built as an exe - is usually a result of not including the required image filters.
Go to th application properties panel, and click on the "edit" button next to "image filters"; untick the "auto" box, and then tick the individual boxes for whatever image formats you are using.
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Jon Lambert
Administrator
Vaporware Master
Registered
19/12/2004
Points
8235
     
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25th October, 2010 at 16:00:05 -
Originally Posted by Sketchy
The second problem - where the app works from within MMF2 but not when built as an exe - is usually a result of not including the required image filters.
Go to th application properties panel, and click on the "edit" button next to "image filters"; untick the "auto" box, and then tick the individual boxes for whatever image formats you are using.
He might be using relative paths instead of absolute ones for the files as well, so if he builds the application outside of the original directory or moves it elsewhere it wouldn't work. To remedy that he could either just keep them together or embed them in the application's binary and have the app extract them at start.
Sandwich Time!Whoo!
JoyCheck & KeyCheck Widgets
For easy implementation of customizable joystick and keyboard controls.
http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=8364
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ffomega
Registered
05/04/2005
Points
216
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25th October, 2010 at 17:57:51 -
@Sketchy: I am not using fast loops. Should I be?
@Jon: I actually wanted to use relative paths but i don't know the syntax to do so.
Anyway, I tried the idea you had with the image filters and it did not work. I'll give you an example:
I have the active picture which will switch images constantly
I have 3 active objects which will load separate "masks". I am using them for their 'replace color' action.
I am using a counter to control which image shows in the active picture and the active objects.
The images themselves, which are located in sub-directories inside the application's main folder:
ex.: Game\AF\skins\*.gif
I don't want anyone to be able to view these files, so I attempted to rename their extensions to '.skn'. I thought that, since the image filter does not have .skn for me to tick, I would just go back to '.gif'. I even tried renaming the files to every extension within the filter, an still nothing shows up
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Sketchy
Cornwall UK
Registered
06/11/2004
Points
1970
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25th October, 2010 at 18:32:33 -
To load from the same folder as your app, use "AppPath$"
eg. To load a numbered file, determined by the value of a counter:
AppPath$ + "AF\skins\" + Str$( value( "Counter" ) ) + ".gif"
Try setting an edit box to the same string you are using to load the image from - that way you'll be able to see if the path is wrong.
Try using a different format (eg. png, since gif is obsolete now anyway) - by which I mean re-saving the images, not just renaming them.
Don't bother trying to conceal the images - it's not worth it, and it wouldn't work anyway (eg. the Paintshop Pro browser would still instantly recognize the files as gif images, regardless what file extension you give them).
 Edited by Sketchy
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ffomega
Registered
05/04/2005
Points
216
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25th October, 2010 at 19:02:03 -
Actually, the files are not quite numbered based on a counter. Here is what I mean:
If 'counter' = 1
then load "game\af\skins-c\image1.png"
if 'counter' = 2
then load "game\af\skins-c\image2.png"
.....
and so on....
Is the syntax still the same?
Edited by ffomega
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Jon Lambert
Administrator
Vaporware Master
Registered
19/12/2004
Points
8235
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25th October, 2010 at 20:32:51 -
Originally Posted by Jay PartakaActually, the files are not quite numbered based on a counter. Here is what I mean:
If 'counter' = 1
then load "game\af\skins-c\image1.png"
if 'counter' = 2
then load "game\af\skins-c\image2.png"
.....
and so on....
Is the syntax still the same?
That still is based on a counter. It just requires a small modification to what Sketchy gave you; that is, just change the path to this:
AppPath$+"game\af\skins-c\image"+value("Counter")+".png"
Sandwich Time!Whoo!
JoyCheck & KeyCheck Widgets
For easy implementation of customizable joystick and keyboard controls.
http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=8364
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Sketchy
Cornwall UK
Registered
06/11/2004
Points
1970
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25th October, 2010 at 20:54:47 -
...except you forgot the str$() around the counter value.
n/a
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Jon Lambert
Administrator
Vaporware Master
Registered
19/12/2004
Points
8235
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25th October, 2010 at 21:30:50 -
Originally Posted by Sketchy
...except you forgot the str$() around the counter value.
Yes, yes I did. I was thinking of Java. Silly me. 
AppPath$+"game\af\skins-c\image"+Str$(value("Counter"))+".png"
Sandwich Time!Whoo!
JoyCheck & KeyCheck Widgets
For easy implementation of customizable joystick and keyboard controls.
http://www.create-games.com/download.asp?id=8364
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ffomega
Registered
05/04/2005
Points
216
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25th October, 2010 at 21:52:46 -
The syntax was all I needed to get the images to show up *___*
I also don't need to rename the image extensions. It used to be that I could see images in the program when I tested it and then nothing showed up when I built it and ran it outside of MMF2. But now the opposite has occured
While I am unable to view the images in the tester, and it may take more time since I have to compile it just to test it but I'm happy with the ending results.
Thank you both for your help 
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lembi2001
Registered
01/04/2005
Points
608
   
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25th October, 2010 at 21:59:03 -
you should still be able to see them without building the app though.
n/a
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ffomega
Registered
05/04/2005
Points
216
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26th October, 2010 at 06:42:45 -
At this point, I'm comfortable just being able to see them at final execution  . Compiling doesn't bother me as I have done that since MMF 1.0 lol
This application is a precursor to an upcoming game I planned on making for fans of an MMORPG, and this application will be great practice for me. By the way, you guys have been much more helpful to me than anyone in the Clickteam forum I asked for help with this problem in the MMF2 forum and only got half-assed answered lol. I'd like to put your names in the 'Special thanks" credits for helping me to figure out this little problem. What name would you like to have seen in the app?
Edited by ffomega
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