Hey, I'm new!!

[SG2]

Hello, all. I don't see an introductions forum anywhere, but I'm used to making an intro thread when I join a message board, so I guess I'll make it here. Hope that's alright ^^;

I'm new to these boards, mostly because I've just discovered it's possible to modify LittleFighter2 and create your own custom version. I actually began playing LF2 about a year ago, and found it really addicting and a blast to play for such a simple little fighting game. I haven't played in a while because I've been so busy (I'm going to need to brush up on my skills again, heh), but finding this out has made me really excited.

I'm a college junior majoring in Interactive Media, so I've got some basic game programming and scripting knowledge, though I'm honestly not very confident in my coding abilities without reference. I am, however, more than confident in my spriting, since that's been one of my favorite hobbies for...God, maybe 7 or 8 years, now, though I've only gotten really avid about it in the past 2 or 3. I'm still not very good at customs, but I'm a master editor. Making my own games some day is my dream, hence my major. Still, I've always found that modifying a base is the best learning tool, rather than starting from scratch - for instance, aspiring writers may not be confident enough to make their own original story yet, so they choose fanfiction because they can write existing characters they know well...and of course with spriting, you've got a base template to work on, like a skeleton, and you're just adding your own muscle and bones onto it. I think ;learning game developing is very much the same, and learning to program by modifying existing code is definitely a good way to get your feet wet. And since I'm definitely not skilled enough to make my own fighting engine AI (I use GameMaker, by the way, because ActionScript3 makes me want to tear my hair out when programming in Flash...GUI FTW), I think it would be really cool to make my own LF2 mod, especially since A) it's such an easy game to pick up on the fly but becomes more complex as you learn to challenge the harder settings, and B) it's just a blast to play!!

That being said, I can be kinda stupid when it comes to learning from tutorials, and I usually have to combine reading lots of tutorials for the same subject along with practice and trial & error when learning something new. So right now, I'm reading up on data changing and I'm just so lost, but I really want to learn my way around doing this. I hope browsing around the forums will help me learn. But I do have a few basic questions that are probably really stupid to those of you with experience - so stupid that I feel like it'd be wasteful to make entire threads about them. So I'll ask briefly here, though if you guys think I'll need a little more instruction then I'll go ahead and post my questions in the appropriate sections. My head's just a little fuzzy on the basics, and some clarification might help me out a lot.

My main question...how do you go about editing the sprites? Everything I've ever programmed has required me to give each sprite frame its own .png file...so I have no idea how LF2 reads the entire sprite sheet .bmp and knows which frames it's assigning to what. How do I go about making my own sprites into an LF2-compatible sheet? For starters, the size of the sprites I'd be using wouldn't match the LF2 sprites (they'd be smaller; I use JUMP! Ultimate Stars as a base). Then there's the issue of the different animation frames my sheets would have...for example, my JUS sprites don't have a pre-existing 'drink' animation, and the LF2 frames don't have some of the special attack animations my JUS sprites would have. Basically I'm just confused how I make my own sheet as a .bmp file that LF2 can recognize...I haven't found any information to help me understand in Data Changing tutorials, and everything in the sprite section seems to be more tutorials on how to actually create sprites, not how to make the LF2 sheet. I'm not sure if my wording even makes sense...I'm just looking for an explanation of how I can use sprites I already have and create my own LF2 characters from them. Obviously I put all the sprites into one .bmp file, but how? Is there a special organization or step I have to take? There must be, I'm sure, but I don't get it. Like say for example this was the sheet I wanted to use (I only grabbed frames from the sheet that basically match the LF2 animations; I have more animations on my sheet and if I learned how to do this I'd want to use as many as I could):

Image (Click to View)

Obviously I'd have to edit my own new sprites for things like the lifting or frozen/on fire animations, but that's no problem at all. My concern is...how do I organize these sprites so that they're recognized as each frame and not as just one giant .bmp image? Like I said, I've never worked with my entire sheets like this before, I've always had to make my animations by turning each frame into its own document, in GameMaker, Flash, etc...I'm really confused, and any help for this confusing question would be appreciated. I feel so stupid for asking what is probably obvious to everyone else, but I really don't understand.

I do have other questions, but I'm sure they're nothing a little lurking and reading tutorials won't help me understand eventually. This sprite thing just totally throws me for a loop, and I'd like to get all my characters made and set up before I even begin working in Data Changer. Can anyone help me out? Sorry to ask this on my intro thread, but I just figure the answer is obvious and I'm just not getting it ^^; Let me know if I should make a thread for it elsewhere.

Anyways, I hope to enjoy working on this project, because I really think my own custom vision with the LF2 engine would be a lot of fun. I'll also be sure to share some of my sprite projects in the near future, too.

Well, I hope to enjoy my time here!! ^_^

Oh, P.S. - sorry if my intro is a wall of text, I tend to do that ^^;

--SG2

[no one]

Oh, P.S. - sorry if my intro is a wall of text, I tend to do that ^^;

Thanks for giving me something to do to pass time. You should check out the story section .

Now as for your question:

I have no idea how LF2 reads the entire sprite sheet .bmp and knows which frames it's assigning to what.

file(0-5): sprite\sys\message.bmp w: 450 h: 350 row: 3 col: 2

That line told the EXE to read the sheet called "message", located in "sprite\sys\" folder. The width of each sprite in it is 450, the height of each sprite is 350. So the side of one sprite is 450x350 (aka the sprite must be able to stay fit in a black square with that size). There're 3 sprite in a row, 2 in one column aka 6 sprites on the whole. They are numbered from 0 -> end.

In order to tell which frame will load which sprite, check the "pic:" part. The number noted in it is the number of the sprites noted in file(x-y).

[SG2]

Thanks for the welcome

I think I at least have a better idea now of how the Data Changer reads the .bmp file. So basically, as long as I make each sprite fit into a 450x350 box and write the corresponding code, it'll read my sheet? But I'm still a bit confused. 450x350 is a pretty large size. Do I need to scale my sprites up to fit that size, and the game will automatically resize them? For example, I looked in the sprite folder of my LF2 directory and compared my sprites to Dennis, and mine are only slightly smaller. If I make a 450x350 document in Paint, this is how the two look next to each other...



Is it supposed to be that way, and I just make a massive sheet to fit a bunch of 450x350 frames? Sorry if these are n00b questions, I'm just really confused. D: I'll make a topic about it in the appropriate forum (I'm guessing it'd go in the Data Changer section, not the sprite section). Thanks for your help, though. ^_^

[no one]

You can change the box to whatever size you want like 79x79, 123x63,.....

[Siegvar]

LF2's spritesheet is organized into a grid based sheet.
Check out sprite\template\0.bmp as a reference.
Each square is usually called a "frame" or "cell" depending on who you talk to.
The whole file is called a "page" or "sheet"
Also, each "frame" or "cell" is separated by a 1px space to the right and bottom of each "frame" or "cell" which the game ignores while reading the sheet, which is how the green grid in Template's sheet does not turn up in-game.

file(0-5): sprite\sys\message.bmp w: 450 h: 350 row: 3 col: 2

file(0-5)
This defines the pic number assigned to the "frames" or "cells" in the bmp file

sprite\sys\message.bmp
Filepath, self explanatory

w: 450 h: 350
This defines the width and height of each "frame" or "cell" in the sprite sheet.

row: 3 col: 2
This defines the number of "frames" or "cells" laid side by side in a row, and stacked in colums.
In this case you'll get the frames stacked 3 wide and 2 tall, ending up with a lying flat 3:2 rectangle for the entire sheet file.

Therefore, combining all the above information, the full sheet size in message.bmp is:
Width: (3 x 450(width of all the frames laid side by side) + 3 x 1(width of all the 1px grid borders)) = 1553px
Height: (2 x 350 + 2 x 1) = 702px
So the final bmp dimensions are 1553px x 702px

[zero_legends]

Well hello there. Nice to see a 3 thread welcomed member with activeness. Your sprite work is pip-squeeky compared to the normal LF2 size. That's obvious. I can see that you pixel drawed it. So far, only NTSD II has been pixel drawing and still is. Anyways, u put effort in making all of those sprites. They're from scratch aren't they? That's great. But still, normal LF2 style is way more preffered. U won't get much admiration from that type of style.

[SG2]

You can change the box to whatever size you want like 79x79, 123x63,.....

Each square is usually called a "frame" or "cell" depending on who you talk to.
The whole file is called a "page" or "sheet"
Also, each "frame" or "cell" is separated by a 1px space to the right and bottom of each "frame" or "cell" which the game ignores while reading the sheet, which is how the green grid in Template's sheet does not turn up in-game.

Oh, I see. I think I've got the hang of it now. Thank you all for your help, I'm sure you get these questions a lot and they come off rather n00bish, so I appreciate it. ^_^

Well hello there. Nice to see a 3 thread welcomed member with activeness. Your sprite work is pip-squeeky compared to the normal LF2 size. That's obvious. I can see that you pixel drawed it. So far, only NTSD II has been pixel drawing and still is. Anyways, u put effort in making all of those sprites. They're from scratch aren't they? That's great. But still, normal LF2 style is way more preffered. U won't get much admiration from that type of style.

Yeah, I'm a pixel spriter, because that's all I've ever known. I'm going to read up on some LF2-style tutorials, though, because I like the look of those sprites and would like to try my own some time. Though I don't need admiration. The game I'm making is mostly going to be for members of my message board, because I've wanted to make such a game for a long time since we had an old thread that basically asked 'if you were a video game character, what would your powers be?'. Just knowing I can make such a game for all of us to enjoy is enough for me, so even if it bombs here on the LF2 forums, I won't mind. Though I'd like to think I could make it interesting enough that it would still be enjoyable (not necessarily loved) even to those who prefer the more painterly-styled sprites.

I'm really just looking forward to making this project for my friends and members to enjoy. I've been making sprites for an imaginary game for about two years, now - being able to work them into something that will be playable is really exciting for me. That's all I really need. ^_^

[albertsendodd]

Hi all...
Myself Albert Sendodd.
I have just joined this forum to get some information.