Spritesheet Packing
I've been making a lot of new graphics recently, but as of yet, all my spritesheets are still in development style.
Could someone explain how to pack these spritesheet like the ones that came with the game? I've downloaded Stefan Beller's RectangleBinPack, but I can't figure out how to work it; if I compile the project, I just get a ton of errors.
Thanks in advance!
Hi,
the sprite sheet packing is not necessary to test and run the game, it is only needed for releases (smaller memory impact hence faster loading times). So you actually use the unpacked stuff for development, and only pack for the release. (The git repository for the flare-game for example also contains the unpacked sprites in the art_src folder)
However It would be great to show the errors, so we can help in a more specific way. The general way of using the tool is described at https://github.com/clintbellanger/flare-engine/wiki/Animation-Definitions
In the linked repository there are 2 parts. One generic packing part (which you need to compile, so that's where you're struggeling? I'd assume) The second part is flare specific.
In the flare specific folder there is the python script spritesheetpacker.py which can read in the unpacked animation definition and sprite sheets and output the packed version. That python file working on one spritesheet and one animation definition file.
However we were in need to pack lots of spritesheets just before the releases usually so there are also shell scripts to be found (ending in .sh) which contain lots of calls to the spritesheetpacker.py script, so lots of spritesheets were packed.