So I'm working on this player UF right now that's highly unconventional. See the bottom right of
http://ui17.gamefaqs.com/208/gfs_26802_2_5.jpg for the look.
I've spent the past couple days reading Zork's (rRingMod3 and others) work with working with abnormal frames and textures, and I've got the hang of SetTexCoords() and I know the math behind how the coordinates are calculated. I don't wanna just tack onto another person's work though, for various reasons.
So I'm thinking about how I want to structure the set of frames and textures. I'm thinking I should break the UF into 4 sections to simplify the calculations, I know I could do it in as little as two sections though. I would just need to relocate where a texture frame is attached depending on the health percentage at the time.
So while I'm still in the planning stages, anyone have any thoughts on the 4 versus 2 segment quandary going on in my head right now? With the 4 segment style, I would have to deal with extra rotations, or I would have essentially redundant images since I would be rotating them externally (aka in GIMP). With the 2 segment style, I would be be moving where the second texture frame is attached potentially frequently, and I'm not sure if there's a substantial burden on the CPU from changing how frames are attached to eachother. In either scenario though, I'll be rotating and skewing the "slicer" texture, as Zork refers to it, that creates that sort of radius or vector; so I won't be able to escape having to deal with many methods in either style.
Another thing that keeps crossing my mind is what arc distance I should use to calculate the width of the straight bar portion of the UF in order to maintain a smooth transition. Trial and error I suppose? Or should I purposefully make the bar wider as to emphasis it's importance? Maybe reduce the size to make the lower chunk of health more important?
Linear Mode
