Forums » Code » Layers.js Plugin

So the name is tentative, the code is definitely a first pass, but I am presenting it here to get feedback and also improve the API.

What this plugin does is completely revamps how ImpactJS deals with 'layers', whether it's background maps, entities, foreground maps, etc.

By default, if you use this plugin, it will create 3 base layers much like Impact already has:

Background Maps
Entities
Foreground Maps

in that order.

The beauty of this plugin however, is that you can arbitrary create as many different layers as you please. Not only that, you can also define what order those layers will draw, or even decide to draw some, or not others, allowing you to switch between varying game states without requiring a level reload.

There are almost certainly bugs, but I have this officially working in my own game and the Hello World app.

https://github.com/amadeus/impact-layers

See documentation in the repo.

Unknown Issues:
Please help me find them! :)

Please forgive this sloppy documentation, I wrote it quickly and hurriedly, so if there's anything that doesn't make sense, hit me up!

Layers.js is now officially a project with documentation.

The new update link is here:

https://github.com/amadeus/impact-layers

Can I do animated background maps with this? And if so - how?

Yes, background animations should work as normal (by normal I mean how it was documented in the ImpactJS docs).

More info:
http://impactjs.com/documentation/class-reference/game#backgroundanims
http://impactjs.com/documentation/animations#animating-backgroundmaps