1 decade ago by Heartless49
For a top-down game, in the style of classic Zelda: A Link to the Past, or classic Final Fantasy 4, 5 or 6... what would be a batter way to go about this.
Performance-wise, would it be be better to have a layer NOT pre-rendered, JUST for animated water?
I was thinking of a simple alternative by using 2-3 pre rendered layers, each with a different distance value, that each have a different, slightly transparent, water tile repeated endlessly, underneath of the other layers.
This would give the illusion that the water is 'shifting' or moving without the cost-in-performance by animating tiles on the layers. Obviously, wherever water would be shown, the 'ground' tiles would just not be placed, that way it shows the water layers that are underneath of it.
I know that the downsides to this would be that the water would only 'appear' to be animated while the player is in motion, but there are multiple ways to simulate that effect even while the player is idle... You could even just have the layers constantly be 'moving' with an offset value that cycles from 0-tileSize and back to 0 constantly... I'm just wondering if anyone's thought about this, or tried it so I know if it's a waste of time, or if this is a new breakthrough, lol.
Performance-wise, would it be be better to have a layer NOT pre-rendered, JUST for animated water?
I was thinking of a simple alternative by using 2-3 pre rendered layers, each with a different distance value, that each have a different, slightly transparent, water tile repeated endlessly, underneath of the other layers.
This would give the illusion that the water is 'shifting' or moving without the cost-in-performance by animating tiles on the layers. Obviously, wherever water would be shown, the 'ground' tiles would just not be placed, that way it shows the water layers that are underneath of it.
I know that the downsides to this would be that the water would only 'appear' to be animated while the player is in motion, but there are multiple ways to simulate that effect even while the player is idle... You could even just have the layers constantly be 'moving' with an offset value that cycles from 0-tileSize and back to 0 constantly... I'm just wondering if anyone's thought about this, or tried it so I know if it's a waste of time, or if this is a new breakthrough, lol.