NOTANIM
What is the point of using NOTANIM in the .ini file? Just don't animate the sequence in your scripts...
It doesn't seem to affect anything. Am I missing something, or is it entirely pointless (and just useful as a note or something)?
It doesn't seem to affect anything. Am I missing something, or is it entirely pointless (and just useful as a note or something)?
ANIM went missing a few years ago - some say she was sucked into some game machine and moves thru the web machine by machine, but no one knows for sure, except she simply disappeared.
Every so often she was reputed to have been sighted in scripts, trying to catch Someone's attention to pull her out so she could go home - but she would disappear before anyone saw her long enough to try to help and so after time she has became this legendary thing I guess. It's pretty scary to have her pop up like that - randomly - staring at you from a game when you least expect it, but she was never there long enough that anyone could actually prove it was her and so another conspiracy theory was born. And I mean, did she jump or was she pushed?
Now they add NOTANIM to pics that pop up in games so you didnt think it was her knocking on the glass to get out and scaring young children. So I guess it does serve a purpose... of sorts
Its just saying its NOT HER... I can't believe you didn't know this Sparrow...
Every so often she was reputed to have been sighted in scripts, trying to catch Someone's attention to pull her out so she could go home - but she would disappear before anyone saw her long enough to try to help and so after time she has became this legendary thing I guess. It's pretty scary to have her pop up like that - randomly - staring at you from a game when you least expect it, but she was never there long enough that anyone could actually prove it was her and so another conspiracy theory was born. And I mean, did she jump or was she pushed?
Now they add NOTANIM to pics that pop up in games so you didnt think it was her knocking on the glass to get out and scaring young children. So I guess it does serve a purpose... of sorts
Its just saying its NOT HER... I can't believe you didn't know this Sparrow...
While that's certainly an interesting explanation, my own belief is that this command resulted from Seth forgetting how his own game worked. He added it when Mystery Island came out. It's possible there is some specific situation where it could actually be helpful, but I'm not aware of one. The seq/pseq distinction seems to have this covered already.
You scare me msdink....
Uh-oh, they're onto you Zeddexx 
Unless I make it first!
Unless I make it first!
February 28th 2012, 05:23 PM
shevek
What is the point of using NOTANIM in the .ini file?
AFAIK there's not really any point, but there is a "reason", sort of, I suppose. There are four options:
- specify animation properties (delay times in particular)
- say that the background is BLACK
- say that the depth dot is LEFTALIGNed instead of centered
- none of the above.
In particular, if a "sequence" is really separate frames, specifying delay properties is pointless. If the image is not black, and the depth dot should be centered, it makes sense to not specify any of the other options either. So NOTANIM is just a name for "no animation, and not otherwise special either".
Note that both NOTANIM and LEFTALIGN are pointless in the sense that their effect can be created by specifying some frame values instead.
AFAIK there's not really any point, but there is a "reason", sort of, I suppose. There are four options:
- specify animation properties (delay times in particular)
- say that the background is BLACK
- say that the depth dot is LEFTALIGNed instead of centered
- none of the above.
In particular, if a "sequence" is really separate frames, specifying delay properties is pointless. If the image is not black, and the depth dot should be centered, it makes sense to not specify any of the other options either. So NOTANIM is just a name for "no animation, and not otherwise special either".
Note that both NOTANIM and LEFTALIGN are pointless in the sense that their effect can be created by specifying some frame values instead.
Paul: I think you may be thinking of the sp_picfreeze() command instead of NOTANIM, which is actually a pretty cool command (no pun intended - it can "snap-freeze" sprites in the middle of an animation), but so totally not needed to make sure that a boat doesn't animate, as mentioned as the reason in the Mystery Island design document.
EDIT: I played around a little bit with Mystery Island, and it's a real problem in that dmod - but the problem stems from the fact that the mod uses sequence 8, and since the boat has (by default) an sp_base_walk() of 0, it plays the sequence 8 when the boat moves up.
EDIT: I played around a little bit with Mystery Island, and it's a real problem in that dmod - but the problem stems from the fact that the mod uses sequence 8, and since the boat has (by default) an sp_base_walk() of 0, it plays the sequence 8 when the boat moves up.
Oh. Right you are. That must be what I was thinking of. Well, I'm still going to try and pin this on Seth. My revised hypothesis is that in an earlier, pre-release version of Dink, NOTANIM was necessary*, but it was left in even after it became obsolete.
*Perhaps instead of seq/pseq it relied solely on brains to determine whether a sprite should be animated. So for example arrows needed NOTANIM, because the missile brain would normally expect an animation.
*Perhaps instead of seq/pseq it relied solely on brains to determine whether a sprite should be animated. So for example arrows needed NOTANIM, because the missile brain would normally expect an animation.
Hmm forgot about LEFTALIGN too. According to SimonK's help file on it: "LEFTALIGN is used in loading graphics used to display numbers and the health bar in the stats area of the screen."
Which is nothing to do with LEFTALIGN - it's sp_noclip.
It puts the depth dot on the left instead of centered? Well at least that's something, unlike NOTANIM
MsDink - All is now clear! Poor ANIM... And to think I heard her knocking too. I just thought it was the bird tapping on the window... How can we set her free?!
Which is nothing to do with LEFTALIGN - it's sp_noclip.
It puts the depth dot on the left instead of centered? Well at least that's something, unlike NOTANIM
MsDink - All is now clear! Poor ANIM... And to think I heard her knocking too. I just thought it was the bird tapping on the window... How can we set her free?!
Why couldn't they just set the base walk to -1?
February 29th 2012, 05:15 AM
shevek
nothing to do with LEFTALIGN - it's sp_noclip.
Well, the engine obviously needs to not clip them. But that doesn't mean that it's what LEFTALIGN does.
It puts the depth dot on the left instead of centered?
Actually I'm not sure. I think I tested something, but don't remember the results. Given the name, it is what I'd expect it to do. NOTANIM also does what the name says, it's just confusing that LEFTALIGN and BLACK are also implicitly NOTANIM.
Well, the engine obviously needs to not clip them. But that doesn't mean that it's what LEFTALIGN does.
It puts the depth dot on the left instead of centered?
Actually I'm not sure. I think I tested something, but don't remember the results. Given the name, it is what I'd expect it to do. NOTANIM also does what the name says, it's just confusing that LEFTALIGN and BLACK are also implicitly NOTANIM.
