Question

I started using andEngine yesterday but I’m pretty confused.. I want to make a custom character for each player, so i want to make a database inside the app in Assets/gfx and if for example the player chose a different eyes or nose, the character will change. Is there any way to build something like this without making different sprites and setting up the positions and all of that. (there are some games on the computer that does what i want to do with my app like maplestory, LaTale, Gust online, etc.)

Thanks!

Answer 1

I am not sure it is done this way (I never had a game where I used it, nor tried it), but here is an idea that came to my mind now:

Lets say we have a game with character appearance editing like maplestory. To make it simple, a character is just a circle, or a 2d ball, and you can change it’s color and it’s eyes color. So you have these folders:

assets/gfx/circles

And

assets/gfx/eyes

Now, lets say we have this circle:

And we have these eyes:

And we want to combine them.

You could do it:

    BitmapTextureAtlas playerTextureAtlas = new BitmapTextureAtlas(256, 256 TextureOptions.BILINEAR_PREMULTIPLYALPHA);
    TextureRegion playerTextureRegion = BitmapTextureAtlasTextureRegionFactory.createFromAsset(playerTextureAtlas, this, "circles/redcircle.png", 0, 0);
    //By executing the next line, we place the eyes over the player texture area.
    //There is NO need to keep a reference to the texture region this returns to us, because technically this one and playerTextureRegion are THE SAME - they both hold the same region in the texture (As long as they have the same sizes, of course)
    BitmapTextureAtlasTextureRegionFactory.createFromAsset(playerTextureAtlas, this, "eyes/yelloweyes.png", 0, 0); 

Remember – the eyes image background has to be transperant so it won’t override the circle! Play around with the TextureOptions parameter. I’m not sure if the one I used will fill this purpose – maybe another one will.

And lastly, you should keep the eyes eyes and circles the same size, since this way it is easier to test whether they fit. If you make the eyes just be a small rectangle, you will have to mess with it untill you find the place where you should position it over the circle. Waste of time…

Now, you can just load different bodies/eyes/hairs and so on, place them, and you got a customized player!