Changing walking animation speed

Post by **TMC** » Sat Dec 07, 2019 2:32 pm

In the latest nightly is a significant change to walking animations. Previously they were always two ticks per frame even if you increased the framerate. Now you can select the number of ticks per frame (for now, just a single global setting). It changes walk-in-place animations too.
This doesn't affect walking speed.

What's significant is that the default is no longer 2 ticks/frame but instead 110 milliseconds/frame, however many ticks/frame comes closest to meeting that. 110ms is equivalent to two ticks at the default 18.3fps / 55ms/frame. This changes all existing games that use a framerate other than the default 18 fps, so I'd like to hear whether it's a problem for anyone/any game. I think in general games that used a non-default framerate now look better.

Here's an example from delinquent.rpg by Feenicks. The game runs at 30fps, so it used to be 66ms per frame, now it's 100ms. The difference is more noticeable when actually playing.

<img src="http://tmc.castleparadox.com/pics/ohrbl ... _speed.gif" width="640"> <== before, 2 ticks/frame
<img src="http://tmc.castleparadox.com/pics/ohrbl ... _speed.gif" width="640"> <== now, 3 ticks/frame

At least the three-frame walking script on the wiki still works.

There's still more to be done to allow using non-default framerates without problems, but this was the biggest problem.

Feenicks · Post by **Feenicks** » Sat Dec 07, 2019 3:59 pm

I approve of this choice of test game.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Sat Dec 07, 2019 5:13 pm

This is great, thank you! Testing now and it absolutely looks smoother.

kylekrack · Post by **kylekrack** » Sat Dec 07, 2019 7:11 pm

Amazing. I'm assuming you posting about this means it's safe to download the nightly now?

Post by **TMC** » Sun Dec 08, 2019 2:51 am

As far I know there are no new recent bugs in nightlies. However mac nightly builds haven't built in 5 days.

Now, 110ms/frame is not necessarily the best default. I feel like slightly slower like 120-140ms might be better. 18fps games would still be 2ticks/frame as long as the default is less than 138ms.

Here's 100ms/frame vs 133ms/frame (3 ticks vs 4 ticks)
<img src="http://tmc.castleparadox.com/pics/ohrbl ... _3fr_h.gif" width="400">
<img src="http://tmc.castleparadox.com/pics/ohrbl ... _4fr_h.gif" width="400">
<img src="http://tmc.castleparadox.com/pics/ohrbl ... _3fr_v.gif" width="160"> <img src="http://tmc.castleparadox.com/pics/ohrbl ... _4fr_v.gif" width="160">
What do you think? (Sorry, 3 doesn't divide evenly...)
Hmm, maybe a three-frame walk cycle isn't the best example. Maybe two-frame cycles want a faster animation.

Of course since you can adjust it yourself, this doesn't matter much.

You can adjust the setting while using Test Game. You need to exit General Game Settings for it to come into effect.

dantedynamite · Post by **dantedynamite** » Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:10 am

This is an excellent addition. Thank you for your hard work!