Sprites with multiple colors?

[Vincehood]

Hi,

my understanding is that MOBs can only use a single color, right?

So what's the secret in games like Burger Time or DK arcade where the playable character has multiple colors?

Thanks!

Ps: happy new year!

[artrag]

Two sprites 

[+DZ-Jay]

25 minutes ago, artrag said:

Two sprites 

Exactly.

 

More specifically, you overlay one or more MOBs, each one with their own single color, then move them all in unison by updating their positions simultaneously.

 

Obviously, every MOB you use in this way is one less MOB you have available to act on its own, so make sure to design your game with that in mind.

 

Also to keep in mind is the fact that the order of MOBs is significant:  lower number objects have higher priority.  That is, MOB #0 will appear on top of MOB #1, and so on.  This can helps in "shaping" your multicolor MOBs by using higher priority MOBs to mask parts of the ones behind them.

 

    -dZ.

[Vincehood]

Ok interesting, thanks! So 3 MOBs are used for Mario in DK arcade then...

[+nanochess]

Basically it is a sprite for each color.

 

With some clever design you can make a sprite taller than possible. For example, when your character uses a hat, you can position that sprite higher than the others. Or for the boots, you could position that sprite lower than the others.

 

Another thing is that to save in sprite usage, suppose you have a 16x16 sprite in two colors, it would require four MOB. But you find you can use double X scaling for one of the colors while having fine detail in the other color, then you could make it using only three MOB.

 

For example, in Sydney Hunter and the Sacred Tribe, the main character is composed of six MOB.

 

 

[+5-11under]

You can also underlay sprites with tiles, if done carefully.

 

[Vincehood]

11 minutes ago, nanochess said:

Basically it is a sprite for each color.

 

With some clever design you can make a sprite taller than possible. For example, when your character uses a hat, you can position that sprite higher than the others. Or for the boots, you could position that sprite lower than the others.

 

Another thing is that to save in sprite usage, suppose you have a 16x16 sprite in two colors, it would require four MOB. But you find you can use double X scaling for one of the colors while having fine detail in the other color, then you could make it using only three MOB.

 

For example, in Sydney Hunter and the Sacred Tribe, the main character is composed of six MOB.

 

 

Impressing  ! By the way, is Sydney Hunter still available in some format?

[+nanochess]

1 hour ago, Vincehood said:

Impressing  ! By the way, is Sydney Hunter still available in some format?

Not sure, maybe @coleco_master knows?

 

[Arnauld]

6 hours ago, Vincehood said:

So what's the secret in games like Burger Time or DK arcade where the playable character has multiple colors?

 

In Burger Time, there are 2 MOBs for the chef, 2 MOBs for the egg and 4 x 1 MOB for the hot dogs and pickles. Because the pepper is also drawn with a MOB and all MOBs are already used, the yellow part of the egg is borrowed when the pepper is used.

 

Edited January 1, 2021 by Arnauld
just kept the relevant part pf the quote

[intvnut]

In Thunder Castle, in the second stage, the "magical mouse" is drawn w/ two MOBs, but one of the MOBs cycles quickly between two colors, to create a shimmer effect, and a more brown color than the stock "brown":

 

 

I'll be honest:  When I first saw that, I thought they were actually multiplexing a single MOB through the "eyes" and "body."  When I dug into it, I discovered they aren't.

 

The other multi-color characters in the game (knights, wizards, demons) use two MOBs each.  I think the dragon in the first level may use 4 MOBs, actually, to get the length.

 

You could, in theory, use a single MOB and cycle it quickly between two patterns and two colors to multiplex it.  That said, modern TVs don't handle multiplexing well.

 

(BTW, the next time you play that game, when your knight gets caught by the bad guy, I have some lyrics to go with the theme that plays:  "Damnable a--hole, Damnable a--hole, Damnable a--hole! F--k you, f--k you, f--k you, f--k you! Diiiiiiiie!"  Those are lyrics ~9 year old me came up with over 35 years ago.  Not exactly deep, but they fit the music, IMHO.)

 

In Space Patrol, I use 2 MOBs for the player's "tank", and I made creative use of pixel offsets to get more apparent resolution in the horizontal direction.

 

 

 

Space Patrol also did some interesting stuff with MOB multiplexing to minimize its negative effects.  That's not really the point of this thread, though, so I won't bore folks with it.