cocos2d for iPhone

A fast, easy to use, free, and community supported 2D game engine

1. 

   nash8114
   Member

   Hey all,

   I'm using Cocos2d for a game project (aren't we all).
   The actors in the game have aprox 24 frames per animation (such as a walking, hitting, running).
   There should never be more than about 5 actors on screen at the same time.

   Currently I have a sprite map for every animation. So, 24 frames in one texture, so that I can use sprite sheets.

   Performance wise, would it make sense to use sprite sheets (512x512) to store the animations in? Or would it make more sense to store every "frame" as a separate PNG, and just use CCSprite?

   The background of the game is very tiled, so there I can see the benefit of a sprite sheet. But it seems to me to be a lot of overhead to load a 512x512 texture if only 100x100 is displayed, and then the next 512x512 is loaded for the next character.

   Hope this all makes sense, if you're reading this :-)
   Thanks in advance for any help,
   Nash

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. 

   Robert Payne
   Member

   Hi Nash,

   It all comes down to performance & memory usage. It is best to cache as much as you can to improve performance. ( Binding and Unbinding textures is expensive even if it is small ).

   Also you do not have to use a 512x512 image for only a 100x100 pixel region. Instead you can use 128x128. If your textures are swapped out in rapid succession it'd be best to use a 1024x1024 or similar and put all of your characters into it.

   -Robert

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. 

   nash8114
   Member

   Thanks for your reply, Zwopple!
   I see how a single 1024x1024 with the entire game's graphics would be optimal.
   Trouble is, each unique character has about 5 animations (idle, walk, run, jump, hit) of 100x100 * 24 frames. So, a 1024x1024 image could not even contain all animation frames for one character.
   Therefore, I'm wondering if I should just use small images instead of sprite sheets.

   If 3 different characters would be on the scene, then I'd only need to display 3 different images. But with sprite sheets, those 3 images would require quite a large image.

   Perhaps I should just try both and run a benchmark. I'll have to figure out how to do that in that case :-)

   If you want to share more insight, it's most welcome!
   Thanks,
   Nash

   Posted 1 year ago #

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