4 direction vs. 8

[Noadi]

Well in general I think this is a style decision and sometimes a time issue.

For classic SNES looking games 4 direction works great. It also does when like me your 4 direction sprites already have 8 frames per direction plus a few other small animations so that to add the other 4 directions would just take far to much time and effort on a game that is already taking a very long time.

[hamalnamal]

it probably depends on the recources you have at your command, and how many people you can use.

[MBitt]

A good game requires talent and work. 8 directions or 360 degrees of rotation or even 4 directions require you to work. The abundance of 4 direction snipets of code floating around leads people to look for short cuts. A quick fix as you would say. What ever works I guess is the best method for an individual, but for those few who go that little extra, they will lead the way.

[Noadi]

I don't think that's true at all. You have to have priorities in making a game. I could have 8 directions and every other fancy thing I want in my game but it would never ever be finished. Since I actually want to release Shaman at some point certaint things have to be more important than others and good battle an menu systems, detailed sprites, a large world, and an in depth plot, and eliminating bugs, come way before 8 direction sprites when it comes to priorities.

[AltiusBimm]

<Joke>Actually releasing a game?! What a novel idea, Noadi!!</Joke>
That is an interesting point because, for me, actually releasing a game is a relatively low priority. My style of programming leads me to focus on two approaches:
1) to tackle individual coding challenges, similar to when IsmAvatar makes a walking system but not a game which uses it.
2) to make ‘editors’—Game Maker games which are not games, but rather are used to make future game design easier. For example, my currently most advanced project is an editor that makes designing isometric games much easier, by allowing the use of an alternative to Game Maker’s internal room editor. (My editor, by the way, allows the user to save a room design to a [text] file, which can be loaded into any game that knows what to do with the information)

I will only release a game once I have solved enough problems, and made enough editors, that apply to the same genre, as to afford me the resources necessary to make a game without a great deal of difficulty.

[Flashback]

personally, I don't care. go and have 3918937381 directions!

[MBitt]

How about 10 directions, the 8 standard plus up and down. That will let you work in a multilevel enviorment that stays resident. Just kidding!

[IsmAvatar]

go and have 3918937381 directions

A computer is only capable of 36000 directions. Even this may have a bit of inacuracy, because PI is rounded off at some point.

[victor]

Yeah

Which game got 36 000 directions? :lol:

[IsmAvatar]

Idunno, whoever makes their character turn by increments of .01
Which at that point it would take ages to turn the character 90º, so you would care

[hamalnamal]

36000 directions, how is that possible and why is that max?

as for the 10 directions that would be cool if in a game had a spel that added 2 more directions up and down.

[hamalnamal]

lemmie add to wat noadi said about priorites
as i said earlyer it all depends on what recources you command,
its easy to make the extra 4 directions if your a massive company like ea games but if ur 1 person than add them would quite difficult

[victor]

No, I dont think it would be very hard to add 4 more direction, aslong you got the sprites for it.

[IsmAvatar]

36000 directions, how is that possible and why is that max?

I don't wanna go too much into this, but i'll explain what I mean.

Languages draw things at an x and a y location. They don't have the direction or speed variables, or if they do, it just converts them to x and y. to convert them to x and y, it uses sine, cosine, and the corresponding mathematical things, which rely heavily upon a number called pi. Pi, as most of us know, is 3.14. But that number is rounded off. Pi goes on infinately, and the computer can't handle infinite numbers, so the programmer makes it easy on the computer and rounds it off to something. This makes direction and speed inaccurate. The more they round it off, the less accurate (for example, 3.141592654 is more acccurate than 3.14). This rounds off the directions to the nearest direction. GM rounds things off to the nearest hundredth as to save resources (a low rounding point, but it certainly does its job).

Why pi? because it's how many radians are in a circle, and this is used to get the degrees in a circle, 360. the more directions you have, the smaller the degree measure gets between two directions, until they become a fraction so small, it's small enough to be rounded off (.01). .01 degrees per direction out of 360 degrees becomes 36000 directions.

Again, that's not taking into consideration pi and radians, which are then used for getting the X and Y coordinates, causing an inaccuracy.

And yes, I have memorized pi up to 3.141592654
where 4 is a round off of 39etc.

Gotta love trigonometry.

[MKRyudo281]

Yeah, my RPG has 8 directions, but only 4 sprites. It was basically because I'm a lame programmer, but it looked ok like that, and having 4 directions kinda impeded on you ability to run away from enemies.