BitmapSprites extend Bitmap. Bitmap is an internal class, and extends DisplayObject. DisplayObjects' have a drawing index, just like MovieClips do. So, instead of swapDepths, you'd use setChildIndex.
Now, for individual bitmaps that you are drawing, addToBitmapSprite, they are added to the internal array, and drawn in that order. It would be probably 10 minutes to add that method and call redraw to allow bitmaps to change depth. ...or you could do it; I can give you Suversion access to the source if you wish. Alpha is handled by your bitmap. Bitmaps support alpha channels, so whatever bitmap you added should have the alpha. In my case, the moving sprites example uses a circular PNG, and since PNG's have alpha channels, Flash draws the circle correctly on top of other circles. MovieClip's have gotten more powerful in Flash Player 8.5, yes, mainly because of the DisplayList which seperates a MovieClip from existing from actually being rendered/drawn each frame. It is not, however, re-inventing the wheel. We have not been able to blit in the Flash Player until version 8; instead, we've had to duplicate a tile 100 times vs. drawing onto 1 bitmap. Great example of why blitting is so powerful and scaleable: http://www.gskinner.com/blog/archives/2005/08/flash_8_thought.html Significantly less process, less RAM, and scales to infinite bitmaps. I have no benchmarks nor numbers other than creating 100 MovieClips in Flash 8 used 99%CPU, and 60 megs of RAM, and the framerate sucked. Changing those 100 MovieClips to be 1 bitmap, and scrolled via a copyPixels from a double-buffering used 6% CPU and full framerate. That's what made me write Diesel. When you start adding BitmapSprites, you are adding overhead however because they themselves are DisplayObjects, like MovieClips, only they are drawn into 1 bitmap vs. 30 of them drawn in 30 places in the DisplayList. The hybrid approach is to use 1 Bitmap, load all of your tiles and draw to just 1. You're actual monsters and characters that move, make Sprites (or MovieClips), and remove them from the DisplayList if they are not on-screen. Use scrollRect for the area you are scrolling, and use double-buffering (copyPixels from a rectangle from an off-screen bitmap). This doesn't scale well because Sprites have more overhead, and moving them is sometimes more expensive then copyPixels, but it works well enough in the alpha, so I'm sure beta, and release it'll still be smokin'. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dimitrios Bendilas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Flashcoders mailing list" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 6:36 AM Subject: Re: [FlashCoders] scrollRect Hi Jester, Thanks for the url. It seems very interesting. There is one thing that bothers me, aside the fact that I'would have to re-write a lot of stuff from scratch, if I used a model like this. How do you know in what depth to draw everything? How do you handle _alphas? The movieclip model provides a very easy way to stack images one above another with no problems. It just seems a lot of work, it's like re-inveting the wheel. How much can performance benefit from an approach like this? Any benchmarks, numbers? Is there a hybrid approach maybe? One that requires less code but increases performance? Thanks! Dimitrios ----- Original Message ----- From: "JesterXL" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Flashcoders mailing list" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 3:53 AM Subject: Re: [FlashCoders] scrollRect >I oringally wrote this in Flash 8, and ported to Flash 8.5. There is no > reason it couldn't go back. > > http://www.jessewarden.com/archives/2006/01/diesel_battlefi.html > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Dimitrios Bendilas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 4:55 PM > Subject: [FlashCoders] scrollRect > > > Hi all, > > I'm trying to make a very basic prototype to test parallax movement with > Flash 8. > > Is movieclip.scrollRect what I should be using? I tried this: > > var bg:MovieClip = _root.attachMovie("bg", "bg", 2); > var y:Number = 0; > _root.onEnterFrame = function():Void { > bg.scrollRect = {x:0, y:y--, width:635, height:540}; > } > > The movieclip "bg" contains only a jpg 635x540. > The movement is pretty jumpy. Should I be using BitmapData instead? > > I'm a bit lost! I've been searching for code samples online for the past 2 > hours and > I haven't found anything useful. > > Does anyone have a useful link for parallax or tile-based games using > Flash > 8 features? > Performance is the key issue here, since this is going for a very big and > complex game > and I want to optimize it as much as possible. > > Thanks a lot! > > Dimitrios > _______________________________________________ > [email protected] > To change your subscription options or search the archive: > http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders > > Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software > Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training > http://www.figleaf.com > http://training.figleaf.com > > _______________________________________________ > [email protected] > To change your subscription options or search the archive: > http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders > > Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software > Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training > http://www.figleaf.com > http://training.figleaf.com > > _______________________________________________ [email protected] To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com _______________________________________________ [email protected] To change your subscription options or search the archive: http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training http://www.figleaf.com http://training.figleaf.com
