First, the general question: how many of you out there have ever actually animated your sprites to do non-looping actions? Looped ones are easy. Even combo cycles are doable, but for sprites they require lots of overlay and the use of level-specific palettes, since you can't use transparencies (being restricted to no layers).
Now, my problem: You may have heard me mention that I've created some animations of a fairy coming out of the Serenia's "pouch," hovering in a loop of undefined length, and then zipping back where it came from.
This can't really be done with level palette CSets, so therefore it needs transparencies, therefore layering, therefore no combo cycling on those layers. My first solution: Place Link adjacent to the top edge of the screen on unwalkable combos. Have the combos beneath him combo-cycle into a conveyor which sends him through the north side warp. The combo cycle is timed the same as the fairy animation. It did work reliably in my first test.
However, lag - or something else, unknown - kicked in. The combo cycling combo's animation speed IS correct, but unlike my first tests (which were on blank black screens), it no longer starts the fairy animation immediately (or at any predictable interval, for that matter).
This is getting to be irritating... I want my fairy animation. If any of you are willing to help me, I'll give you many, many cookies. In fact, if anyone's willing to have a look at it and help me work with it until it's fixed, I'll even send you a ZQuest-openable copy of the most current Dance of Remembrance quest file...
Edited by Radien, 29 September 2004 - 04:38 AM.