[APP] [IN DEVELOPMENT] Desktop Sprites by Caustik

[caustik]

Oddish -- there is a tray icon in the lower right of the screen, you can exit them all at once from there.

SirZadaben -- what warnings? It wouldn't make much sense for me to host a virus on my personal web site that has my resume, blog, pictures, etc.

[Zadaben]

SirZadaben -- what warnings? It wouldn't make much sense for me to host a virus on my personal web site that has my resume, blog, pictures, etc.

[/quote]
Still...It has a cantract saying that any damage to my computer cannot be blamed upon you.

[caustik]

Still...It has a cantract saying that any damage to my computer cannot be blamed upon you.

That's a normal EULA that you'll see in most software. Check out the iTunes EULA and look under "f. Limitation of Liability" -- this has nothing to do with viruses, it's standard.

[Zadaben]

OK. I just am a little paranoid about downloading things . My prevoious computer was ruined by a virus.

[caustik]

OK. I just am a little paranoid about downloading things . My prevoious computer was ruined by a virus.

That sucks, I've been through that too. I run Microsoft Security Essentials on my development machine, so Sprites should be clean.

By the way, Gors -- the latest installer has the sprites "always on top" so they don't get lost behind windows anymore.

[Rosencrantz]

These things are adorable and I love the idea.

Do you think there would be a future installment where there's a hard limit at the bottom of the screen? ie. If your dimensions are 1600x900, they won't fall past the 900 pixel length?


ACTUALLY WAIT
current resolution height - the height of the sprite
that would work better

idk why they did that but they did
but this is hella fun
it's possible to make other states, right? I'm so making some Travis Touchdown stuff happen on my desktop~

[caustik]

These things are adorable and I love the idea.

Do you think there would be a future installment where there's a hard limit at the bottom of the screen? ie. If your dimensions are 1600x900, they won't fall past the 900 pixel length?


ACTUALLY WAIT
current resolution height - the height of the sprite
that would work better

Are they falling off the desktop now? There is supposed to be a hard limit, they stand on the taskbar or if there is no taskbar they stop at the edges of the desktop.

Maybe you found a bug -- do you have any explorer replacement software installed? There have been a couple times I saw a similar problem, where they would wander off the edge of the screen. To fix it, I had to restart explorer (killed it in task manager, then File -> New Task -> Explorer.exe)

[Rosencrantz]

actually, I caused it by connecting my laptop to an external monitor (two displays)

I think that was a rare exception, so heh

it was fixed when I disconnected the monitor and then closed the program out.




But back to my other question, are we able to create alternate states?

[caustik]

actually, I caused it by connecting my laptop to an external monitor (two displays)

I think that was a rare exception, so heh

it was fixed when I disconnected the monitor and then closed the program out.




But back to my other question, are we able to create alternate states?

Right now there's just a few states like standing, walking, and flying. Probably next thing will be jumping, since some spritesheets have images for that, and states for attack and getting hit by an attack, so they can run around fighting attacking each other.

If you want to try making your own states/sprites, you can pick one of them that is similar to what you want, copy and paste the .spr file. Then open the .spr file in a text editor. If you leave the explorer window open, when you make changes to the default state it will update the thumbnail so you can get an idea what it will look like. That helps figure out how to line up the animation frames. It can be a little bit of a challenge to get everything to line up perfect, some spritesheets are easier than others. Bubble Bobble is a good example that was pretty easy, since the frames line up on a 30x30 grid.

Most the sprites that are installed with it are pieced together from the spritesheet image files, but you could also create animated GIFs for the individual states if there's an image editor you're already used to.

[caustik]

Added a better scaling algorithm so the sprites look a little bit nicer. It's similar to EPX/Scale2x used in various emulators. Unfortunately my favorite of all these, HQNX, does not support an alpha channel which is critical for desktop sprites :[

oh well, still looks pretty nice, maybe I'll contribute to HQNX with proper alpha channel support some day

[Previous]

Added a better scaling algorithm so the sprites look a little bit nicer.

Sorry, but I disagree. Yet, as this is a matter of taste, I'd appreciate an option so the user can choose how he'd like to have them scaled (I don't think I'm the only person who prefers nearest neighbor scaling for pixel art stuff). :I

[caustik]

Sorry, but I disagree. Yet, as this is a matter of taste, I'd appreciate an option so the user can choose how he'd like to have them scaled (I don't think I'm the only person who prefers nearest neighbor scaling for pixel art stuff). :I

Fair enough. There's something to be said about keeping the old school style pixel look. I can't really decide which one I prefer (same thing happens when I'm using an emulator, I just keep switching it around at random.. ). I'll make it an option, probably will end up making the pixel version the "default" choice.

[caustik]

You now have the ability to "explode" the POW boxes. The explosions are contagious, so if you stack up a bunch of POW and put a bunch of Toad characters nearby, they'll explode and kill the Toads

The SMB2 characters can all "die" this way, and so can the Blaster Master character Jason. I haven't added death animations for any other characters yet, but will prob add some more at some point.

It's surprisingly fun to build a little death trap for Toads and blow them to pieces. Maybe there's something wrong with me in the head

[GadgetTR]

This is hilarious and awesome. I approve.

[caustik]

Updated with a bunch of fixes, more sprites, and a networked mode.

The networked mode lets you throw sprites off your desktop onto other people's desktop. Basically, you're automatically paired up so you have a neighbor on each side of your screen (left, right, top, bottom) where sprites can wander between each person's desktop.

http://sprites.caustik.com/