Fast 2D graphics for games and simulation
Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2018 4:53 pm
I'm using Livecode to prototype a game concept where I require up to a thousand or more of tiny sprites moving around smoothly. A bit like particle physics.
Livecode itself is very slow handling many sprites but up to now I'm getting by with a trick of using the anchors of invisible polygons as sprites. I change the shape of a few polygons to move over a thosand anchors/sprites with reasonable speed. But it is a bit messy and the sprites can't change appearance easily.
The best would be to have a 2D graphics engine with hardware accelerated sprite support. I don't really need a full physics engine with particle simulation, collisions detection etc. What are the best options?
- Is Animation Engine good for this, is it faster than that the built in graphics engine?
- Are there other libraries/LC/ builder/widgets/extensions that can do fast 2D graphics?
- Do I get faster speed if the simulation (2D canvas with sprites) is coded in LC Builder, e.g. as a widget?
- Other ways of doing this in Livecode, or do I need to look at other gaming platforms like Unity?
I'm quite new to Livecode, currently using LC 8.1.9.
Thanks,
Arvin
Livecode itself is very slow handling many sprites but up to now I'm getting by with a trick of using the anchors of invisible polygons as sprites. I change the shape of a few polygons to move over a thosand anchors/sprites with reasonable speed. But it is a bit messy and the sprites can't change appearance easily.
The best would be to have a 2D graphics engine with hardware accelerated sprite support. I don't really need a full physics engine with particle simulation, collisions detection etc. What are the best options?
- Is Animation Engine good for this, is it faster than that the built in graphics engine?
- Are there other libraries/LC/ builder/widgets/extensions that can do fast 2D graphics?
- Do I get faster speed if the simulation (2D canvas with sprites) is coded in LC Builder, e.g. as a widget?
- Other ways of doing this in Livecode, or do I need to look at other gaming platforms like Unity?
I'm quite new to Livecode, currently using LC 8.1.9.
Thanks,
Arvin