Cormanth

Ok, I'm getting quite frustrated with my latest project. I am trying to make a specially designed, animated spellbook (I won't go into any real details as of yet because it's something I want to keep under wraps until I get it working). However, I get the graphics done, the animations are right, even the coding is right. (I checked it in SIDLWIDL to be sure. I have to set up an old Win98 box to run SIDLWIDL just for this purpose cuz it won't run on my Win2k box). Everything works exactly as I want it until I load it in EQ. The spellbook looks right, but the animations don't even show up.

Has anyone else had trouble convincing EQ to do animations in the spellbook window? Or for that matter, has anyone successfully changed the spell icon backgrounds in the spellbook? I managed to create nice little round spell icons in my spell book ( sort of the round marble effect which is part of my new animation idea), but since the spell icon backgrounds are also tied to the buff window icons, I get round buff icons. And since Varent hard coded those 2 things to the same animations....

I'm pulling my frelling hair out!

If you know what I'm going through, and maybe have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. This is a really cool spellbook idea I'm trying to make work, and apparently my own coding skills and experience aren't enough.

-Cormanth

Thangor

The animation in my spellbook code is functional. Go here to get it. Feel free to use any part of the code that helps. Let me know if you have any questions about it.

- Thangor

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Thangor Tundraborne

Cormanth

Ok, I see a couple of differences in your code compared to mine. You're not setting relativity in your animation... could be the reason mine doesn't work. But I also notice that your animation is cycling. What I need is an animation that runs through once and then stops. But I'll try it without setting relativity and see what it does. Thanks for the tip.

OK, the relative issue doesn't seem to have any bearing. However, by setting the animations to cycle, they do show up. Ofcourse, I don't want them to repeat, so I would have to set the duration to some ungodly number to keep them from showing again. However...

The next problem is that the spell icons seem to want to appear ontop of everything else, reguardless of what order I place things in. This, ofcourse, defeats my purpose. Basically, I want a spellbook that opens instead of just appearing. I want to visually see the book (or in my case object) open and display the spells inside. Is there a way to make the animations show ontop of the spell icons, without adding another screen? (adding a second screen has the effect of preventing you from clicking on the spells).

-Bewildered (Cormanth)

Thangor

I wonder if you could change the order of pieces to make the spellbook open at the right time. Then, make the spots where the spells are supposed to be gradually become transparent through the animtion's alpha channels? Though I don't know if it will let you re-arrange the layering?