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Are enlarge/reduce effects possible somehow?

chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
in Feature Requests
I have no idea if this is possible with this engine or what Beamdog will make of it, so I have to ask... Is there any way to increase the size of a sprite, the appearance of a BAM that is, or shrink it? Not through modding, but perhaps through an engine change? It could be very nice for things like the Enlarge/Reduce spell. This engine, from what I understand, is basically a painted background across which cardboard cut-outs, creatures and effects, are pulled. Some kind of magnification lens-type mechanism "in front" doesn't seem completely impossible... or is it?

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    I'd have to change all creatures' BAMs. All of them. And characters, too.
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    edited August 2016
    chimeric said:

    I'd have to change all creatures' BAMs. All of them. And characters, too.

    So yes, it is possible then
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    @smeagolheart Thank you for agreeing to write an application that will automate this task. It would be best if you resized all of the images in increments of 10% - 90% of the original, 80% and so on down to 10%, and upwards to 200% as well. That would represent the original spell very nicely. How soon, do you think, you can have it ready?
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    I'm working on my own mods and don't have the time to pick up your project. The amount of work required may seem overwhelming but decide if you really want to do it or not. You asked if it is possible, it seems like it is possible but a lot of work.

    I'd suggest limiting your scope to one creature, rather than trying to do all at once, and see how it goes. If it goes well then decide how many more you want to do. @subtledoctor, myself or others could possibly assist with any roadblocks you run into.
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    I was kidding, actually.
  • terzaerianterzaerian Member Posts: 232
    This is possible with 3D games (like NWN2) because they use 3D shapes that can be enlarged or reduced in scale on the fly without issue, aside from textures getting stretched out. BG uses a fake 3D sprite that is really one long animation (kind of like a gif), so in essence each sprite is entirely a texture. From an engine perspective you might be able to find a way to magnify display of that sprite but it'd suffer the same loss in quality you'd get by blowing up any 2D picture in size.
  • smeagolheartsmeagolheart Member Posts: 7,963
    terzaerian said:

    This is possible with 3D games (like NWN2) because they use 3D shapes that can be enlarged or reduced in scale on the fly without issue, aside from textures getting stretched out. BG uses a fake 3D sprite that is really one long animation (kind of like a gif), so in essence each sprite is entirely a texture. From an engine perspective you might be able to find a way to magnify display of that sprite but it'd suffer the same loss in quality you'd get by blowing up any 2D picture in size.

    this is already possible in the engine by mouse scroll you can enlarge or reduce the size of things (zoom in or out)
  • terzaerianterzaerian Member Posts: 232
    smeagolheart said:

    terzaerian said:

    This is possible with 3D games (like NWN2) because they use 3D shapes that can be enlarged or reduced in scale on the fly without issue, aside from textures getting stretched out. BG uses a fake 3D sprite that is really one long animation (kind of like a gif), so in essence each sprite is entirely a texture. From an engine perspective you might be able to find a way to magnify display of that sprite but it'd suffer the same loss in quality you'd get by blowing up any 2D picture in size.

    this is already possible in the engine by mouse scroll you can enlarge or reduce the size of things (zoom in or out)
    I don't think it's quite the same; the mouse scroll is doing something along the lines of decreasing and increasing the resolution of the game area on the fly or somesuch thing, and it works visually because everything in the game area is getting blown up. Resizing a single sprite on the fly would probably require an engine hack and it would still look even worse because it would become increasingly blurry and indistinct while everything around it would remain sharp.
  • joluvjoluv Member Posts: 2,137
    I've had great success with putting my face closer or farther from the screen.
  • chimericchimeric Member Posts: 1,163
    The question is pretty moot, I think. And I was the one who asked it.
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