   Programming Graphics  Help
  I am going to attempt to write a game in OpenGL that is a 2d Side scroller like Gunstar Heroes, Sonic or what not. I am wondering if it would be quicker to get a tool that is a level editor or program one, rather than make quads in OpenGL and texture map all of them for background, sprites, and all other graphics? I want it to be more than just a simple ground and sky as a backgroundm so, would the most efficiant way be to get some kind of level editor like they use for some games or make one, or just texture map all of it? How was the most common way companies would add the backgorund in on game like on the sega genesis and super nintendo where thier was a lot of different background sections (i.e the sky the mountains the trees the ground)?Also i have seen their is a way to program tiles bby having a tile of all the level in squares on one bitmap and give it a number or value and tell it where it goes by programming it like this{3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3,3 // sky (the # 3)3,4,6,7,7,7,7,7,4,3,3,3 // sky (3) and clouds, (4,5,7,8,9,6)3,4,5,5,6,7,8,9,3,5,7,4 // sky and clouds again}   
Quote:I am wondering if it would be quicker to get a tool that is a level editor or program one, rather than make quads in OpenGL and texture map all of them for background, sprites, and all other graphics?Due to the nature of this question (it didn't quite make sense) it seems that you maybe haven't quite wrapped you head around the concept of raster graphics.You should probably look into writting simple bitmaps 'bitters' (bit-block transfers) and 'tile-maps'. Tile-maps are very similar to basic rasterization of a bitmap. In a bitmap, there is an array of values, each one representing a color. In a tile-map, there is an array of values where each one represents a bitmap to be rendered.To study this though, you'll need to use a 2D graphics API (or program the hardware direcly in the horror of DOS!).Quote: How was the most common way companies would add the backgorund in on game like on the sega genesis and super nintendo where thier was a lot of different background sections (i.e the sky the mountains the trees the ground)?Due to the way the hardware was designed, tile-maps were pretty much the only option. To get multiple layers they only needed to use multiple tile-maps. Ultimately though, it depends on the hardware, game and even what is in the background.[EDIT]Fixed spelling mistake. Sorry about that.[/EDIT][Edited by - lack o comments on December 5, 2005 10:31:45 PM];  yes and when he says "reaster" he means "raster" which is defined as "A scanning pattern of parallel lines that form the display of an image projected on a cathode-ray tube of a television set or display screen."  Basically that means that you have to draw every pixel on the screen, so if you want to draw blocks of images "like sky, cloud section 1, cloud section 2, mountains 1, etc..." then you have to learn about tiles.  They are easy, it's just drawing a block of pixels...  How well do you know OpenGL?   ;  Well, I know OpenGL pretty well. And that did help but, I know you can make a bitmap have 32 * 32 or 16 * 16 tiles, but what is the point when you can do it like this?:_____________________________________SKY QUAD TEXTURED SKY BITMAP _____________________________________FLOOR QUAD TEXTURED FLOOR BITMAP_____________________________________GROUND QUAD TEXTURED GROUND BITMAP_____________________________________Basically what I am waying is what is the point of making a lot of small tiles and having to place them with numbers when you can just texture map big quads in big sections and save time?-Thanks[Edited by - Mad_Koder on December 5, 2005 5:44:09 PM];Quote:...texture map big quads in big sections and save time...Nothing says that you can't... but in the end, what you describe is still a form of tile-mapping ;)   ;  it's because say you have an intricate scene where there are bushes all over the place and you only have like one or two graphics to represent bushes instead of a big picture already drawn with a bunch of bushes in it...It depends on what you want to do.... what is your question??   