Is it necessary to set a sprite's animation *before* setting its visible to to true?

Is it necessary to set a sprite's animation before setting its visible to to true?

danzibr

Per the title, I'm getting weird jumpy sprites if I set the animation, and make it visible on the same frame. I'll put what looks wrong first, and my janky fix second (pretend there are proper indents):

if timer==1:
	GoodGuy_anim.play("attack",0,0,false)
	GoodGuy.visible = true
Again, that makes the sprite weird and jumpy (will provide video evidence if desired). Here's what works:
if timer==2:
	GoodGuy_anim.play("attack",0,0,false)
elif timer==1:
	GoodGuy.visible = true
Is this necessary? I'd rather set the animation to play and enable its visibility on the same frame.

Thanks!

danzibr

(disregard, figured out how to edit the OP)

OneMoreQuest

I think as long as your GoodGuy node is visible when trying to play the animation, it should work the same. visibility is only there to ensure your GoodGuy is visible right after the animation starts playing. So if he is visible beforehand, there shouldn't be a need to have him visible again unless you want to ensure he is visible on that specific frame.

I might be wrong on that since I rarely did any animation stuff on any engine, but hopefully I was helpful in some way. If not, I am still wishing you the best of time! In any case feel free to correct me if I am wrong :) Have a wonderful day!

danzibr

@OneMoreQuest said: I think as long as your GoodGuy node is visible when trying to play the animation, it should work the same. visibility is only there to ensure your GoodGuy is visible right after the animation starts playing. So if he is visible beforehand, there shouldn't be a need to have him visible again unless you want to ensure he is visible on that specific frame.

I might be wrong on that since I rarely did any animation stuff on any engine, but hopefully I was helpful in some way. If not, I am still wishing you the best of time! In any case feel free to correct me if I am wrong :) Have a wonderful day! Thanks for the response!

But uhh, I'm not sure what you're saying. I want the sprite to be invisible. Then I set it to visible and set its animation at the same time. Unfortunately, going so causes its first frame while visible to be... not what I set it to animate to. It's like there's a 1 frame delay between telling the sprite to animate, and it actually animating.

EDIT: putting GoodGuy_anim.seek(0.0,true) worked... but man, I still don't like it.

OneMoreQuest

Does the animation start at 0 or are you noticing it every loop if the animation were to loop? Generally speaking, indexes always begin at 0 so if the animation begins at frame 1, it could explain why there's a little delay even though it might be small. If the animation plays at 1 frame per second though, the delay would most likely be 1 second or at least close to it.

As for the visibility, the animation should not be affected by sprite's visibility variable. In other words, that variable only says if the sprite should be drawn or not. Anything happening to the sprite will still happen.

The timer could also be the delay if your animation starts at 0. Since it has to reach that value before executing that part of the code and if there is a lot to process beforehand, this could result in built-up delay by the cpu simply having to process it in order.

OneMoreQuest

@danzibr said: Thanks for the response!

But uhh, I'm not sure what you're saying. I want the sprite to be invisible. Then I set it to visible and set its animation at the same time. Unfortunately, going so causes its first frame while visible to be... not what I set it to animate to. It's like there's a 1 frame delay between telling the sprite to animate, and it actually animating.

EDIT: putting GoodGuy_anim.seek(0.0,true) worked... but man, I still don't like it.

According to the doc Seek seems to be used to force the animation to start from a specified frame so it should not be needed if your animation starts from 0 and doesn't loop. Or at least it tries to start at the first frame that the animation begins at. Which in this case might be frame 1.

danzibr

@OneMoreQuest thanks!

The animation was starting on the last frame. At this point... still no clue why. Even if it was the first time the animation was ever played.

cybereality

Reading the docs, this seems to be correct behavior. Basically changing the visible property happens instantly, but playing an animation only starts once AnimationPlayer is processed, likely on the next frame. To fix this just call advance after you call play. This will load the animation instantly.

GoodGuy_anim.advance(0)

If updating both an animation and a separate property at once (for example, a platformer may update the sprite's h_flip/v_flip properties when a character turns while starting a 'turning' animation), it's important to keep in mind that play() isn't applied instantly. Instead, it's applied the next time the AnimationPlayer is processed. This may end up being on the next frame, causing a 'glitch' frame, where the property change was applied but the animation was not. If this turns out to be a problem, after calling play(), you can call advance(0) to update the animation immediately.

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/2d/2d_sprite_animation.html

OneMoreQuest

Are you still using this code?

       if timer == 2:
         GoodGuy_anim.play("attack",0,0,false)
       elif timer == 1:
         GoodGuy.visible = true
If so, that part adds a 1 frame delay between when GoodGuy is visible and GoodGuy's animation plays. The code beforehand should execute the two lines at relatively the same time.

Just for curiosity, could you try switching the timer == 2 to timer == 1 and the other one to 2? There will still be a frame delay using that, but I would like to know if the animation itself skips the first time or if the problem might be in another part of the code.

If the difference is that the GoodGuy appears a frame too late but the animation plays fine, simply put them in the same timer cycle. Exactly like you did in the first example should be fine.

       if timer == 1:
         GoodGuy_anim.play("attack",0,0,false)
         GoodGuy.visible = true # <<< You can put this line above the animation play execution if you would prefer the sprite to be visible before the animation plays.

Let me know how it goes! :)

Ps. Sorry for the small delay in reply, I had to get a little bit of sleep haha.

Edit: cybereality's solution is a lot simpler than mine haha. But he/she's right. It should advance to the frame specified. If 0 is specified, it would simply advance to frame 0.

danzibr

@cybereality said: Reading the docs, this seems to be correct behavior. Basically changing the visible property happens instantly, but playing an animation only starts once AnimationPlayer is processed, likely on the next frame. To fix this just call advance after you call play. This will load the animation instantly.
GoodGuy_anim.advance(0)
If updating both an animation and a separate property at once (for example, a platformer may update the sprite's h_flip/v_flip properties when a character turns while starting a 'turning' animation), it's important to keep in mind that play() isn't applied instantly. Instead, it's applied the next time the AnimationPlayer is processed. This may end up being on the next frame, causing a 'glitch' frame, where the property change was applied but the animation was not. If this turns out to be a problem, after calling play(), you can call advance(0) to update the animation immediately.

https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/tutorials/2d/2d_sprite_animation.html Huh, the things you learn. I find it weird I never noticed any "errors" until now, several months into my project...

@cyberreality and @OneMoreQuest, thanks!

OneMoreQuest

Such is the pleasure of debugging haha. To be honest this is what fuels me to continue doing programming since when we learn something this way, we remember it for the rest of our career way more often.

Glad I could be of help and I'm wishing you the absolute best on your adventure through this amazing hobby :)