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• Sprite engine allowing for extensive control of sprites
  
  • Queuing commands
  
  
  • Setting destinations to have the engine generate a route
  
  
  • Function for adding entities
  
  
  • Most controls to be done by setting values
  
  
  • Collision detection
  
  
  • Each entity will be a shape or model that has a sprite sheet as its texture/atlas, uniforms will be varied to enable the shader to update the U/V values as needed to show the correct frames
  
  
  • The code will support zooming in and out for the whole screen AND will also enable individual sprites to be drawn scaled
  
  
  • Update function that can be added to the Dispatch queue that updates the position/state of all entities. OR can be called in a user's own loop
  
  
  • Render function that can be added to the Dispatch queue to draw the sprites OR can be called in a users own loop
  
  
  • Can draw to the screen or to a specified surface
  
  
  • Functions to work with the Map Engine when it is in use AND alone when the Map Engine is not in use


• Map engine allowing for extensive control of maps
  
  • Any number of layers
  
  
  • Drawing maps transformed if needed (ideally will add deformations as well as simple transformations - need Matrix axis and ideally Z-axis drawing enabled)
  
  
  • Applying masks of various kinds
  
  
  • Zooming in and out (feature will sync with sprites)
  
  
  • Can draw to the screen or to a specified surface
  
  
  • Collision detection
  
  
  • Each layer to be represented as a shape or model the size of the provided drawing space for the map (by default the game’s resolution) that has the full map as its texture/atlas, uniforms will be varied to enable the shader to update the U/V values as needed to show the correct portion of the map.
  
  
  • Update function that can be added to the Dispatch queue that updates the position/state of all entities. OR can be called in a user's own loop
  
  
  • Render function(s) that can be added to the Dispatch queue to draw the sprites OR can be called in a user's own loop (probably have one function to render content under the sprites and another to render content over them) OR could have one function that calls the sprite renderer in the middle.
  
  

• Tile or Pixel or Shape based processing (collisions etc)
  Preference is tile for simplicity + speed of processing


• File Formats:
  
  • Maps, options:
    
    • .rmp -> consistent with sphere v1 BUT contains some unneeded detritus  AND there’s no modern editor for it
    
    
    • JSON description +one or more png tileset files -> can output with Tiled BUT human readable which some may not appreciate AND 2 files not one.
    
    
    • Custom of some kind, but include functions that can covert both of the above? (current preference)
  
  
  • Sprites, options:
    
    • .rss -> consistent with sphere v1 BUT pretty nasty to work with within the sphere v2 api, and generally quite an inefficient format (each image is stored separately as an array of RGBA values (each value being itself 4 bytes)
    
    
    • .png -> consistent with rpgmaker, easy to make/edit BUT how do you establish what size each frame is and other such things -> not flexible enough.
    
    
    • Json description containing directions/sizes etc + a png file with the images -> png files are easy to make, JSON is hand writeable + could have a script to make it if needed -> Looks good except for needing two files not one.
    
    
    • Custom format with a creation function that takes any of the above 3 as inputs -> current preference


• How many directions to support for movement, 4? 8? Variable?


• What transformations to allow (low priority can add more at the end)


• Should sprites be able to be drawn on multiple layers with a property specifying which one to draw on OR should it be one or two only?


• Should each map have one collision map or multiple (e.g. different collisions on different layers - links to point above)?


• Should the code be in .mjs or .js files…

• Can I track locations of entities with their transformation matrices? or do I need to track separately, I think I’ll need separate tracking, even with component access if I allow zooming in and out and other transformations will be too messy to read out of the matrix.


• Persistent transformation matrices OR just have one that gets updated for every item drawn? Probably the latter if using separate tracking, as can’t see a purpose in retaining the matrices.

import { Thread, Console } from 'sphere-runtime';

var req1 = require('sphere-runtime'),
    Console = req1.Console,
    Thread = req1.Thread;