Configuration Files

You’ll need one master configuration file, this lets Sprite Grabber know where to save any support files, and which local configuration files to process.

Each local configuration file lets Sprite Grabber know how to build one texture atlas; and may contain any number of sprite groups (shown above as ‘SG’).

Sprite Groups

Each sprite group may consist of one or more actual sprites. You set these up in your local configuration file, and include information such as which source bitmap(s) to grab sprites from.

Box Mode and Sequence Mode

In Box mode, sprites are grabbed from rectangular areas within a single source bitmap. In Sequence mode, sprites are grabbed from a series of source bitmap files (file000.tga, file001.tga, file002.tga).

You control how sprites are grabbed in the sprite group sections, within the local configuration file.

Sprites Header File

Sprite Grabber will create a .h header file for you to include in your game source files. Inside this .h file, there is a #define value for each sprite group you specified. These values are indexes in to the following table.

Sprites Data Table

This is a data table with one 16-byte entry for each sprite you grabbed, containing information such as which texture atlas a sprite is on, it’s X Y position on the atlas and it’s size etc.

Textures List

This is a text file containing a list of filenames for each of your texture atlases.

Accessing Sprites From Your Game Source

You load in and access the sprite data table from within your game source, using the #defined value in the sprites header file as an index in to the table.

The advantage here, is that you don’t need to keep track of which texture a sprite is on, or position and size etc; you just have something like the following code:

#include "sprite_defines.h"                // #defines for each sprite group
Spr[SPR_MY_SPRITE_GROUP].Draw(x,y);        // draw my sprite!

For simple sprite animations, you can add a frame offset, for example:

Spr[SPR_MY_SPRITE_GROUP+frame].Draw(x,y);  // draw my sprite animation frame!

As you can see, doing things the Sprite Grabber way, makes for simple and very elegant code!

Next Up: Inside Your Game Source Code

I have a sprite class ‘cSpr’, and at compile time, I create an array of these, using the #defined value for SPR_MAX in the sprites header file. Same thing with my texture class ‘cTex’:

#include "sprite_defines.h"
cSpr Spr[SPR_MAX];   // SPR_MAX is defined in sprite_defines.h
cTex Tex[TEX_MAX];   // TEX_MAX is defined in sprite_defines.h

Then, at run time, on game initialization, I have a function to setup my textures and sprites. Here I do the following:

1. Open my texture list file; using that to setup each of my textures.
2. Open my sprite data table file; using that to setup each of my sprites.

After that, I’m good to go, and can easily access each sprite using the following code:

#include "sprite_defines.h"
Spr[SPR_MY_SPRITE].Draw(x,y);

It’s that simple!

Next Up: Source Bitmap Pre-Processing

Here are the 3 (optional) pre-processing stages.

Alpha Cut Off

Pixels with an alpha value equal to or less than your specified value, will be removed (alpha set to 0).

Replace Pixels

You set 2 values, a ‘from’ value and a ‘to’ value. Pixels with an ARGB equal to your ‘from’ value, will be set to your ‘to’ value.

Shrink Bitmap

You can have Sprite Grabber shrink your source bitmap by a factor of 2, 4, 8 or 16.

Sprite Grabber Product Information Page