I have just picked up java and am planning to learn it via creation of a roguelike. I’m currently fiddling with graphical I/o and know enough to create simple text images.
Are there any tutorials that specifically cover animation of plain text?
Thanks in advance.
I’m guessing you are refering to using text character to create the “maze”. I would think using the same principle as other game animations, as in a game loop and update the output would work. The difference is you would print the text out instead of images.
I don’t know of any tutorials specific to text animation.
What do you mean by “text animation”?
You can use Graphics2D.drawString but my testing has shown that it is actually slower than blitting an image (i.e. Graphics2D.drawImage).
I can only do the most basic of animation. I mean using a simple image like Pacman and making it move according to key board input. Thus far, I can only seem to create this type of animation with Jpegs and Bitmaps. Rather than create a Jpeg/btmp for each letter, there must be a simpler way to do unicode symbols. Perhaps using some of the swing paint tools instead?
@aazimon I have not started coding maps, yet. I have to figure out arrays first.
Do keep in mind that I have no way to create graphics or tilesets of any kind. I’d rather keep things simple and “clean” like Dwarf Fortress or Nethack.
I’m gonna try to find some source code to read from other java roguelikes. That may be the best course of action.
I don’t understand what you mean by animating the text, can you give example of what type of animations you want.
Rogue Basin has some useful info in general for making a rogue-like.
http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org
I know how to take a premade picture, load it into a Java app and make it zoom around, asteroids style. I want to create grid based movement like Qbert, only with unicode symbols instead of pictures. I apologize for the lack of clarity.
loom_weaver has already answered this. I’ll add that Graphics.getFontMetrics() is helpful for doing layout, because you’ll probably want to centre the characters on the grid cells.
I suggest just rendering as if you were doing graphics instead of text based.