Author Topic: Save and load images as animated GIFs (Read 4838 times)

Joshua Flynn · « **on:** September 01, 2011, 12:10:32 pm »

Is this possible with SFML? If so, how?

Thank you.

Laurent · « **Reply #1 on:** September 01, 2011, 12:22:18 pm »

SFML doesn't support animated GIFs. If you want to handle animations, you should rather use sprite sheets in PNG format.

Joshua Flynn · « **Reply #2 on:** September 01, 2011, 01:27:34 pm »

Quote from: "Laurent"

SFML doesn't support animated GIFs. If you want to handle animations, you should rather use sprite sheets in PNG format.

The issue is I am downloading GIFs from a website, and merging them into an animated GIF would likely save space. Will there be any support for it in the future?

Laurent · « **Reply #3 on:** September 01, 2011, 02:07:32 pm »

No, animated GIFs don't make much sense in this context.

How would you save space with animated GIFs, compared to a sprite sheet?

Joshua Flynn · « **Reply #4 on:** September 01, 2011, 02:48:48 pm »

Quote from: "Laurent"

No, animated GIFs don't make much sense in this context.

How would you save space with animated GIFs, compared to a sprite sheet?

Shared colour table, I believe? I'm just skimming the unfreeze source code figuring out it works and gathering information on the GIF arrangements. It seems straight-forward enough (just tricky in you need to know how it's arranged - working on that). If I get a working assembler/disassembler class built from scratch I'll throw it your way and give you the rights for it.

Besides, it's easier to manage than hundreds of images named map_2011090100500 (incremental).

Laurent · « **Reply #5 on:** September 01, 2011, 03:29:01 pm »

Quote

Shared colour table, I believe?

Hmm, do you really need to go that far in space saving?

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If I get a working assembler/disassembler class built from scratch I'll throw it your way and give you the rights for it.

don't bother too much with that, because:
- I would have to forward it to this guy who writes stb_image (which SFML uses to load images)
- Neither SFML not stb_image has support for animated images, so how would this be integrated to the existing API?

Quote

Besides, it's easier to manage than hundreds of images named map_2011090100500 (incremental).

A sprite sheet is rather a single image containing a grid of all animation frames.

Joshua Flynn · « **Reply #6 on:** September 01, 2011, 04:27:30 pm »

http://www.2shared.com/photo/f-dmRDTA/Cali2.html

Quote from: "Laurent"

- I would have to forward it to this guy who writes stb_image (which SFML uses to load images)
- Neither SFML not stb_image has support for animated images, so how would this be integrated to the existing API?

Being an assembly/disassembly program, all it would do is load a looped GIF as separate images (so as an array of sf::Images), and save an array of GIF images. I'll specify the details once I've understood the underlying operations, but in effect it will be a class that acts as a go between for animated GIF files and sf::Images.

I'll have to study it more though. But if I do get it, expect a neat class with a nice interface.