Multiple image folder

dakikifr

Hi,

my project asset folder looks like this:

\common\common_sprite.png
\car\car_sprites.png
\bus\bus_sprites.png

I've 2 spine projects, one for a car animation, and one for a bus animation.
Both those skeletons use a shared sprite located in a "common" folder (in fact I have many shared sprites, this is just for simplicity), as well as specific sprites from their own folder.

The tool I'm using to generate my spritesheets (TexturePackerPro) produces the sheet atlas without the full path (I can't do otherwise for multiple reasons), my common sprite is named "common_sprite.png" in the atlas file.
Edit: It's not that the tool cannot save full path, it's that I can't use that feature because it will otherwise pack all the sprites from all the sub-folders it will find.

My problem is that spine does not (or does it?) support multiple image folders, nor can't I tell it to trim path names from the sprites it will search in the atlas file.

How can I solve my issue, besides manually editing the generated .json file to remove the file path?
Is it possible to add a new feature to spine to be able to add multiple image folders (so that the sprite names in the attachements are based on each added image folder), or an option to force (in the project) the output sprite name?
Or any other suggestion 😉

Thanks!
Kiki

dakikifr

Nate

You can trim the paths at runtime by providing your own AttachmentLoader. Multiple image directories would complicate things.

dakikifr

And an option in the export settings, stored per project?

Nate

Paths prevent there from being two images with the same name so I would rather you do it at runtime. Shouldn't be a big deal. You could also just tell your packer to pack with paths.

dakikifr

I can't tell the packer to use full path, because TexturePackerPro uses smart folders if you put a folder with sub folders in it (meaning it will pack ALL sprites from ALL sub folders it found within). And there are sprites I don't want in there. Unfortunatly this won't be changed in texturePacker.

I guess I can do it at runtime, but I don't understand what you told me by "my own AttachementLoader".
Is there a way in the runtime to provide some sort of custom loader (cocos2d-x), without modifying the runtime itself?

Nate

Spine also packs all images found in all subfolders. I'm sure TexturePackerPro can pack with paths, there is no technical reason that it can't. If it can't, ask the author for the feature. He is very responsive.

This CCSkeleton constructor uses Skeleton_create:
https://github.com/EsotericSoftware/spi ... on.cpp#L95
Skeleton_create is a shortcut to use an AtlasAttachmentLoader:
https://github.com/EsotericSoftware/spi ... Json.c#L47
You can do the same as CCSkeleton but use SkeletonJson_createWithLoader to specify your own loader. You can copy AtlasAttachmentLoader and strip the path in newAttachment:
https://github.com/EsotericSoftware/spi ... ntLoader.c
The path is the name of the attachment.

dakikifr

TexturePacker can, and do, pack with full path names (based on the root folder you set).
But for my spritesheets, I must put individual folders in the sheet and not the root one, or it will make a big single spritesheets and I don't want that (I need different dithering depending on the folder). And if I put the root folder it then switch automatically to "smart folders" for any sub folders found inside the root one.
Smart folders automatically pack ALL sprites found within and you can manually select which one you want and don't want on a specific sheet. That's why I turn my problem the other way by trying to trim the path directly in spine.

I'll take a look at your ideas.
As always, thanks a lot Nate. :clap:

Nate

Hmm. Maybe you can use Spine's packing? It is quite configurable:
http://code.google.com/p/libgdx/wiki/TexturePacker
I'm not perfectly clear on how you want your packing to happen, so I can't recommend settings. It sounds like you might want to use combineSubdirectories?

dakikifr

Spine's packer lacks many very nice features TexturePackerPro has (no offense 😉 ), so I cannot use it.
I'll try your ideas (asap), should be Ok.

But right now, it seems I'll have another issue with my weird configuration:
Since I'm using 2 spritesheets for a single spine project file (1 specific and 1 common that I need to reuse in another skeleton), the runtime loader fails to find the attachements from the second sheet (even if the texture has been preloaded into cocos texture cache.
I'm begining to thinnk that I won't be able to solve my problem, or is there a way to tell the runtime loader to search in another atlas file (well, a skeleton but multiple atlas files)?

Thanks, once again!
Kiki

Nate

The AttachmentLoader (where you would strip the path from the attachment name as described above) is also responsible for finding the atlas region for the attachment. You can look in multiple atlases or do whatever logic you need.