Sprite
Introduction
Sprites are used to render a texture to the screen. Sprites are one of the most common types of FlatRedBall objects. Examples of Sprites include:
Character graphics (static or animated)
Backgrounds
Particles
Bullets
Sprites are often contained in Entities or created in code as particles.
Sprite vs Texture
Many new developers confuse the terms Sprite and Texture so it's worth discussing the difference. A Sprite is an object that is added to an Entity which can display a texture or a portion of a texture. A Sprite can have a size, rotation, transparency, and a color tint.
A texture (technically a Texture2D) is an image which is usually loaded from a .png file. The texture has pixel data which is used by a Sprite to draw to the screen. A texture can contain a single image (such as a coin or bullet), or it can contain multiple images. When it contains multiple images it is often referred to as a sprite sheet.
You can think of the Sprite as something which displays texture data - like a digital picture frame. The texture is the picture that is being displayed in the digital picture frame.
Creating an Entity With a Sprite
When you are creating a new entity, you can check the option to add a Sprite in the Add Entity Window.
Right-click on the Entities folder
Select Add Entity
Check the Sprite option
Click OK
Adding a Sprite
Sprites can be added to FlatRedBall screens or entities, although most games don't include Sprites directly in screens. To add a Sprite to an entity:
Create or select an existing entity or screen
Right-click on the Objects node
Select Add Object
Select the FlatRedBall or Custom Type category
Select the Sprite type
Click OK
Sprite Texture
Sprites usually display textures, which are created from image files such as .png files. To add and display a texture on a Sprite:
Create a Sprite in a screen or entity as shown above
Find a .png which you would like to use
Drag+drop the .png file onto your screen or entity's Files folder in FlatRedBall
Select the Sprite in the same screen or entity with the newly-added file
Change its Texture property to the newly-added file
For more information about working with textures, see the Texture2D page.
Animations
Sprites can display animations by referencing a .achx file.
To reference an Animation, the first step is to have a .achx file in the same Entity or Screen as your Sprite.
To add a new .achx file, see the Animation Chain List (.achx) page.
Once you have an .achx file, you can add the Animation by drag+dropping the .achx onto the Sprite.
Alternatively, you can change the Animation Chains property in the Variables tab.
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