Make it easier to use the artworks in projects that composite the sprites on the fly

[PunCrathod]

The work on this project is seriously awesome. I am working on a game(closed source) that uses the contents of the spritesheets folder and combines anything it needs on the fly. However getting the order of all the layers correct and writing lists of what is what is a pain. I did write a proof of concept that used the .json files in sheet_definitions folder to automatically sort the layers but I presume those .json files are under GPL 3.0 license(Which to my understanding would require any published software that uses them to also be GPL 3.0) and they are a little awkward to parse unless you have a library that can read json. And some of them do not really have names for things that could be used as is in a game.

Would it be possible to get a file/files that have name(Preferably one that could be used as is inside a game as an item in an inventory or as an option in a character creator etc),typename(That can be used to sort what equipment slot an item goes or what category it would be in a character creator etc), layers(zpos, custom animations and the paths) and variants information in a simple format for all the artwork. json as a format is actually fine if that is the easiest for whoever would be making the files. The main problems I have with just using the ones in sheet_definitions folder are the license and that not all the names/typenames are usable in game as is).

If the people working on this project are not making these files I probably will end up making them myself at some point after I have most of the other work on the game done. Should I end up making the files I will offer them to be included in this project. However I think the people familiar with everything that is in this project would probably have an easier time making and then maintaining them and they could make them more generic so they can be used in more games(Or libraries that can be included in games). If I make the files they would only contain the things my game would use and be in a format that is the easiest for me to use in my game so whoever then would take on the job of maintaining them as part of this project might have to make some significant modifications and additions so they could be used in other games as well.

And I know this is a little bit of a "Please do some of my work for me" kind of ask but I genuinely believe this along with a little tutorial on how to use would make it easier for people to make games using LPC artwork. Instead of making a spritesheet for each character one at a time they could composite them on the fly which would make it easy to generate random characters and implementing equipped items showing up on the sprites.

[jrconway3]

Perhaps the zPos is what you're looking for?

https://github.com/LiberatedPixelCup/Universal-LPC-Spritesheet-Character-Generator/blob/master/scripts/zPositioning/z_positions.csv

This file contains the positions of every asset. "z" position refers to the z-index or how to layer assets over one another.

The lower the number, the further "back" it appears on the viewport.

The "images" row of the CSV shows where the assets with that zPos are loaded from. So you can use this to find what files need to go where.

[PunCrathod]

I'm no expert but isn't that file also under GPL 3.0 meaning you can't include it in a game unless the game is also GPL 3.0. And although I could probably generate the rest of the information needed(names, types and variants etc) by parsing the paths, iterating over all the files found there and image sizes I'd prefer all the information to just be in the file already.

[jrconway3]

I'm not sure what you're asking? Just write a script to use that file to generate the assets you want. What you're requesting here is a very case-specific scenario that would require us to change the filenames of 273,044 files for a single use case.

[PunCrathod]

Okay let me try to explain in a way that makes the issue more obvious. A game can't function with just the .png files. It needs some other data that tells it which .png files to load for which object. And currently that data needs to be written by hand without the help of any data in this procject because otherwise one will be copying data that is under GPL 3.0 which requires the copy to also be under GPL 3.0 which requires any games made with said data to also be GPL 3.0 which I am unwilling to have because it requires the game to be open source.

If the sheet_definition/*.json or the z_positions.cvs files were not under GPL 3.0 but instead something like CC-BY-SA I could just include those files along with the game that is not going to be under the GPL 3.0 license and load assets based on the data in those files.

And I am not going to pregenerate spritesheets for all the possible combinations because there would be millions upon millions of spritesheets and it would take more disk space than I have in the house. All I need to make a game capable of using all the assets in the spritesheets folder is the contents of that folder and a file/files that describe how to use that content that does not have more licensing restrictions than the assets in the spritesheets folder.

In no way am I asking to change the names of 273,044 files. This could be as simple as the copyright holder of the sheet_definitions/*.json add a CC-BY-SA as an option for those files. With that I could include those files or derivative work based on those files in my game without having to use the GPL 3.0 license for the game.