[Poll] Handling Loop Count

[AristurtleDev]

Hi everyone, I'm currently working on the ability to process Aseprite tags with a set loop count. This is related to issue #43

Description

Currently, within Aseprite, there is no option to specify if a Tag should loop and/or the total number of times it loops. It's assumed that all Tags created in Aseprite are looping animations. However, there are use-cases for having an animation not loop, or only loop a set number of times. For instance, a door opening or closing animation.

Looking through the Aseprite repository, I came across the following tracking issue aseprite/aseprite#1989 to support setting loop count. This however is for the Aseprite 1.3 release, so I have no definitive timeline for when this is officially supported.

However, I can implement something similar now as a middle ground in MonoGame.Aseprite.

How It Would Be Implemented

The only way this could be implemented for use in MonoGame.Aserpite is through the name of a Tag. The idea at this time would be for users to name their tags with (x#) where # is the total number of times that tag should loop. For example, if you had a door open animation that should never loop, you would name it something like door_open (x0). If you wanted a Tag to use the default behavior of infinate looping, you would just exclude the loop count marker (e.g. door_open).

Poll Question

My question for this poll is, considering that you would need to add the (x#) to the end of a Tag to mark the loop count for that Tag, how would you like to see this handled by the processor when creating the AnimationTag for a SpriteSheet? Would you want the (x#) removed from the Tag name or keep it as part of the tag name.

⚠️ Note
I should specify that this poll is only for the name derived for the AnimationTag created during the SpriteSheetProcessor.Process() method. This would not affect the AserpiteTag in the AsepriteFile.Tags since this is ment to represent the raw data from the Aseprite file itself.

Examples

The following examples assume an Aseprite file with a Tag defined named door_open (x0) to specify that the Tag does not loop.

If Removing The Loop Count Marker

SpriteSheet spriteSheet = SpriteSheetProcessor.Process(GraphicsDevice, aseFile);
AnimatedSprite doorOpenAnimation = spriteSheet.CreateAnimatedSprite("door_open");

If NOT Removing The Loop Count Marker

SpriteSheet spriteSheet = SpriteSheetProcessor.Process(GraphicsDevice, aseFile);
AnimatedSprite doorOpenAnimation = spriteSheet.CreateAnimatedSprite("door_open (x0)");

[Talberon]

Adding functional info to the tag seems to be a leaky abstraction that should be handled in code instead, IMO. I have in my project (using an older version of the library, though) a custom function that modifies the sprite OnAnimationLoop Action to stop it after playing once when I need it to. I don't have a version that loops an arbitrary number of times, but maybe a convenience function like sprite.LoopXTimes(int loops) (or similar) would be a handy alternative?

[AristurtleDev]

I agree, I don't like the idea of abstracting it out to the Tag name. Since there's no other way of specifying non-loop vs loop, or setting a loop count directly in Aseprite, the idea was to add something like this so it could be handled automatically during the import -> process instead of making users do something like

SpriteSheet spriteSheet = SpriteSheetProcessor.Process(GraphicsDevice, aseFile);
spriteSheet.GetAnimationTag("door_open").IsLooping = false;
spriteSheet.GetAnimationTag("door_close").IsLooping = false;
// etc for all tags that shouldn't loop

But this is giving me some pause to think on it. Currently the AnimatedSprite.Play() method takes no parameters. It could be moved to there for AnimatedSprite.Play(bool) to specify loop vs non-loop and an additional overload of AnimatedSprite.Play(int) to specify a hard set loop count.

[AristurtleDev]

Closing this poll/discussion.
Repeat tag was added in Aseprite 1.3-rc1 which is now being used in version 5.0.0