Change animation state via variable

[SGTADMAN]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

I'm trying to display HP, MP, and other stats on a UI. I can't use Draw Text due to limits, but I found a way to display it via actors by having animation states, each one displaying a one- or two-digit number as a sprite. I currently have 100 animation states (0 to 99).

Setting an animation state has to be done via a drop-down menu. So the only way I can set it currently is via several dozen nested if statements, which is as tedious to set up as it sounds.

Describe the solution you'd like

I would like the ability to feed it a number (0 to however many states there are). Preferably via a variable. So if the player HP variable is 37, it will display the 38th animation state (seeing as indexing starts at 0).

Describe alternatives you've considered

Another way I found to display it is via an actor per digit, but it still has to be manually set via switch or if statements.

If there's a way of doing this via GBVM script or something, that would also be fine.

[nielsderijk]

Why not use background tiles for the UI and replace them with a variable tile index?

[maxoakland]

Why not use background tiles for the UI and replace them with a variable tile index?

That's a usable workaround most of the time, but it does have limitations. Especially if you want your UI at the top of the screen and/or you want to have parallax

I have personally done the thing where you have an actor for every character of the score and this would be a nice upgrade. I bet it would be useful for a lot of different scenarios

[SGTADMAN]

Why not use background tiles for the UI and replace them with a variable tile index?

I've switched to using that for now, but it does mean I have to use up more variables.

I have personally done the thing where you have an actor for every character of the score and this would be a nice upgrade. I bet it would be useful for a lot of different scenarios

I considered using actors for each of the digits as well, but I ran into the actor limit very quickly.

[nielsderijk]

@SGTADMAN If you make a tile sheet with numbers you can display a 4 digit score with just one variable, so it should not use up much.

[SGTADMAN]

If you make a tile sheet with numbers you can display a 4 digit score with just one variable, so it should not use up much.

Can you provide an example or guide on doing this?

[nielsderijk]

@SGTADMAN The GB Studio discord is a better place for this perhaps, but sure, here you go!
I run this script when I want to update the 4-digit score in my HUD. I've added my tileset too, so you can see which tiles are called.

[SGTADMAN]

@nielsderijk That works perfectly, thank you very much.