ATL Transformation VS Image Statement (ATL Block) VS Movie

[tullymonst3r]

Hello. First time poster in this forum here .

So, I've been developing a turn-based RPG with Ren'Py and despite the limitations of the engine I've done a lot of progress. However, now I'm stuck with a very technical question regarding displayable performance.
In my game, there can be anywhere from 2 up to 8 (or more for limited amounts of time (summons, evocations, etc.)) characters on screen. Each character has 3 base animations: idle, hurt and attack; and each one last anywhere from 1 to 2 seconds with the idle one being the only one that loops (attached an example as .gif for better visualization).

warden_workfile.gif

(2.21 MiB) Not downloaded yet

So far I've attempted these three methods I found to make animated sprites:

1. Importing each frame into the game folder and using image blocks to animate them.
2. Transforming the individual frames into .webm files and using alpha masks for transparency.
3. Importing the individual body parts of the character as different image files and using ATL transformations like rotate(), pos(), zoom() and warpers to created rigid but smooth animations.

Any of the previous methods gets the job done, but I'm afraid having so many displayables at the same time + some animated UI elements + some additional animated displayables as attack VFX could be too demanding on lower end devices. My PC can handle it pretty well but I'd like to make sure I'm using the most optimal option since I haven't found a way to accurately measure performance. I'm also worried about the storage space as I'm intending into adding many characters and some will have variants or extra animations but I wanna put performance first and then try to reduce space as much as possible.

So far the only things that I know for certain are that:

• Using ATL transformations requires the least storage space since I only need ~12 files for each character instead of the ~45 files per animation per character.
• If I ever try to make a mobile built .webm files won't be supported.
• Both .webm files with its corresponding alpha masks and importing every transparent frame weight around the same even after compressing .png into loseless .webp

Anyone knows where can I read more about Ren'Py resources usage? Or if anyone could point me into how I could measure it myself that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance.

[m_from_space]

Anyone knows where can I read more about Ren'Py resources usage? Or if anyone could point me into how I could measure it myself that would be awesome.

Hitting F4 when inside your game gives you a little bit of information regarding memory usage of textures.

Whatever you mean by measuring usage, you can look at how your GPU and CPU are affected when using your game. You should know that image processing (and video processing) as well as pixel manipulation is a joke for modern PCs.