How can I make an animation using arrays?

Question

I want to take an array of sprites, for example

sf::Sprite animation[3] = { stepLeft, inMiddle, stepRight };

and construct an animation by looping them. Is this possible? How do I go about it?

Answer 1

Yes, you can perform sprite animation by using an array of sprites. However, you cannot simply loop over them using a for loop for example, as only the last the sprite in the array would be rendered.

To avoid this you can track the current index into the array, and use this to submit the corresponding sprite to the renderer. After each frame you can accumulate the frame times and after a desired length of time increment the current animation index so that the next sprite in the animation is rendered.

E.g.

if( m_accumulatedTime >= m_animFrameTime )
{
    // Reset timer
    m_accumulatedTime = 0;

    // Move to next frame of animation
    m_currentAnimIndex++;

    // Loop the animation
    if( m_currentAnimIndex > m_animClipSize - 1 )
        m_currentAnimIndex = 0;

}