Scratch

I don't think you can make a background bigger then the screen.

What I just thought of is to do this:

1. Create 2 or 3 (or more depending how wide you want it) images as seperate sprites. You can just leave background white.
2. For the scrolling affect, just chance the X position of the sprites by a positive number to make the illusion of scrolling right. And by a negative number to make the illusion of going left.
3. Make sure all the images have a bit of them on the screen.

Refer to my sample: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/Greatness/4213

Enjoy 

You could even just hide thhem and show em at a particular spot as you need em, that way you can have hundreds 

Hi,

How do you segment your backgrounds? What is the best program to use?

Any help - greatly appriciated,

G_O

I made something that works better than I expected it to:  http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/jmgibson/7644

It uses sprites to tile in subsections of a wrapped background image.  When a tile is off frame it hides in order to reduce draw time.  And a tile always displays itself on the appropriate side of the screen so it can wrap.

Here is a website that describes fixing wrap seams in Photoshop:
http://www.myjanee.com/tuts/tilings/tilings.htm

Here is a PS7 and CS series script for breaking up an images into component tiles.  Ignore all the references to Google Maps.  I started from Will's script to work specifically on them:
/******************************************************************************************/
/*  Tile Carver for Photoshop 7
   and Probably CS     
   Created by Will James
   http://onNYTurf.com

   Transparency option added by
   Curtis Wyatt
   http://gocalipso.com/
*/


//**** YOU SHOULD CUSTOMIZE THE FOLLOWING VARIABLE DEPENDING ON YOUR NEED ****
var ZoomLevel = 1;  //<-- Enter the zoom level we want to create tiles for
var FolderPath = "C:\Documents and Settings\Johnny\Desktop\SCRATCHstuff\ic1396-2";  //<-- path to where we will save our tiles



// We start with the coordinates, zoom, and width of an upper left corner tile and generate everything from there
// We can calculate new tile values from these values for any zoom level without having to look up these details for each.
var OrgX = 0;   //<-- the X value
var OrgY = 0;   //<-- the Y value
var OrgZoomLevel = 1;   //<-- the zoom level
var OrgTileWidth = 4;    //<-- the number of tiles wide your full map area is
var OrgTileHeight = 4;    //<-- the number of tiles high your full map area is
var PixelWidth = 256; //<-- Set by Google
var PixelHeight = 256; //<-- Set by Google and same as width, but we included to make it easier to understand how this script works

var Transparency = false;  //<-- true if slicing file with transparencies, and you want to retain them, false if not as this  is slower

//**** EVERYTHING BEYOND HERE SHOULD NOT BE TOUCHED UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!

// Exponent Function
// we will need these later
function PowMe(a, b){
   var o = a;
   for (n = 1; n < b; n++){ o *= a; }
   if (b==0){ o = 1;    }
   return o;
};

// via http://www.ps-scripts.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=343
function takeSnapshot () {
    var id686 = charIDToTypeID( "Mk  " );
    var desc153 = new ActionDescriptor();
    var id687 = charIDToTypeID( "null" );
    var ref119 = new ActionReference();
    var id688 = charIDToTypeID( "SnpS" );
    ref119.putClass( id688 );
    desc153.putReference( id687, ref119 );
    var id689 = charIDToTypeID( "From" );
    var ref120 = new ActionReference();
    var id690 = charIDToTypeID( "HstS" );
    var id691 = charIDToTypeID( "CrnH" );
    ref120.putProperty( id690, id691 );
    desc153.putReference( id689, ref120 );
    executeAction( id686, desc153, DialogModes.NO );
}

function revertToLastSnapshot() {
    var docRef = app.activeDocument;
    var hsObj = docRef.historyStates;
    var hsLength = hsObj.length;
    for (var i = hsLength-1; i > -1; i--) {
        if(hsObj[i].snapshot) {
            docRef.activeHistoryState = hsObj.getByName('Snapshot ' + i);
            break;
        }       
    }       
}


var StartX = OrgX*PowMe(2,(OrgZoomLevel - ZoomLevel)); //******this will work as long as your ORG values are your furthest zoom*******
var StartY = OrgY*PowMe(2,(OrgZoomLevel - ZoomLevel));  //******this will work as long as your ORG values are your furthest zoom*******

var xTiles = OrgTileWidth*PowMe(2,(OrgZoomLevel - ZoomLevel)); //<-- calculate the number of tiles across
var yTiles = OrgTileHeight*PowMe(2,(OrgZoomLevel - ZoomLevel)); //<-- calculate the number of tiles down


var TotalTiles = xTiles * yTiles;  //<-- calculate the total number of tiles

// Before we start cutting up images we make sure Photoshop is measuring things in terms of Pixels
preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;

// Counters to track which x value and which y value we are on in our image tile grid
var xm = 0;
var ym = 0;

var TileX = StartX; //<-- Set out first Google X value - later used in file name
var TileY = StartY; //<-- Set out first Google Y value - later used in file name

// Cut 'em up
// For each tile we need to make, we repeat each step in this loop
for (n=1; n<TotalTiles+1; n++) {           
   
    // We cut up tiles column by column
    // I.E. we cut up all the tiles for a given x value before moving on to the next x value.
    // We do this by checking if the y value we are on is the last tile in a column
    // We compare our y counter to our total y number of Tiles, if they are the same is we do the following
    if (ym == yTiles){   
        xm += 1; //<-- Up the x value by 1, i.e. we move over to the next column   
        ym = 0;  //<-- Reset the y value to 0 so we start back at the top of our new column
        TileX += 1; //<-- Increase our Google X value for our file name
        TileY = StartY;  //We reset our Google Y value for out file name everytime we change columns
    };
   
    // Based on our our TileWidth and TileHeight and the column we are on we determine our selection origin and area values     
    MyXO = xm*(PixelWidth);
    MyXL = xm*(PixelWidth)+(PixelWidth);
    MyYO = ym*(PixelHeight);
    MyYL = ym*(PixelHeight)+(PixelHeight);               
   
    // We make sure our source image is the active document
    var srcDoc = activeDocument;
   
    //Select Area and Copy
    srcDoc.selection.select(Array (Array(MyXO, MyYO), Array(MyXL, MyYO), Array(MyXL, MyYL), Array(MyXO, MyYL)), SelectionType.REPLACE, 0, false);   
   
    if (Transparency) {
        takeSnapshot();
        srcDoc.crop(Array(MyXO, MyYO, MyXL, MyYL));
        //Save New Doc
        var saveMe = activeDocument;
                 
        //Set path to file and file name
        saveFile = new File("ztile" +TileX+ "_" + TileY+ ".gif");   
        //Set save options
        gifSaveOptions = new GIFSaveOptions();
        gifSaveOptions.colors = 64;
        gifSaveOptions.dither = Dither.NONE;
        gifSaveOptions.matte = MatteType.NONE;
        gifSaveOptions.preserveExactColors = 0;
        gifSaveOptions.transparency = 1;
        gifSaveOptions.interlaced = 0;
       
        //Save the file and close it
        saveMe.saveAs(saveFile, gifSaveOptions, true, Extension.LOWERCASE);
        revertToLastSnapshot();
        //saveMe.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES);
    }
    else {
        srcDoc.selection.copy();
       
        //Paste to new Doc
        var pasteDoc = documents.add(PixelWidth, PixelHeight, srcDoc.resolution, "Paste Target");
        pasteDoc.paste();
        pasteDoc = null;
        //Save New Doc
        var saveMe = activeDocument;
       
        //Flatten
        saveMe.flatten();
       
        //Set path to file and file name
        saveFile = new File("ztile" +TileX+ "_" + TileY+ ".gif");   
        //Set save options
        gifSaveOptions = new GIFSaveOptions();
        gifSaveOptions.colors = 64;
        gifSaveOptions.dither = Dither.NONE;
        gifSaveOptions.matte = MatteType.NONE;
        gifSaveOptions.preserveExactColors = 0;
        gifSaveOptions.transparency = 0;
        gifSaveOptions.interlaced = 0;
       
        //Save the file and close it
        saveMe.saveAs(saveFile, gifSaveOptions, true,Extension.LOWERCASE);
        saveMe.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES);
    }
   
    //Advance Y counter for next image
    ym += 1;
   
    //Advance Google Y value for next image name
    TileY += 1;
}
/**************************************************************/

Last edited by jmgibson (2007-06-03 05:02:38)