Automatically accomodate nonexistent frames

[umbral swallow]

My .frames file, currently:

{  
  "frameGrid" : {
    "size" : [40, 10],
    "dimensions" : [5, 1],
    "names" : [
      ["absent", "present.5", "present.4", "present.3", "present.2"]
    ]
  },
  
  "alises": {
    "present.default": "present.5",
    "present.0": "present.2",
    "present.1": "present.2"
  }
}

Relevant section of the .animation file:

{
"properties" : {
  "zLevel" : 4,
  "centered" : true,
  "image" : "<partImage>:present",
  "offset" : [0, 0],
  "transformationGroups" : ["weapon"]
},

"partStates" : {
  "mag" : {
    "present": {
      "properties": {
        "image": "<partImage>:present.<ammo>"
      }
    },
    "absent": {
      "properties": {
        "image": "<partImage>:absent"
      }
    }
  }
}
}

Without having to type an alias for each amount of ammo, how do I accomplish rendering either present.5 and present.2, depending on the amount of ammo remaining in the mag? (The max ammo of the gun is 8)

A workaround I thought of is defining "magAnimRange": [2, 5] in the .weaponability or .activeitem file and doing

animator.setGlobalTag("ammo",
    self.magAnimRange[2] < storage.ammo and self.magAnimRange[2] or
    storage.ammo < self.magAnimRange[1] and self.magAnimRange[1] or
    storage.ammo)

Is there another way to do this?

[shrewd fern]

am a little confused

for absent do ""

for image

then just do 1, 2, 3, 4 instead of present

but whatcha mean by the rest @umbral swallow

OH do you mean

you have 4 frames

8 bullets

it changes every 2 in this case?

local ammoFrame = math.floor(self.magazineFrames * (1 - self.ammo/self.maxAmmo))
animator.setGobalTag("ammoFrame", ammoFrame)

thats how i do it

[umbral swallow]

oooh math.floor 😮

wait actually idk if that'll work

think of the mag as belt-fed into the bottom

when the mag is quite full most of the ammo is hidden inside the mag

and the mag just loops the ammo (i'll send the updated mag frames later, i altered it a while ago)

then as ammo goes lower the belt is fed into the gun, until the tail of the belt is inside the gun

doesn't mean there isn't any ammo left - the remaining ammo is hidden within the gun

like

8: mag looks full, 3 inside mag, 3 bullets visible, 2 are inside the gun
7: mag looks full, 2 inside mag, 3 bullets visible, 2 are inside the gun
6: 1 in mag, 3 visible, 2 in gun
5: 0 in mag, 3 visible, 2 in gun
4: 0 in mag, 2 visible, 2 in gun
3: 0 in mag, 1 visible, 2 in gun
2: 0 in mag, 0 visible, 2 in gun
1: 0 in mag, 0 visible, 1 in gun
0: 0 in mag, 0 visible, 0 in gun

but the math method is kinda giving me an idea lol\

[shrewd fern]

youre still confusing