Pulsating transparency

Has anyone done a visual effect where an object might slowly have its transparency reduced to zero, then back up to 100%? If so, are there any nice effective ways of going about this? So far, the only thing I can think of is using a variable to determine when to raise or lower the transparency. If transparency = 100, set variable to 1. If variable = 1, reduce transparency every tick. If transparency = 0, set variable to 0. If variable = 0, increase transparency every tick.

Would something like that be my only method of executing an effect like this?

You can use Sine behavior to do it easly without any event.

Events hmm:

+ System: Is global variable 'opct' Equal to 0
-> Sprite: Set opacity to Sprite.Opacity-100*TimeDelta
+ System: Is global variable 'opct' Equal to 1
-> Sprite: Set opacity to Sprite.Opacity+100*TimeDelta
+ Sprite: Opacity Equal to 0
-> System: Add 1 to global variable 'opct'
+ Sprite: Opacity Equal to 100
-> System: Set global variable 'opct' to 0

+ System: Always (every tick)
-> System: Add 1 to global variable 'opct'
-> Sprite: Set opacity to Sprite.Opacity-sin(global('opct'))

You can simplify those by using the timer, a built in variable. Other options, you could also use lerp:

always

• set opacity to lerp(0, 100, timer/300)

or use

always

• set opacity to cosp(0, 100, timer/300)

...for a sine wave instead. But yeah, the sine behavior is the easiest.

You can use Sine behavior to do it easly without any event.

I didn't even know you could do that. Must be a new addition to sine. Neat.

You can simplify those by using the timer, a built in variable. Other options, you could also use lerp:

always

- set opacity to lerp(0, 100, timer/300)

or use

always

- set opacity to cosp(0, 100, timer/300)

i don't think construct will ever stop suprising me. Thank you so much for this Arima!

I hear ya. I've been using it since the earliest betas and I'm STILL occasionally surprised by features I didn't know about! XD

BTW Kisai, I think you're right, I recall extra options being added to it a while ago.