Check any 8-direction sci-fi sprite pack in 10 seconds
Short answer: count 8 labeled facing rows (S SE E NE N NW W SW), play the demo through every facing before you pay, then slice the 64×64 grid and name clips char_action_dir (for example marine_walk_se). Takes about 10 minutes. The helper below builds your clip names and previews the real marine walk sheet.
Guide date: 2026-09-28. Engines covered: Godot 4.x, Unity 2D, RPG Maker MZ/MV. Engine docs: AnimatedSprite2D · Unity Sprite Editor. Buyer words: "need animated crew characters in 8 directions" for a "sci-fi top-down shooter, space RPG or roguelike" (pack BRIEF). Sheet numbers below are our own Sci-Fi Crew Vol 2 counts (products/character-animation-studio/sci-fi-crew-vol2, judge PASS 2026-09-28); the check works on any seller's sheets.
The cover we grade packs against: 8 labeled walk rows (S..SW) + the 3-crew idle strip. Cover the labels, guess each row's facing, then uncover — 7/8 or better and you can shop any 8-dir pack by sight.
The 3-step check
The 10-second grid check: rows tell you everything. An honest 8-direction pack shows a labeled walk grid: 8 rows, one per facing, in S SE E NE N NW W SW order top to bottom, one cell size (64×64 here). The decoder ring:
Count the rows. 8 rows = true 8-direction. 4 rows + "flip for the rest" = 4-direction with mirroring — diagonals look wrong on asymmetric characters (a visor, a wrench, a medgun never mirror cleanly).
Check facing order. Rows must run S SE E NE N NW W SW top to bottom — the order every exporter in this pack assumes. Undocumented orders cost you an evening of wrong-facing diagonals.
Compare adjacent diagonals. SE vs E vs NE must actually differ, not shift one pixel. Our distinctness gate: marine visor + blaster vs engineer cap + goggles + wrench vs medic surgical cap + medgun stay tell-apart at thumbnail size.
Look for the hurt tell. Attack needs a muzzle/medgun flash (~10 fps) and hurt a shield burst (~4 fps) that reads at phone size. No flash = hits won't read in combat.
Demand the frame counts. Walk 4f / run 6f / attack 4f / idle 2f / hurt 2f per direction is our contract (selftest-gated). Any seller that won't state per-action frame counts is selling a surprise.
The playable-demo test: play the pack before you pay. Grids can lie; a playable demo can't. Ours drives 120 anims (3 crew × 5 actions × 8 dirs) with arrows = direction, keys 1–5 = action, C = crew. Two-minute test: hold an arrow key through all 8 facings (no moonwalking = rows map correctly); press attack on every facing (flash fires); press hurt (flash reads); press C twice (three visibly distinct crew). No demo? Ask for the free sample slice instead — ours is below, byte-identical to the paid files.
The slice-grid recipe: drop any honest pack into your engine. Every sheet here slices on a 64×64 grid:
Slice grid for 64×64 sci-fi crew sheets (sci-fi-crew-vol2 exact sizes; reuse for your own sheets)
Sheet
Cols (frames)
Rows (dirs)
Cell
Sheet px
Start fps / loop
walk_8dir
4
8 (S,SE,E,NE,N,NW,W,SW)
64×64
256×512
8 / loop
run_8dir
6
8
64×64
384×512
8 / loop
attack_8dir
4
8
64×64
256×512
10 / once
idle_8dir
2
8
64×64
128×512
4 / loop
hurt_8dir
2
8
64×64
128×512
4 / loop
Godot 4: copy sheets to res://scifi/, attach godot_scifi.gd to an AnimatedSprite2D, call load_sheets("res://scifi") then play_action("marine","walk","se"). Filter Nearest + Reimport. Honest note: Godot is not installed on the build PC, so the exporter is file-based code verified by selftest + the HTML5 demo.
Unity: Texture Type Sprite (2D and UI), Filter Mode Point, Compression None, slice Multiple on the 64×64 grid per the table, name clips crew_action_dir; see unity_scifi.cs.
RPG Maker MZ/MV: drop sheets in img/characters/; see rpgmaker_scifi.js.
Unsure of a sheet's grid? Drop it into our free Sprite Sheet Slicer & Packer — runs 100% in your browser, no upload — and try columns × rows until each cell holds one clean pose.
Real motion from the pack: marine walk loop (one of 120 anims). The full demo drives all 3 crew × 5 actions × 8 directions; the helper below previews the real walk sheet row by row.
Free helper: sci-fi clip names + real sheet preview
Pick a crew member, action and facing. The helper shows the clip name, the sheet size, a copy-paste Godot 4 snippet — and previews the real marine_walk_8dir.png sheet from the free sample on a canvas. Everything runs locally — nothing leaves your device.
