Accessing var from another class or scene in SpriteKit - swift

Question

I'm building a game in SpriteKit that includes a player to select a character out of 7 options. Scene 1 will include 7 images. Each image will represent one character. The player will select the character by pressing on the image selected and new scene 2 will be presented. I want the selected character image to appear on scene 2. I saved data of selected character in scene 1, but when scene 2 is presented, it always shows character 1 and not another. Please advise what is the correct line of code to access var from scene 1 and bring it over to scene 2.
import SpriteKit
class Scene1: SKScene {
var Player1 = SKSpriteNode()
var Player2 = SKSpriteNode()
var Player3 = SKSpriteNode()
var Player4 = SKSpriteNode()
var Player5 = SKSpriteNode()
var Player6 = SKSpriteNode()
var Player7 = SKSpriteNode()
var playerSelect1 = false
var playerSelect2 = false
var playerSelect3 = false
var playerSelect4 = false
var playerSelect5 = false
var playerSelect6 = false
var playerSelect7 = false
// in touches began..
if self.nodeAtPoint(location) == self.player1 {
playerSelect1 = true
NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().setBool(true, forKey:"playerSelect1")
// then i present scene2
} else if self.nodeAtPoint(location) == self.player2 {
playerSelect2 = true
NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().setBool(true, forKey:"playerSelect2")
//then i present scene2
} else if self.nodeAtPoint(location) == self.player3 {
playerSelect3 = true
NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().setBool(true, forKey:"playerSelect3")
//then i present scene2
} else if self.nodeAtPoint(location) == self.player4 {
playerSelect4 = true
NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().setBool(true, forKey:"playerSelect4")
//then i present scene2
// i didn't list all 7 characters to make code shorter
class Scene2: SKScene {
var playerSelected: Scene1()
// did move to view
var character1 = SKSpriteNode()
var character2 = SKSpriteNode()
var character3 = SKSpriteNode()
var character4 = SKSpriteNode()
//grab the selection value
let playerSelect1 = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().boolForKey("playerSelect1")
let playerSelect2 = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().boolForKey("playerSelect2")
let playerSelect3 = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().boolForKey("playerSelect3")
let playerSelect4 = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().boolForKey("playerSelect4")
if playerSelect1 == true {
self.addChild(character1)
} else if playerSelect2 == true {
self.addChild(character2)
} else if playerSelect3 == true {
self.addChild(character3)
} else if playerSelect4 == true {
self.addChild(character4)
}
}

Answer 1

About your question there are many ways you can follow to achieve what you want. Now I personally only use NSUserDefaults when I need to communicate with for example to a today extension. You might also want to save your data files at a later time so I thought to this:
class Settings: NSObject { // NSCoding in case you want to save your data
var playerGender: [Bool]! = [Bool]()
func encodeWithCoder(aCoder: NSCoder!) {
aCoder.encodeObject(playerGender, forKey: "playerGender")
}
init(coder aDecoder: NSCoder!) {
playerGender = aDecoder.decodeObjectForKey("playerGender") as! [Bool]
}
override init() {
super.init()
self.playerGender = Array(count:7, repeatedValue:false)
}
}
class GameManager: NSObject {
static let sharedInstance = GameManager()
var settings : Settings! = Settings()
}
class Scene1: SKScene {
let gameManager = GameManager.sharedInstance
var player : [SKSpriteNode]?
override func didMoveToView(view: SKView) {
// in touches began..
if self.nodeAtPoint(location) == self.player1 {
gameManager.settings.playerGender[0] = true
}
}
}
class Scene2: SKScene {
let gameManager = GameManager.sharedInstance
var character : [SKSpriteNode]?
override func didMoveToView(view: SKView) {
//grab the selection value
let playerSelect1 = gameManager.settings.playerGender[0] //it's true
}
}
Explaination:
Settings is a class where you can write your game settings, and in future , you can also save the property values to a file.
GameManager is a shared instance, you can call it where do you want.

Answer 2

So let's consider the first time the user selects player 1. You store the selected player as a Bool in NSUserDefaults. This value will persist in local storage until you change it, even after the app is closed. So the next time the user selects player 2, you set the Bool for playerSelect2. The problem is, that in Scene2 you start your if statement checking if playerSelect1 == true, which it is because you set it to true once and never changed it back. With your current method, you would have to set the desired playerSelect to true, but also reset all of the others to false. I would recommend changing your strategy to store a String corresponding to the selected player in NSUserDefaults. Something like this should get you started.
When you want to set the selected player:
if self.nodeAtPoint(location) == self.player1 {
NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().setObject("playerSelect1", forKey: "selectedPlayer")
else if self.nodeAtPoint(location) == self.player2 {
NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().setObject("playerSelect2", forKey: "selectedPlayer")
else if ...
When you want to determine which player was selected in Scene2:
//grab the value from local storage
let selectedPlayer = NSUserDefaults.standardUserDefaults().objectForKey("selectedPlayer") as! String
if selectedPlayer == "playerSelect1" {
//handle player 1 case
}
else if selectedPlayer == "playerSelect2" {
//handle player 2 case
}