Random Spawning in certain locations - swift

How can you spawn SKSpritenodes randomly inside other SKSpritenodes? Maybe using constraints (in Swift)?
For example, I would like circles to spawn in random places inside different square SKSpriteNodes.

In order to do that, it's much better to use CGRects to contain the object that you are going to spawn.
You can use arc4random_uniform to get a random value for both the X and Y coordinates of the object that you are spawning and then use CGRectContainsPoint to check if the location is inside the CGRect.

Related

SpriteKit Detect Ranges

I am making small/mid RTS game, I have the following need:
I want Enemy Players to Attack allies and vice versa when they are in each attack range.
My question is: what would be a better approach finding if enemy units are in attack range of allied or vice versa of course ?
What have I tried:
For now I tried to add SKNodes with SKPhysicsBodies for each unit Node.
I can see that FPS are going down when the contact happens... I guess it wasn't the best way to know detect whether enemies are in range.
I guess my alternative is to run some Nested Loop within Update method and check if there are enemy units within the Radius.
I am not sure if it is the best approach, however with this approach I may play with some parameters and maybe optimize the routine for my own needs.
I would like to know if there is some better alternatives.
Look into GamePlayKit,
It may have some things you want.
Otherwise I would just use the Euclidiean Distance Formula https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/139600/euclidean-manhattan-distance without the square root, and use this value based on squads, not individual troops. (So if a group of 4 soldiers is attacking an enemy of 5 soldiers, only 1 distance check is done).
The reason why you do not square root, is because you should know the squared allowable distance. If an enemy 10 pixels away attracts soldiers, then use 100.
The best way to treat your soldiers like squads, add them all to an SKNode (sub class to add better functionality), then you just need to compare those squad SKNodes
If you want to reduce the number of checks you make, consider turning your play area into a grid (Like a chess board). Since you know the size of your tiles, you could easily check to see if the units are close enough to warrant a distance check. E.G. You have a unit at a1, and an enemy at i9, then you know just by tile distance that the units are too far apart to attack each other

Spawning in multiple positions

Is there a way to spawn randomly in multiple positions for example, I have four SKSpriteNodes which are the locations of where I would like another node to spawn inside of.
These are locations of where I would like the new node to spawn:
//bluesquare
self.bluesquare.position = CGPoint(x:90, y:400)
//greensquare
self.greensquare.position = CGPoint(x:290, y:400)
//yellowsquare
self.yellowsquare.position = CGPoint(x:90, y:150)
//redsquare
self.redsquare.position = CGPoint(x:290, y:150)
When they spawn within the location is there a why to make them spawn in random positions within that SKSpriteNode? (I am using swift with a spritekit game file)
Thanks
Use arc4random to create a random number between 0 and 3. Next use if statements to determine your spawn point based on the random number output.

Best Z ordering method for tile-based, cocos2D-iPhone games?

I want to make isometric, tile-based, iPhone games with cocos2D.
Sprites need to be drawn on-top of other sprites that are "behind" it. I'm looking for the best way to do this.
I'd like to avoid the painter's algorithm because it involves sorting all the sprites every frame which is expensive.
The Z buffer algorithm is supported by the GPU and cocos2D so this is what I'd like to use, but there is a problem. Some sprites, like buildings for example, occupy multiple tiles. Assigning a Z value to such sprites is difficult.
These are the options I've thought of:
Comparing two buildings and determining which one is "in-front" is
easy. So buildings can be sorted then assigned a Z value based on
the sort order. This wouldn't be any different from the painter's
algorithm. The OpenGl ES Z buffer wouldn't be necessary.
Assign a Z value to each building based purely on its location on
the map (without knowledge of where other buildings are). I'm
finding this difficult. I think it is possible, but I haven't been
able to come up with a formula yet.
Use multiple sprites for images that occupy more than one tile, so
all sprites will be exactly the same size. Z orders can then be
easily assigned based on what tile the sprite is occupying. The
problem with this solution is that it makes the game logic much more
complicated. All operations on a single building will have to be
repeated for each sprite the building is made-up of. I'd like to
treat each object as a single entity.
Modify the cocos2D code to allow sprites to have multiple Z values
at different points. If a sprite can have multiple Z values based on
what tile a particular part of the sprite falls on, then calculating
a Z value for that section is easy. I won't need to compare the
sprite to any other sprites. I believe this is possible by using
multiple quads for each sprite. The problem with this is that it is
a bit complicated for me since I am new to OpenGL ES and cocos2D. I
don't completely understand how all of the internal data structures
work. Although it seems like the most elegant solution if a formula
cannot be found.
I will up-vote any suggestions or references to helpful resources.
For #2, you can compute the Manhattan distance of the center of the object and use this value as the z-value of that object. It will work as long as you avoid very long objects in your map like 5x1 object or worse. But if you really need a long object to be placed in a tiled map, managing the z-order of objects in the map by setting a z-value using a formula is impossible.
To prove this:
1.) Place two 2x2 objects in a map horizontally and leave a unit tile between them.
2.) Place a 3x1 object between them. Let's name the 2x2 objects to A and B, and the 3x1 object to C.
3.) If you just rotate C(not changing its position), z-order of A and B interchange.
-If B is now in front, some objects behind B will be in front of A because of just the rotation of C. And it's costly to know which objects in back of both A and B previously will become in front of A after C's rotation.

How to select objects in OpenGL on iPhone without using glUnProject or GL_SELECT?

I have 3 OpenGL objects which are shown at the same time. If the user touches any one of them, then that particular OpenGL object alone should display in screen.
Just use gluUnProject to convert your touch point to a point on your near clipping plane and a point on your far clipping plane. Use the ray between those two points in a ray-triangle intersection algorithm. Figure out which triangle was closest, and whatever object that triangle is part of is your object. Another approach is to give each object a unique ID color. Then, whenever the user touches the screen, render using your unique ID colors with no lighting, but don't present the render buffer. Now you can just check the color of the pixel where the user touched and compare it against your list of object color ID's. Quick and easy, and it supports up to 16,581,375 unique objects.
You would have to parse every object of your scene and check the possible collision of each one of them with the ray you computed thanks to gluUnProject.
Depending on whether you want to select a face or an object, you could test the collision of the ray with bounding volumes (e.g. bounding box) of your objects for efficiency purposes.

Cocoa Touch - How to check if a non-rectangular object in a UIImageView intersects another object?

Say I have a UIImageView that contains an image of an object that is not rectangular, i.e. a round ball. How can I check if another UIImageView (rectangular or not) intersects, or contains a point in, that object (not its frame)?
Basic example:
I have two balls rolling around on the screen, and I want to check for collision. But I don't want to check if their rects intersects eachother, since the balls are not rectangular.
I think if you have limited set of possible shapes then it is better to perform the check for each possible pair of object shapes rather then some generic algorithm. For example two circles intersect if the distance between their centers is less then the sum of their radiuses etc.