Collision without sprites colliding - sprite-kit

I have some simple code that adds a block sprite at the leftmost part of a tile like this :
block.position = CGPointMake((-self.size.width * 0.5), 0);
[self addChild:block];
Since the anchor point is in the middle of the block sprite. self refers to the actual tile.
This works fine and indeed adds the block on the left side of the tile sprite.
Now I also have a player sprite that can collide with that block if it tries to go through it. That also works just fine.
The problem happened when i tried to get the block sprite to show in the exact same spot using another anchor point (i need a new anchor point for a shrink effect i wanted to create - which appears to work fine btw).
The new code becomes :
block.position = CGPointMake(-(self.size.width * 0.5), -(self.size.width * 0.5));
block.anchorPoint = CGPointZero;
[self addChild:block];
The new block appears in a similar to the first case position (though not totally identical).
I am not sure why the position is not identical but i can fix that by adding/subtracting 1 or 2 from the x,y points.
The weird problem is that if my player sprite now tries to go below that block on the tile below (which is an open tile without any blocks), i get a contact between the player and the block.
I have even added debug paths with SKShapeNode to make sure that the player and block sprites do not actually collide. And they don't ! But i still get a collision event.
The player scale is (0.8, 0.9), but i don't think this would play much of a role.
I really don't get why this could be happening. Any ideas guys ?

Changing the sprite's anchor point have no effect on the physics body.
When talking about CGRect, the rect origin is at point {0, 0},
So what is happening is that you now have a sprite that its image is centred around anchor point {0, 0} but with a physics body, that starts at {0, 0} and is the size of the sprite, meaning that it is centred around {0.5, 0.5}.
So even that the player doesn't collide with the image of the sprite, it does collide with its physics body.
What is happening is that you have a physics body, that before had the same centre point as the sprite,
But as oppose to before, where the sprite anchor point were in the middle, which would 'fit' into the physics body,
Now the sprite's anchor point is {0, 0}, which causes the physics body centre point, to actually be the most bottom left point of the sprite.
To resolve this, you need to offset your physics body, so it will be centred around the new anchor point.
For example:
block.physicsBody = [SKPhysicsBody bodyWithRectangleOfSize:block.size center:CGPointZero];
CGPoint newCenter = CGPointMake(block.size.width, block.size.height);
block.physicsBody = [SKPhysicsBody bodyWithRectangleOfSize:block.size centre:newCenter];
Good luck mate.
EDIT- On a second thought, I think I got confused with the offset directions.
An edit has been made to correct it.

Related

SpriteKit tilemaps collision with curved or sloped floor tiles

I am planning a platforming game for iOS using SpriteKit and Swift. I did some research on how to handle collisions of the player sprite and stumbled upon this article.
http://www.learn-cocos2d.com/2013/08/physics-engine-platformer-terrible-idea/
That article advices you not to use the build-in physics engine of SpriteKit but to implement things like moving, jumping and collision handling on your own. The platform tutorial on Ray Wenderlichs site suggests a similar approach.
So far so good but let's talk about floor tiles on which the player can stand upon. A custom physics implementation would be easy as long as the tiles are rectangular and have a flat surface (like in the tutorial from Ray Wenderlich), since you would use CGRectIntersectsRect to detect a collision. But how would you check the player collision on curved or sloped tiles? From what I have read, CGRectIntersectsRect does not account for tranparent pixel inside a sprites rect.
http://i.stack.imgur.com/lRP2Q.png
Look at the above tile for example. The white area (upper left) would be transparent. Now, if the player sprite would drop on this tile, the collision would be detected at the upper border of the tiles rectangle, although there are no ground pixels there (blue area, lower right). So ultimately the player would hover in mid-air above this tile. I could push the player sprite down a few pixels but that is a bit hacky and gets harder if the curved floor tiles have different slope angles.
So the question is, how can I handle these types of collision with SpriteKit alone (no extra frameworks like Cocos2D, Kobold Kit, ...)? Or is this approach entirely wrong and collisions in platformer with SpriteKit should be done fundamentally different?
Any help is very much appreciated!
I disagree with not using physics to handle collisions and contacts. You are really just trying to reinvent the wheel here by not using physics and implementing your own custom code.
If you are using the Tiled app then assigning a physics body is a simple task. Use the Objects in Tiled to assign various body types. In your code you can then go about creating a specific body for each object type.
For example:
In the above image I have created a 45 degree right side sloped floor. The object I added is called floor45R.
The next step is to parse your map objects. In case of the 45floorR, you create a physics body like this:
NSArray *arrayObjects = [group objectsNamed:#"floor45R"];
for (NSDictionary *dicObj in arrayObjects) {
CGFloat x = [dicObj[#"x"] floatValue];
CGFloat y = [dicObj[#"y"] floatValue];
CGFloat w = [dicObj[#"width"] floatValue];
CGFloat h = [dicObj[#"height"] floatValue];
SKSpriteNode *myNode = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithColor:[SKColor clearColor] size:CGSizeMake(w, h)];
myNode.position = CGPointMake(x, y);
myNode.zPosition = 100;
CGMutablePathRef trianglePath = CGPathCreateMutable();
CGPathMoveToPoint(trianglePath, nil, -myNode.size.width/2, myNode.size.height/2);
CGPathAddLineToPoint(trianglePath, nil, myNode.size.width/2, -myNode.size.height/2);
CGPathAddLineToPoint(trianglePath, nil, -myNode.size.width/2, -myNode.size.height/2);
CGPathAddLineToPoint(trianglePath, nil, -myNode.size.width/2, myNode.size.height/2);
myNode.physicsBody = [SKPhysicsBody bodyWithPolygonFromPath:trianglePath];
myNode.physicsBody.dynamic = NO;
myNode.physicsBody.restitution = 0;
myNode.physicsBody.friction = 0.0;
myNode.physicsBody.categoryBitMask = CategoryFloor45;
myNode.physicsBody.collisionBitMask = 0x00000000;
CGPathRelease(trianglePath);
[worldNode addChild:myNode];
}
This works for any degree floor slope. Remember to set your player's and any other node's collision bit mask to collide with the floor.
In order for your player move smoothly over sloped floor, I recommend building the player's physics body in 2 pieces. A circle at the bottom and a rectangle at the top. The circle will prevent getting stuck in any potential cracks caused by 2 joining physics bodies.
SKPhysicsBody *firstBody = [SKPhysicsBody bodyWithCircleOfRadius:10 center:CGPointMake(0, 0)];
SKPhysicsBody *secondBody = [SKPhysicsBody bodyWithRectangleOfSize:CGSizeMake(5, 50) center:CGPointMake(0, 10)];
self.physicsBody = [SKPhysicsBody bodyWithBodies:#[firstBody, secondBody]];
You will have to adjust the position and center coordinates to match your sprite's image.
You can make use of a level editor, Tiled to handle curved and sloped floor tiles along with JSTileMap which processes the TMX map.
It will be able to able to handle contact with curved and sloped floor tiles but as for adjusting the angle of objects standing on top of those tiles, you would have to utilize some math functions, a good example is found here
You can still make use of SpriteKit's collision detection which will simplify things for you but create your own jumping or movement engine.

SpriteKit Physics Bodies Collisions in Multiple Layers

Okay, so I'm writing code for a space blaster game, and all seems to be going well, minus these crucial issues.
First, I added a spaceship (with PhysicsBody) as a child of self (GameScene).
Then I added a background layer as a node also as a child of self, behind the spaceship, and simulated movement by moving the background around behind the spaceship via joystick control.
I added a node with a boundary physics Edge Loop body so the background wouldn't move beyond the ship, and added that node as a child of the bgLayer.
I have objects for the spaceship to shoot at, but I want them to move around as the background does, so I added them as children of the bgLayer.
Of course, I needed a laser when the spaceship fires, so I added this as well as a child of the bgLayer.
_spaceship.physicsBody = (custom physicsBody code);
[self addChild:_spaceship];
_bgLayer = [SKNode node];
[self addChild:_bgLayer];
_bounds = [SKNode node];
_bounds.physicsBody = (physicsBody edgeLoop code);
[_bgLayer addChild:_bounds];
_otherObjects.physicsBody = (custom physicsBody code);
[_bgLayer addChild:_otherObjects];
_laser.physicsBody = (custom physicsBody code);
[_bgLayer addChild:_laser];
All is well, the background doesn't move beyond the spaceship,the other objects move as the background moves, and the laser fires when called upon.
My first big dilemma is when my laser fires, it does not move as the background moves, but the background moves behind it. I could probably make do but it looks funny if the laser always moves in parallel with the ship. This seems odd to me since I added the laser as a child of _bgLayer.
Second, my laser's physicsBody doesn't seem to recognize the EdgeLoop body, and sails right on through it. Also, my spaceship's physicsBody seems to recognize the EdgeLoop body, but it does not recognize the other objects that are children of _bgLayer.
Do Physics Bodies that are not children of the same layer recognize each other?
And why doesn't my laser behave similarly to other children of the same layer?
Moving the world by changing its position will affect
Children with physics bodies
Children without physics bodies
Moving the world by applying a force/impulse or by settings its velocity will affect
Children without physics bodies
Instead of moving the world by setting its velocity, you can add a camera (an SKNode with a physics body) to the world, move the camera by setting its velocity, and then update the position of the world to center the camera. You can center the camera in the didFinishUpdate method.
-(void)fireLaser
{
_laser = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithImageNamed: [NSString stringWithFormat:#"blueLaser"]];;
_laser.zRotation = _spaceShip.zRotation;
CGVector rotationVector = RadiansToVector(_spaceShip.zRotation);
_laser.position = (Custom code for positioning the laser just in front of the spaceship);
_laser.physicsBody = [SKPhysicsBody bodyWithRectangleOfSize:_laser.size];
[_bgLayer addChild:_laser];
_laser.physicsBody.velocity = CGVectorMake(rotationVector.dx * LASER_SPEED, rotationVector.dy * LASER_SPEED);
}
[self fireLaser] is called in touchesBegan when a particular SpriteNode is touched.
The laser fires beautifully, but does not scroll with the background, but rather moves in relation to the spaceship. Background scrolls with a PhysicsBody and a setVelocity method is called when the joystick moves, thus simulating spaceship motion, when in reality the spaceship never leaves the center of the screen. Physics categories prevent the background physics body from colliding with anything. LASER_SPEED is simply a static const float.

Why is the coordinate system in sprite kit flipped and can I change that globally?

I noticed that in Sprite Kit the coordinate system is flipped.
For example, here is a SKSpriteNode:
SKSpriteNode *car = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithImageNamed:#"car"];
car.position = CGPointMake(0, 0);
[road addChild:car];
The car is positioned in the center of it's parent.
When I set position to:
car.position = CGPointMake(-50, 0);
then it is positioned more to the left.
But when I want to move it down, and increase Y, it moves UP!
car.position = CGPointMake(-50, 20);
In UIKit increasing Y always means something moves down. It feels more logical to me. Is there a way to flip the coordinate system in Sprite Kit?
You can set your scene's yScale property to -1. Everything will render upside down, but you can also set the yScale property for each node to -1, which will cause them to render right side up.
You could also make a class category and create a property called invertedPosition with a custom getter/setter that inverts the default position property.
Sprite Kit uses a coordinate orientation that starts from the bottom left corner of the scene (0,0), and the values increase as you move to the right (increasing x) and up (increasing y).

Physics vs graphics fighting each other (box2d)

so I have a ball (sprite subclass) that can be dragged around the screen and updates it body to tell the world its position.
The problem is, when I apply a force to the ball while the ball is being touched (thus being controlled by a finger), I have two pieces of code fighting against each other to update the sprite's visual position.
The world stepper is trying to follow through the physics and update the ball's position. The touch methods however are also trying to update the ball's body and graphic position. Ideally, when touched I would like to kill off any physics affecting the ball.
So what exactly should I be trying to do to consolidate this? This is also creating issues for collisions and filtering. Any help appreciated. Thanks
Do you want the ball to have an accurate physics simulation? If not, you could always use the SetTransform method of the b2body class like this.
CGPoint ballLocation = ;//use the touched location for this
b2Vec2 vecBallLocation = b2Vec2(ballLocation.x / 32, ballLocation.y / 32);//calculate this on your own
b2Body * ballBody = ;//replace this variable with your ball's b2Body;
ballBody->SetTransform(vecBallLocation, ballBody->GetAngle());
Do not set the ball sprite's position manually. Leave this up to the physics simulation. Your code will get really messy over time if you have to keep track of what sprites you set the position of manually and which ones use the physics simulation to update their positions. This way is also much easier.
When the physics object is being dragged, set its velocity and angular velocity to 0,0 before running the physics step simulation. You may also want to temporarily get the physics object's position, then step, then set the body's position back, then apply whatever touch dragging offset you got from moving the finger to the body.

stick a sprite to another when it collide with it

so I have a sprite that is created every second and that is moving at a random position (sprite1) and another sprite that has a fixed position (sprite2). I would like that when sprite1 collide with sprite2, sprite1 is like sticked to it (it stops moving and is sticked to it) . How can I do this please ? sorry for my english I'm french :/
p.s : sprite2 is rotating with accelerometer, so if sprite1 collide with it I would like that it rotate too :)
I think, you can try to use box2d to do this. It will help to detect collisions and to manage rotations, movement, etc.
I think, you can do it simply in Cocos2d.
1) First set the rect for sprite1 and sprite2 using CGRectMake(x,y,width,height)
2) As you told sprite1 is moving at random position and sprite2 is fixed to particular position, you can check them collide by using CGRectIntersectsRect([sprite1 bounds],[sprite2 bounds]).
3) if it intersects, set sprite1.position = sprite2.position
Note: you said sprite1 is rotating, rect can be fit only to the regular bodies. if you want exact collision or physical properties for sprite better you can go for box2d.
If you don't want to use Box2d (which can handle circle collisions), you can try something like this:
1.) Detect collision, is the distance between the two circles center point (x,y), less than the sum of the two circles radius.
2.) Make the Sprite1 stick to Sprite2, Stop the movement of Sprite1, and save the relative delta (x,y) to Sprite2, then whenever Sprite2 moves or rotates apply the same delta movement and rotation to Sprite1.