I have a snake clone, and I use few coordinates system in that. One is coordinates in map node, another is world node, where everything that scrolls resides and one is scene - where my snake head resides.
The problem is with converting points from one system to another. It can become very tedious to nest from one system to another and this also leads me to having to calculate all positions in scene class.
Take for example the code:
CGPoint tempPoint = [self convertPoint:[self convertPoint:[self.map nextWaypointForEnemyOnPosition:[self convertPoint:[self convertPoint:enemy.position fromNode:self.worldNode] toNode:self.map] andHeading:enemy.heading] fromNode:self.map] toNode:self.worldNode];
This gets out of hand very fast. How do I fix this and ease the point conversions?
Keep all nodes that need to have coordinates compared on one layer (node) - this greatly simplifies things.
Related
I'm a complete noob in gamedev, but I've watched a number of videos on generating a 2D array to setup Grid-based combat (pathing, obstacles etc), and I don't find the programmable approach intuitive or visually friendly.
Is it possible to setup such level with obstacles using multiple tilemaps?
1st tilemap would include the whole level zone (I named it "General Tilemap"):
2nd tilemap would only contain tiles that would be marked as collision when being read (I named it "Collision Tilemap") and player wouldn't be able to move to them:
My logic would be to read the adjacent tiles around the player, and if:
A tile exists on the General tilemap, but not on the Collision tilemap, player can click it and move there.
A tile exists on both tilemaps, it is marked as collision, it cannot be clicked.
A tile doesn't exist, it is out of boundaries, it cannot be clicked.
Could you please let me know if this is a valid approach (for smaller levels at least, I won't be making anything large so scalability is not an issue), or have I gone completely off course and there's a superior way to do this properly?
I'm currently stuck at the very first step - reading whether the tile on a coordinate (next to player) is existing or null for both tilemaps. Doing my best to figure it out though.
Thanks!
Managed to check if tilemap contains a tile on xy coordinates in Start function, by finding the relevant Tilemap and using hasTile to read it it has value or not. This returns a boolean.
Tilemap generalTilemap = GameObject.Find("General Tilemap").GetComponent<Tilemap>();
hasGTile = generalTilemap.HasTile(playerTileCoord);
Still not sure if this approach will work for me long-term, especially when I get to the pathfinding algorithm, but we'll see!
I am working on a game which allows some buildings to be placed and
procedurally rotated.
I found the following rotation code which I am trying to incorporate:
function TransformModel(objects, center, new, recurse)
for _,object in pairs(objects) do
if object:IsA("BasePart") then
object.CFrame = new:toWorldSpace(center:toObjectSpace(object.CFrame))
end
if recurse then
TransformModel(object:GetChildren(), center, new, true)
end
end
end
which is invoked as follows in my building placement script:
local center = model:GetModelCFrame()
TransformModel( model:GetChildren(), center, center * CFrame.Angles(0,math.rad(45),0), true )
So the code works, somewhat... The model does sort of rotate but only after it jumps into the air and lands haphazardly before finally settling down in the rotated position, although its far from an exact 45 degree rotation after the physics effect of jumping in the air and settling back down.
I am not quite sure but I suspect there is a better way to accomplish this where the model smoothly rotates. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andy
GetModelCFrame is a deprecated method. It is instead recommended to utilize the PrimaryPart, GetPrimaryPartCFrame, and SetPrimaryPartCFrame. Setting the primary part designates a specific part in the model to serve as a base that you can move around via its CFrame. What's nice about this approach is that if you transform the PrimaryPart of a Model with these methods, all of the other parts in the Model will also transform to maintain their offset from the PrimaryPart.
For placing buildings and props, it is usually desired to have this part be a flat part at the bottom that represents the footprint of the building.
For example, consider the following model:
In this case the best part to make the primary part would be the one on the bottom. If your model doesn't have a part incorporated in the geometry then you can make an invisible and cancollide false part to serve as the base. In the following example, there is a tree model that doesn't have a wide base, but we want to make sure the footprint is large enough that it wouldn't overlap with other nearby objects:
In this case the yellow part should be made fully transparent at runtime.
So in terms of the code to actually orient a model in the way you want, all you have to do is call SetPrimaryPartCFrame with the new CFrame. The TransformModel function simply becomes:
local function TransformModel(model, newCFrame)
model:SetPrimaryPartCFrame(newCFrame)
end
When you want to call this function to say rotate a model 45 degrees:
local model = game.Workspace.Model
model.PrimaryPart = model.Base
local rotatedCFrame = model:GetPrimaryPartCFrame() * CFrame.Angles(0, math.rad(45), 0)
TransformModel(model, rotatedCFrame)
I believe I found an answer that works for my problem, though I am not sure if this is the best way to fix it. I created an extra part to act as a base which is the exact width and height of the model, the model then sits on top of the new base part and the base is anchored. That seems to have fixed it - is there a better way?
Now, GetPrimaryPartCFrame and SetPrimaryPartCFrame are not recommended for future projects. Instead, it is best to use SetPivot() and GetPivot().
(I understand that this topic was quite a while back ago, so I'm saying this to people who stumble upon this)
xcode 5 iOS7 sprite kit.
My wish is to make a sprite that has its own gravity.
Like a planet. If another sprite comes within a certain range of it, it will slowly pull the other sprite closer.
I have two sprites. One moving and one stationary. When the moving sprite gets in a given distance of the stationary sprite the stationary sprite gravity should slowly pull the other sprite towards it. This way the moving sprite would change its path in a soft curve.
My idea would be to calculate the distance from the stationary object to any other object and if close enough start pulling and if the moving object gets out of range ageing, then stop pulling.
Would probably need to research some vector calculation.
Thats my immediate thoughts.
Is this possible and how? Does it already exist?
A friend of mine did this for his physics dissertation. multibody gravity simulation. So yeah you can but you need to be willing to learn some maths. Apparently there is a clever optimisation to make it run decently nlog(n) rather than n^2). you probably want to ask this on the physics version of stack overflow to get a good answer. I have the code at home ... will post it later but you will want an explanation - i used it in an xna app. Its badass once you get it working - although if you want naturally orbiting objects then you will want to code them using parametric equations for easy and cool orbits. Simply because its hard to solve and with time even using double will result in some errors (the good implementations also work out the error and adjust - again will post later). But the real problem is solving for stable orbits. You then use the algorithm for free moving bodies such and player objects / npcs. Although solving accurate movement for npc in a changing field is v hard.
you want to look at this question: Jon Purdys answer is the one you want
multi body physics - gravity
and this one (which is linked from above) ...
https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/a/19404
There is not a dead-simple way of doing that in any platform as far as I know maybe except for some game engines/platforms that export for different platforms (cocos2d, construct 2 etc).
What you need is a physics engine whether you write one (which is a complicated but fun thing to do) or use an available one.
Luckily I've found a link describing the usage of the famous 2D physics engine "Box2D" on iOS.
This one explains how you can include Box2D in an openGL application (but you can apply this to other environments (sprite kit) I think altough I'm not an iOS guy);
http://www.iforce2d.net/b2dtut/setup-ios
Anyways, you now know what to look for...
For iOS 8.0+ : you have SKFieldNode : radialGravityField()
For iOS 8.0- : one solution could be : 3 to 9
add your sprite ( planet ) with its physics
add an invisible SKNode ( the gravity zone ) with its own physics, as a child of your sprite, but with a radius much more than your sprite's one
you have a little explanation about invisible node here : https://developer.apple.com/documentation/spritekit/skphysicsworld
both, your sprite and the invisible node are centered in a zero gravity world
we look for contact and not collision ( set correctly your bit masks )
when any object get in contact with the invisible node ( gravity zone ), first you remove any moving action or impulse from it and then we add to this object an SKAction to move it toward the center of your sprite ( planet )
at second contact between this object and your sprite ( planet ), you remove all actions again from the object with a velocity = zero
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.
Every enemy type in my game is a different class, and the instances are stored in a C array. In the main game loop update() is run for each enemy/item instance, and draw() is run. Some of the update() commands require knowledge of where the main player is. What would be the best route to get that information to the instance? I don't think a global variable is the smart way to do it, since multiplayer options may be added later.
This is only an example of the bigger problem, which is how things in the game are supposed to know about each other. How would enemies know they're colliding with other enemies for example.
Your need to build a multi-branched tree type structure (not simple binary tree). The nodes are the locations in the game. Each node can contain multiple simple stuctures/objects pointers (depending on your programming language). As the player moves around the game you move your player position pointer to the tree node representing the location. When you start the game this tree type stucture is populated with things to pick up, monsters etc. A random seed can also be use to scatter monsters around.
This helps the speed of the game as you only have to search current node and nodes one step away from your current location/node. Any routines triggered that monsters advance or retreat just move the monsters pointer to the next node or nodes. If a med pack is used then its pointer is destroyed from the room/node that it is in.
Good luck
One way to make the search a bit more efficient is to split the entities being updated into a quad tree. The tree would get divided based on location on the screen or in the game world you have setup. This way you can set it up so only near by entities get updated. So for example if you're doing hit detection you can totally ignore large groups.
quad trees
hope that helps
A Controller entity?
You need to think carefully about using plain arrays, linear searches through large arrays can be very time consuming to search for things like collisions.
All entities in the game, including the player, should be in the same container. Your AI will loop through them every frame and call some function that executes all the goals of every entity.
Entities (like the player) have access to all other entities through the same container.
You'll have to get clever about the container to make the entity access to the container efficient, however.