Dpad for sprite kit - sprite-kit

Question

I an interested in trying to create a few games, namely in the new sprite kit. However, for the game that I have in mind I would rather use a directional pad vs a joy stick. Since I shall be moving over from Cocos, my old program no longer works (so neither will that dpad). Sadly, I have not come accross any tutorial that may help with implementing one in the new sprite kit (only joy sticks). I was wondering and hoping if anyone came across a simple dpad class from github or something or a helpful link that they would like to share. Thanks

Answer 1

Here's one way:
//Joystick node
- (SKSpriteNode *)controlPadNode
{
SKSpriteNode *controlPadNode = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithImageNamed:#"game-controller-front"];
controlPadNode.position = CGPointMake(controlPadX,controlPadY);
controlPadNode.name = #"controlPadNode";
controlPadNode.zPosition = 1.0;
return controlPadNode;
}
//handle touch events
- (void)touchesBegan:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event
{
UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
CGPoint location = [touch locationInNode:self];
SKNode *node = [self nodeAtPoint:location];
//if control pad touched
if ([node.name isEqualToString:#"controlPadNode"]) {
touchX = location.x;
touchY = location.y;
controlButtonDown = true;
}
}
//when touch moves
- (void) touchesMoved:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
CGPoint location = [touch locationInNode:self];
SKNode *node = [self nodeAtPoint:location];
//if control pad touched
if ([node.name isEqualToString:#"controlPadNode"]) {
touchX = location.x;
touchY = location.y;
controlButtonDown = true;
}
}
- (void) touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
UITouch *touch = [touches anyObject];
CGPoint location = [touch locationInNode:self];
SKNode *node = [self nodeAtPoint:location];
//if control pad touched
if ([node.name isEqualToString:#"controlPadNode"]) {
controlButtonDown = false;
}
}
//update method
-(void)update:(NSTimeInterval)currentTime {
if (controlButtonDown) {
//the control pad
SKNode *controlNode = [self childNodeWithName:#"controlPadNode"];
//the node you want to move
SKNode *node = [self childNodeWithName:#"spaceShipNode"];
//compute the angle between parameters pad and the horizontal
float angle = atan2f (touchY - controlPadY, touchX - controlPadX) ;
//move the control pad for the player to have a sense of movement
SKAction *moveControlPad = [SKAction moveTo:CGPointMake(touchX, touchY) duration:0.00001];
double distance = sqrt(pow((touchX - controlPadX), 2.0) + pow((touchY - controlPadY), 2.0));
//make sure the control pad only moves 40 pixels
if( distance < 40 ){
[controlNode runAction:moveControlPad];
}
//move the ship
SKAction *moveShip = [SKAction moveByX: 6*cosf(angle) y:6*sinf(angle) duration:0.005];
[node runAction: moveShip];
}
}
EDIT:
Also can use this to move the control pad back when touch ends:
if (!controlButtonDown) {
SKNode *controlNode = [self childNodeWithName:#"controlPadNode"];
SKAction *moveControlPad = [SKAction moveTo:CGPointMake(controlPadX, controlPadY) duration:0.00001];
[controlNode runAction:moveControlPad];
}

Answer 2

I've built a small UIKit based game engine before the introduction of SpriteKit. My engine loads cocos2d compatible maps from Tiled, sprites from TexturePacker, and it comes with a joystick that I ported from cocos2d to UIKit. (Mine is based on sneaky-joystick.)
You can grab the whole library on GitHub and pull out the parts you need. It's fairly modular.