iPhone SDK: Block Animation Ignore Error with Curved Path - iphone

I'm creating an application where the user can draw a line on a screen from an object to the location they want to send it and the object will then follow the line to the final location. In order to do this, I've already created working methods to allow the user to draw the lines and then to store the coordinates of the line in a MutableArray. However, I'm having some trouble when I try to animate. As I'm pretty new to the iPhone OS, this could be a simple problem, but I haven't been able to find a solution yet.
I am NOT using Bezier Paths as the user is drawing the line manually, I'm not drawing it programmatically.
Here's the code that I've tried
-(void)animateButtonWasPressed
{
for (int f = 0; f < [cordArrayY count]; f++) {
NSString *newY = [cordArrayY objectAtIndex:f];
NSString *newX = [cordArray objectAtIndex:f];
[self myAnimate:newX :newY];
}
}
-(void)myAnimate:(NSString *)PntX :(NSString *)PntY
{
[UIView animateWithDuration:.5 animations:
^{
object.center = CGPointMake([PntX floatValue], [PntY floatValue]);
}];
}
SYNTAX:
object - the object I am trying to move
cordArray - the mutable array containing the x-coordinates
cordArrayY - the mutable array containing the y-coordinates
Everything else is either defined within the code or Apple methods
The problem: the object moves instantly from its original location directly to the final location. I get a NSLog which tells me this:
-[UIApplication endIgnoringInteractionEvents] called without matching -beginIgnoringInteractionEvents. Ignoring.
Any help would be appreciated!

The method you're using to animate "object" seems to be ok. I believe the problem is the loop in which you are invoking that method. You are trying to animate the same property of the object over and over in every step of that loop. I think this causes that "jump".
Take a look at this quote from Apple's docs:
Important: Changing the value of a property while an animation
involving that property is already in progress does not stop the
current animation. Instead, the current animation continues and
animates to the new value you just assigned to the property.
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/WindowsViews/Conceptual/ViewPG_iPhoneOS/AnimatingViews/AnimatingViews.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009503-CH6
As a consequence of invoking the animation in each step, you will end up animating object in approximately 0.5 secs to the last position of your coordinates array.
I think you should link those animations together, but you should wait for each animation to finish to start the following one. Take a look at this
Another thing that both the animateWithDuration:animations:completion:
and animateWithDuration:delay:options:animations:completion: methods
support is the ability to specify a completion handler block. You
might use a completion handler to signal your application that a
specific animation has finished. Completion handlers are also the way
to link separate animations together.
Hope this helps,
Cheers.

I was finally able to solve this problem:
At first I tried to continue using the method that I had above. Lio's advice to use the "completion" block was perfect, but as I needed it to loop for an undefined number of times, I would have to use a counter variable. iPhone block programming doesn't allow the modification of external variables or the use of the _block declaration, so this didn't work out for me.
However, I eventually created my entire animation using NSTimer in the method described here just using my array coordinates instead:
http://www.icodeblog.com/2008/10/28/iphone-programming-tutorial-animating-a-ball-using-an-nstimer/

Related

Creating a class to run a single action on multiple sprites

I'm trying to rotate numerous sprites (about 48 different ones) around an arbitrary point (using this article: http://indiedevstories.com/2012/08/14/custom-cocos2d-action-rotating-sprite-around-arbitrary-point/ ) and I managed to create the custom category for it, but it only works on a single sprite. I've looked around on the site and tried to use runAction:[action copy] but it makes the copies rotating points crazy numbers for some reason. Then I tried to create a method for the actions and just call the method, but I keep getting errors for that as well. I've tried so many different solutions but no luck.
So my question is, is there a way I can create another class that holds all of my sprites, and then run a single method to run an action on all of the sprites of the class?
Assuming you have an array called spriteArray containing all sprites you wish to rotate, it's as simple as:
for(CCSprite *sprite in spriteArray)
{
CCRotateAroundBy *rotateAround = [CCRotateAroundBy actionWithDuration:1.0 angle:90 rotationPoint:screenCenter];
[sprite runAction:rotateAround];
}

Trouble with getChildByTag (cocos2d iPhone)

I have a scene called Level1, which takes the hero and the enemy from a layer called GameLayer. I heard that an efficient way of doing this is using tags and retrieving it using getChildByTag. I tried this out, but I'm having many issues. I'm using SneakyInput. On Level1, there is a leftJoystick (for enemy movement), and a rightJoystick (for firing projectiles). I have an addEnemy and addHero method in my GameLayer, which I call. Everything I've mentioned works.
In my Level1 scene I have a method called moveHero (which obviously is supposed to move the hero with the joystick.). Through basic debugging I know the problem is the geteChildByTag line. I test out the hero's position through NSLog, and it's saying 0,0. Which is weird because on screen you can see the hero. But I also realized I'm calling the addHero method without using getChildByTag.
I hope I'm being clear here. I've uploaded GameLayer.h and GameLayer.m onto 4shared. http://www.4shared.com/file/PqhjoMFy/GameLayer.html
Hopefully you can take a look at it and point me in the right direction.
BTW: There are no errors or crashes. It's just not working.
Thanks in advance.
getChildByTag will never crash, it's a pretty nicely coded method that just loops through the children array of the object and checks to see if any objects match, that way you don't get assertion issues.
You have some serious issues here with your code.
Firstly..
GameLayer *heroInstance = [[GameLayer alloc] init];
CCSprite *hero = (CCSprite *)[heroInstance getChildByTag:1];
NSLog(#"Hero position X: %f", hero.position.x);
NSLog(#"Hero position Y: %f", hero.position.y);
This will never work, heroInstance is a brand new object, it has no children, also you've just created a memory leak here.
Your hero is a child of the spritesheet, which is a child of the scene.
To reference your child you must call getChildByTag on your spritesheet (which you probably need to reference by calling getChildByTag on your scene..
something like this.
[[self getChildByTag:spritesheet] getChildByTag:hero];
Also, use an enum, so that you don't have to remember what numbers certain tags are (look at the cocos2d example projects).

Rotation - slowing it down using willAnimateSecondHalfOfRotationFromInterfaceOrientation

people, how do you actually slow down the orientation-rotation when using the "willAnimateSecondHalfOfRotationFromInterfaceOrientation:" method?
I currently have this:
-(void) willAnimateSecondHalfOfRotationFromInterfaceOrientation:(UIInterfaceOrientation)fromInterfaceOrientation
duration:(NSTimeInterval)duration {
[self positionViews];
}
And I understand that this "willAnimate2ndHalf..." method gets called automatically when the rotation does indeed happen - well where do I actually get to change its DURATION value?
If you want to change the overall timing of he app's rotation, it can't be done. willAnimateSecondHalfOfRotationFromInterfaceOrientation is meant for adding custom code, like setting custom coordinates, properties, things like that.

UIView animations completion block firing when an other animation begins

I use the block base API for my animations on iOS.
One animation has a completion block and that block is called at the end of the animation, nice.
However, that animation can be fired multiple times when the user scrolls (the animation is on a UITableViewCell). When that happens the the completion block is called multiple times. The finished parameter of the block is always YES.
Since the animation is not actually finished (an other animation took place) I thought that the finished parameter would be NO, but it's not.
Did I miss something? How can I avoid the completion block to be called multiple times?
The completion block is called multiple times simply because, in your case, your animation is fired multiple times. What is happening is that iOS invokes your animation block each time it is told so, probably in a separate thread. Then, for each animation it tracks its completion, and upon completion it calls the associated completion block. So basically, you see your completion block firing multiple times, one for each invocation of your animation. Note that the boolean value associated to a completion block is specific of that completion block, it does not refer in any way to a different animation.
To recap, what you are experiencing is simply the effect of concurrency. If this is not your intended behavior, then you need to modify your code accordingly. If you want your animations to fire one at a time, you may use NSLock (NSConditionLock for advanced control using an associate condition variable) or, if you prefer, a mutex and the Posix pthreads library directly, to create a critical section to be executed in a mutually exclusive fashion.
Not sure when you're firing the animations and whether they loop (like a UIActivityView spinner or something) - sounds like it's every single pixel the table view is scrolling?
In any event, perhaps you could use the UIScrollView delegate methods and tell each cell to start animation on scrollViewWillBeginDragging: and tell each cell to stop at scrollViewDidEndDragging:
You could set a boolean isAnimating for your UITableViewCell and if an animation is currently underway, do nothing.
if (isAnimating) {
// ... do nothing
} else {
// Start your animation
}
Or stick with whatever you have now and use a boolean still, but only fire the animation if it's not currently animating. Then in your finished parameter just set isAnimating to NO.
if (isAnimating) {
// ... do nothing
} else {
[UIView animateWithDuration:0.3f
animations:^{
// animations...
isAnimating = YES;
}
completion:^{
isAnimating = NO;
}
];
}
I've resolved this issue by looking if the completion block is relevant at the beginning of that block.
The finished parameter is not relevant right now. I've communicated with Apple and they told me that it's fixed in iOS 4.2.

EXC_BAD_ACCESS on IPhone Cocos2d

I Have the following code:
-(void) changeAnimation:(NSString*)name forTime:(int) times {
if(currentAnimation != #"attack")
{
id action = [CCAnimate actionWithAnimation:[self animationByName:name]];
id repeatAction = [CCRepeat actionWithAction:action times:times];
currentAction = [self runAction:repeatAction];
lastANimation = currentAnimation;
currentAnimation = name;
}
else if(currentAction.isDone)
{
//Here is where I would change the animation
//but I commented the code for now
}
}
So when I run this and click on the button that changes the animation to "attack" (by calling [mysprite changeAnimation:#"attack" forTime:1];), I get a EXC_BAD_ACCESS error from the "currentAction.isDone" line, the next time the function is called (the joystick will call changeAnimation to try and change the animation to "run" or "idle", but I want the attack animation to finish first). Any thoughts on whyI get this? currentAction is declared in my class.
Edit: there is nothing in the rest of the class that interacts with currentAction, beside a getter. Its declaration is in the .h (CCAction* surrentAction). Do I need to initialize it? I thought the returned value from runAction would be sufficient? ANyways, when I run the debugger, it is not nil, and assigned to the correct action.
Thanks,
Dave
Edit:
I ended up creating a sequence when "attacking" that calls a function that changes the currentAnimation, so i avoided the issue. Still no idea what was happening.
Here's the answer if your interested:
Other Post
More of the class is probably needed to really answer this properly, but the EXC_BAD_ACCESS typically happens because you're accessing something that has been released and is no longer available in memory.
I'm guessing that somewhere in your class you're releasing, either explicitly, or implicitly, the "currentAction" object asynchronously - and when you're checking later, it's done & gone and you're hitting this crasher.
In general, keeping a state variable or two that you always have known values on is a good way to go, and for the "actions" that you're going through, if they're asynchronous and doing their own memory management, leave them as such and work through some state variables that you maintain and control all the memory management around. It's a pretty reasonable pattern for asynchronous callbacks, either with the classic stuff or as you move into using blocks with iOS 4.0