Interactive Image - iphone

Question

This community has been tremendous help for me in many respects.
First time question (for me), and it's an easy one. I'm working through the iPhone SDK learning curve, at a good rate... but every once in a while, I come across a problem that, despite it's simplicity, is easier to ask and work on something else, then to spend another hour on reading.
I have a 2D game where a vehicle is moving around on the surface rotating to face the direction of travel. I've determined that Core Animation is my best approach.
The vehicle is an image. It's interactive to user input (touch).
Am I on the right track?
UIView (to act as Responder) containing a CALayer tree that includes the image (from a file).
The current file is a GIF. It made it easy to make the frame transparent, leaving only the vehicle image.
From the UIView subclass, how do I load the gif image into a layer?
Sounds simple, so I thought...
Cheers.

Answer 1

You're on the right track with Core Animation. CAKeyFrameAnimation has a path property which you'll use extensively. The following sample code (untested) uses straight line paths, but it's also possible to use curved paths:
UIImage *carImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"car.png"];
carView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithImage:carImage];
[mapView addSubview:carView];
CAKeyframeAnimation *carAnimation = [CAKeyframeAnimation
animationWithKeyPath:#"position"];
carAnimation.duration = 5.0;
// keep the car at a constant velocity
carAnimation.calculationMode = kCAAnimationPaced;
// Rotate car relative to path
carAnimation.rotationMode = kCAAnimationRotateAuto;
// Keep the final animation
carAnimation.fillMode = kCAFillModeForwards;
carAnimation.removedOnCompletion = NO;
CGMutablePathRef carPath = CGPathCreateMutable();
CGPathMoveToPoint(carPath, NULL, 0.0, 0.0);
CGPathAddLineToPoint(carPath, NULL, 100.0, 100.0);
CGPathAddLineToPoint(carPath, NULL, 100.0, 200.0);
CGPathAddLineToPoint(carPath, NULL, 200.0, 100.0);
carAnimation.path = carPath;
CGPathRelease(carPath);
[carView.layer addAnimation:carAnimation forKey:#"carAnimation"];

Answer 2

Is there a reason you can't simply subclass UIImageView to handle your touch methods? It would seem to me that instantiating an image view with your image and having the overridden UIResponder methods handle where the vehicle is moving and whatever else you need would be a lot easier than manually managing your CALayer tree.
You can do this with something like the following:
UIImage *vehicleImage = [UIImage imageNamed:#"vehicle.gif"];
VehicleImageView *vehicleView = [[[VehicleImageView alloc]
initWithImage:vehicleImage] autorelease];
Then have VehicleImageView subclass UIImageView:
#interface VehicleImageView : UIImageView
// Your stuff
#end
#implementation VehicleImageView
// Your stuff
// UIResponder methods
- (void)touchesEnded:(NSSet *)touches withEvent:(UIEvent *)event {
// Custom implementation
}
// Other touch methods...
#end
You do seem to be on the right track, though, in that you do need a UIResponder somewhere in your vehicle's view/view hierarchy for touch methods.
More info:
UIImageView (specifically initWithImage:)
UIImage (specifically imageNamed:)
UIResponder (specifically touchesEnded:withEvent:)