So I'm trying to make cutscenes in JSON.
And I want to make the sprite fadeout, but only when it should.
Is there a way I can add things to Batches without putting tons of IF Statements between them, because I want to do more with Sprites from JSON.
Anybody know a method?
You're looking for Actions – a way to apply some actions one after another. See the docs.
Unfortunately, they only apply to Actors, but you may indeed use Image:
Image image = new Image(...)
image.addAction(
Actions.sequence(
Actions.delay(0.5),
Actions.moveBy(..., ...),
Actiond.alpha(0)
)
)
There's pretty much an action for everything. So, the idea is:
Read a json for some actions
Create Actions.sequence and put all them into it.
Attach the sequence to the Image.
Related
I am new to Lua scripting, and game development. So please I am just a noob in Lua.
I have searched the net for solutions to my problems, without any luck.
I use Photoshop, Corona, Dusk, json and Tiled on windows7.
I am creating a "board" like game, i.e. Setlers. I am using a world map, as the background. The background image of the game area is a world map (world.png file). I have no problem here.
I would like to create transparrent clickable objects matching the countrys borders on my gamemap with all parameters and values (I have added in Tiled) stored in the object. So When the player clicks on the country the transparrent object (on top of the map) is the one clicked and an eventlistener acts on the click.
In Tiled I can create all the objects I need, naming them + assigning parameters and other values.
If I add object.alpha value in Tiled, the alpha value is passed on to corona and working there.
How can I read these data from the json/tmx file in Corona and adding them to a lua table?
The way I am thinking to use the Tiled map and its objects, is to create one polyline trace of each country’s border (creating one object per country). Then place each “country traced object” on top of the world.png map, also naming the object with the countrys name like “object.name = TileBritannia” and also the other properties for use in game.
My problem is getting the objects info, like object.name, and an eventlistener reacting to a click on the object.
Is a polyline the right way to create a clickable area on a map, when I use a png file as a background image?
What is the best way to create a country border objects, in one layer or with all countries as individual object layers in Tiled.
Can I create one layer with sub objects and still access them in my code?
How do I get the object name and other properties, set in Tiled.
When I try to use the (local britannia = tiledMap:load("britannia.json")) the "load" is not working, getting a nil value.
I am looking for a code that will extract/get/read the object.name i.e. “objBritannia” or "TileBritannia". from the json/tmx file.
When I try to read the different parameters from the json file, I don't get the result I expect. I get the result = function: 046A73B0, was hoping for an object name of some sort.
Please provide links to or code example.
I have edited the question.
Thanks
For questions 1 and 2: I have not used Tiled, but based on Corona Tiled, you have the right strategy in mind. That page makes me think that you can just use tap event listener to detect tap. If you are having issues with the example on that web page, please update your question to be more specific. If tap event handling doesn't work (maybe you're talking about a different Tiled lib), look a Polygon fill and Point in Polygon detection, because that's basically what you need to do. Try some stuff from there. If it still doesn't work for you, then update your question with specifics otherwise it will be likely get closed (it is a little too broad as it is).
For #3, Lua is a dynamic language that supports adding properties to objects in one line. So upon the example on the Corona Tiled page, all you would have to do is
tiledMap = require("tiled")
local britannia = tiledMap:load("britannia.json")
britannia.name = "Britannnia"
local Zulu = tiledMap:load("zulu.json")
zulu.name = "zulu"
Naturally you will probably have a whole bunch so you will create a function that you call for each tile. It's not clear what map.layer["objBritannia "].nameIs("TileBritannia") is supposed to do so I can't comment.
I'm unclear on how memory works in Actionscript 3. I create a series of buttons and store the address to each of them in an array. Those buttons are used to play various music files, and I want the one that is playing to have a particular color (red) and the rest to be white. I call the following code when the currently selected button is to be replaced by a different button:
removeChild(songSelectButton[currSong]);
var songSelWhite:Button = new Button(null, "images/TrackButtonNo.jpg", TRACK_SELECT_WIDTH, TRACK_SELECT_HEIGHT);
songSelectButton[currSong] = songSelWhite;
That allows the array to have the right buttons. However, I am concerned about whether I am wasting memory. Does garbage collection take care of this, or do I need a better approach?
In most cases, garbage collection is pretty smart and can clean up whatever mess you make. But it can take its time getting around to it, and it can really tie up the CPU when it decides to do it's thing. So careful management of memory is valuable.
In your case, why create a new Button? You've got a Button already, and it looks like its already in the right spot and everything. Just change the image, any listeners, and any other properties that you really need to change. Then you won't have to worry about new buttons getting allocated and deallocated, and you won't even have to worry about a new layout being calculated.
Say I have this specific button class in Flash called cont_button and it's supposed to be used to break out of a loop, but I want to use the class more than once. Is there a way to give every instance of this class some kind of parameter so that it knows which frame it nees to go to?
Example:
I have an instance of cont_button on frame 200 and there's a loop between 200 and 210. This cont_button executes a gotoAndPlay(211). But later on I have another instance of the button on frame 315 and a loop between 315 and 325. Is there a way to make it so each instance knows which frame it specifically needs to go to via the use of a variable? Or am I going to have to make an actionscript file for each individual one?
Pretty new to ActionScript so I appreciate the help and if there are good coding references to AS3 you guys recommend, I'll gladly look those over.
Sure, this is possible. One way you can do this is make the frame numbers class variables and when the button is clicked, they reference whatever value is stored in them, rather then hardcoded numbers. To get a better idea, can you post the relevant parts of your button class?
As you say, you need to pass a parameter to each instance of the button. There are lots of different ways you could do this, but I'd be tempted to just do it via the instance names.
You could name each button loopBreakTo211, loopBreakTo326 and so on, then in your button's class have:
var breakFrame:Number = Number(name.replace("loopBreakTo", ""));
(parent as MovieClip).gotoAndPlay(breakFrame);
Admittedly that's not a very robust way of doing it (for example, it will break if a button is named incorrectly and breakFrame ends up as NaN, so you might want to add a check for that), but it keeps the parameter together with the instance instead of in the timeline somewhere.
How would someone go about coding a 'window'? I'm starting to make a GUI, and I want to learn how to code one. One that can be skinnable, and one that actually loops and creates itself at runtime. I understand that this might be a bit vague, so I'll add details.
One that actually 'creates' itself. Most GUI tutorials I've looked on depends on an 'image' that just gets added on the screen. I want to be able to use skins in my windows. One where my 'skin' is just a collection of 'borders'. Then when I insert window.create(50,50) where 50,50 is my height, width, It would just create that window, following the skin.
I understand that it probably follows just like when a language draws a rectangle, it just follows a different set of rules (maybe?). However, for all my Google-fu skills I cannot find a tutorial that teaches me this.
Please Help. I didn't include the language I used as you can see, because I believe I just need to know how to create one. Anyway though, I am using Actionscript 3. A tutorial would be just fine, or even A SINGLE CLASS THAT HAS THIS FUNCTIONALITY, I'll just study the code. Or if you know one, maybe a whole book about GUI and programming it :D
Pure As3.0 GUI coding is quite troublesome. I try to Googling, but not come out well. anyway for my case, i generate using a SWC, and Class Mapping and Customizing. but i'm not sure best way. in other way i use a bit101 library. this is gives me want Window, Charts, Componets easily of high abstraction. see the below image.
It can be pretty hard and complicated to do, or very easy, it just depends on how flexible your solution should be. You need firstly to design a structure of your program and approach to the problem.
I like to go from the image of how it should look like from API point of view. I think I would create a GUI element like this:
var wholeGui:MyGUI = new MyGUI();
var window:IGuiElement = new GuiWindow(dataObject, skinObject);
wholeGui.addElement(window);
So what would you need?
1) Object that would manage all GUI elements. Why? Simply because your GUI elements shouldn't be destroyed by themselves if user will click "X" on your little window. The wholeGui object would manage them and listen for any events including those that would destroy them. You may consider creating custom events for interaction between the wholeGui object and your window object if this interaction is going to be complicated.
2) Interface for your GUI objects. Some problem here is that AS3 actually doesn't have interface for Sprite, and you would like to interact with it like with extended Sprite. The workaround here is to have in this interface a declaration like this:
function asSprite():Sprite;
And your implementation in GuiWindow would look like this:
public function asSprite():Sprite {
return this;
}
And your GuiWindow class should extend Sprite of course. Then you would have access to it's Sprite properties and methods by writing for example: window.asSprite.startDrag();
This interface should give you abilities that you need to operate on your GUI element.
3) Class for your GUI element, in this example GuiWindow.
4) Class for your data that would be injected into your element. If you would load data dynamically, and from some location, you would need to deal with the situation when no data can be provided - but that logic would be inside your window.
5) Class for your skin - so you would be able to dynamically create a skin object and use it to create your window in a way you want.
That's just few thoughts to consider.
PS. It may be good idea to fill GuiWindow object with data AFTER creating it, and not in constructor, as you would be able to visualize loading process then.
Okay, so I've been busting my hump the last week or so on this project for my OOP/AS3 course and this past Sunday I realized that my approach wasn't going to work so I scrapped the better part of it and started over.
Our assignment is to create an XML based flash menu that demonstrates an understanding of the OOP patterns we've just learned. It was kind of a 'test the waters' project where he gave us a ton of tutorials and information and told us to make our best attempt at making sense of it so I'm certain there are more efficient ways to do what I'm doing, but that's a moot point.
We need to employ at least two patterns in our menu, though at the moment I'm just focusing on MVC so that I can get the mainUI working before I finalize the second part of the UI. It essentially flows like so:
MainUI has 4 menus that slide out.
Each slider has 3 thumbnails on it.
Clicking on any of the thumbnails will move to the next part of the UI. This functionality is currently disabled.
The program runs with 0 compiler errors, but the images are not being placed on the stage correctly and I can't figure out why. All the image paths are being pulled and stored from the XML properly. The main background image is pulled once and is supposed to be only placed once (if statement that uses a count to determine whether to run the placement function or not), but it is being placed 4 times with the sliding menu image. The sliders are being placed in the correct positions (switch statement that iterates through the mainUI function in the View class and creates a separate loader for each one), but the thumbnails are not all showing up. So here is what I'm seeking help with:
The mainPanel image should only be placed once, rather than 4 times with each slider.
The sliders, while being placed correctly, must be tweened in different directions through the as (using TweenMax), but each instance is unidentifiable from the other so right now they all have an eventListener that calls the same tween method. How can I distinguish them in a way that lets me apply a different tween to each (This will likely be a concern with the thumbnail functionality later as I will need to load different XML data based on which thumb is clicked).
I have added what I hope are very informative comments to each script so hopefully people can help. Also included are images of what I want the mainUI to eventually look like and how it's coming out currently.
pastebin with all 3 classes and XML (2 hyperlink limit) - http://pastebin.com/u/crookedparadigm
top image is how the stage is outputting, bottom image is what I'd like to to be - http://imgur.com/a/bOmsS
Last quick note, stage is currently set to 600x480 with a black background. Ideally, to reinforce OOP principles, our professor wants us to avoid using the timeline or library if possible.
Any advice at all will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Install FlexPMD This is a very good add on( sometimes hard to install ) It basically is used to show areas of your code that you are not following standards. For example your classes lack the use of "this". And you should avoid passing parameters in constructors. It would be good practice to develop standardized writing skills while you are still new.
Looking at your code I see you are calling buildUI from within a loop.
buildUI is assigning a MainView object to mainUI.
So each time you go through a loop iteration you are reassigning mainUI.
In the end mainUI will only be the last iteration of that loop.
Not sure this is your issue but is an issue.
[EDIT]
Excellent Singleton guide for Flex SDK
Part 1
Part 2
Some Good writing on pure AS3 Singletons.
I would prolly start from scratch as your XML data is miss formatted.
your XML should resemble something like this.
<MainProject>
<MainUI>
<Thumbnail Name="Spring">
<Destination Name="Spring" Price="99" ratingPath="images/SP1/SP1rating.png" />
</Thumbnail>
<Thumbnail Name="Winter">
<Destination Name="Winter" Price="152" ratingPath="images/SP1/SP2rating.png" />
</Thumbnail>
</MainUI>
</MainProject>
Then you should have the following structure on your stage. These movieclips should be empty and already placed inside on your stage with instance name.
Stage
MenuUI MovieClip
ThumbNail1 MovieClip <- feed it thumbnail from the XML
ThumbNail2 MovieClip <- feed it thumbnail from the XML
ThumbNail3 MovieClip <- feed it thumbnail from the XML
ThumbNail4 MovieClip <- feed it thumbnail from the XML
This might be a bit too vague, just tell me if you need more details.
Hope this helps !