cocos2d-x Actor does not move to touch location - cocos2d-x

I am trying to make an actor follow the player's finger (long touch). I'm positive I have the math right, but the actor fails to move exactly to where the player touched.
Here is an illustration of my problem:
When the touch is near the top, the actor goes beyond the visible scene at the top.
When the touch is near the bottom, the actor goes out of the visible scene at the bottom.
Same goes for the left and right.
When the touch is performed in the middle of the scene the actor moves perfectly to the touch. In short, the further the touch is away from the middle the more pronounced the distance between the actor and the touch is. In other words; the closer the touch is to the middle, the closer the actor moves towards the touch.
Please note that when the touch was near the bottom or the top the distance between the touch and the actor was more pronounced then when the touch was on the right or the left; as the top/bottom are further from the mid point.
Here is the code used to follow the actor towards the touch:
Lang: Lua
Lib: Cocosd2-x 3.1
local velocity = 1.4
local x, y = self.sprite:getPosition()
-- self.dest[X/Y] are cached coordinates to where the actor should move next.
local angle = math.atan2(touch.y - y, touch.x - x)
local deltaX = velocity * math.cos(angle)
local deltaY = velocity * math.sin(angle)
local newX = x + deltaX
local newY = y + deltaY
self.sprite:setPositionX(newX)
self.sprite:setPositionY(newY)
Things I've tried:
Changed the scale of background layer and sprites. No change
Changed the algorithm used to compute the angle. No change.
Created a red dot and set its position to the exact touch x/y to determine if there was some weird transformation issue when determining the actor's point. The red dot was always perfectly under the touch.

Discovered the issue. When I created the Actor sprite I set its z-index to 100. When I uncommented out the call that set the z-index, everything worked perfectly. In my situation, this particular sprite must always be above all other sprites. What I did to fix the issue is set the z-index much lower than what I had originally set it to; which ended up being 15.
sprite:setPositionZ(15)
From my observation it appears that the sprite is having some type of scale applied to its position the larger the z-index is of the sprite.
Update 1
Using :setPositionZ(int) will unnecessarily scale your sprite bigger in some cases. I now use :setGlobalZOrder(int) with much better success:
sprite:setGlobalZOrder(15)

Related

Rotation issue While Reflected (2D Platform Game)

My player's arm is programmed to follow my mouse and rotate accordingly and I've programmed bullets to be fired using this rotational value
(Math.atan2(this._dy, this._dx) * 180 / Math.PI
where _dy is the y location of the mouse (-) the y of my player's arm and the _dx is the x location of mouse (-) the y of my player's arm.
However, when I program the player to reflect when the mouse has crossed the x-coordinates, the bullet angle is also reflected. How would I fix this issue?
I've already tried subtracting 180 from the angle but it still doesn't fire towards the direction of the mouse.
First, make sure you have this parent-child-sibling relationship:
"A" should be the parent of "B" and "C". "B" and "C" should have no direct link. Their connection is that they have the same parent. So when you want to move the character, move the parent, and both will move. Now, for the good stuff:
Use key frames and sibling relationship
beginner level approach
Make the character and the arm both children of the same parent display object container (Movie Clip in this case). Now, instead of flipping anything by xScale, which I assume you did, you can just have both MC children (arm and character) go to frame 2 (or whatever is available) where the graphics are flipped.
xScale body, move arm to frame 2, change z order
moderate level approach (best result)*
Alternatively, you could do that same "sibling" setup as above, and then scale the character but not the arm (I think scaling the arm will mess it up again, but you could have the arm go to frame 2 and have it drawn reversed so the thumb and handle are pointing the right way. Bonus points for changing the z stacking order so the arm goes to the other side of the body. xScale for only the body allows you to only have one set of frames for animation of his legs and torso etc. but also avoid scaling the arm at all).
Global properties
advanced approach
A third option is to use global rotation and global points. I won't illustrate that here because I'm not that advanced and it would take me a while to figure out the exact syntax. If you already have mastered global properties, try this; if not, try one of the ones above.
* Example (best result)
if (facingRight == true && stage.mouseX < totalChar.x){
// totalChar is on the stage
// and contains two children:
// armAndGun and bodyHeadLegs
totalChar.armAndGun.gotoAndStop(2);
// in frame 2 of the arm MC, draw the
// arm and gun in the flipped orientation
totalChar.addChild(bodyHeadLegs);
// re-ads body to parent so it's
// z-order is above the arm;
totalChar.bodyHeadLegs.xScale = -1;// flips body and any animation of legs and head
facingRight = false;
// use a variable or property like this
// to keep him from constantly flipping
}
You'll need similar code to flip him back the other way.

rotation angle and spawn point of laser beam in flash game

I am trying to figure out the rotation angle and generation point of a laser beam that shoots up from a Cannon on Mouse Click. I am using ActionScript 3 and Flash for the same.
I rotate the beam based on my mouse cursor position which I feel works just fine. The
The issue is the generation point of my laser beam and it goes out of order. I want it to snap to the cannon ie its rotation point has to be the cannon. How do I do this in Flash?
Please have a look at the image file to get so that I am more clear.
Here is the code snippet that does the rotation and position logic in actionscript
laserBeamRight = new RightLaserBeam();
stage.addChild(laserBeamRight);
laserBeamRight.x = 812.65;
laserBeamRight.y = 400.1;
var angle2:Number = Math.atan2(stage.mouseY - laserBeamRight.y, stage.mouseX - laserBeamRight.x);
laserBeamRight.rotation = 180 * angle2/Math.PI;
I have hardcoded values for the position. They represent the right cannons position in the stage.
Here is the image file that shows the problem.
So I want the beam is targeting the mouse crosshair which is fine but I want it to be fixed and rotated around the cannon.
Another image with two beams at different angles. X position is right but Y position looks out of place because of the angle
One last image which clearly shows my problem.
The X position is right so is the Y position but it is originating from the center point of the beam and not the end point or the tail of the beam. I want the tail of the beam to be snapped to the cannons position. I tried changing the pivot point of the beam movie clip inside flash to the tail but that did not help.
Any idea?
First of all, adjust laser MC so that its anchor point is at its beginning instead of the middle, then align it to the turret's center as you do already. Then, when you are about to hit an object at specific (x,y), calculate rotation using Math.atan2() for the translated coordinates of mouse cursor (employ turret.globalToLocal(new Point(event.stageX,event.stageY)), then you should scale the laser so its end will hit the cursor position, change its scaleX. Note that you should do all transitions in one coordinate space (turret's), you apparently turn the turret's cannon part already, so you can do the same for your laser, and add it as part of a turret, probably positioning it behind the cannon part. An example:
// laser MC is like this: *>>>>>>>-------
// * is anchr point, laser is aligned righwards
const laserlength:Number=500; // the length of the laser, the X of the point you want to hit the cursor
....
function fireLaser(e:MouseEvent):void {
// creates a laser
var laser:Laser=new Laser();
laser.x=turret.centerX; // where to position the laser beginning
laser.y=turret.centerY; // relative to the turret
turret.addChildAt(laser,0); // add as a part of turret, behind everything
var cursor:Point=turret.globalToLocal(new Point(e.stageX,e.stageY));
laser.rotation=Math.atan2(cursor.y-laser.y,cursor.x-laser.x)*180/Math.PI;
// rad-to-deg conversion
laser.scaleX=Point.distance(cursor,new Point(turret.centerX,turret.centerY))/laserlength;
// lasers.push(laser); // expecting you to do this so laser should fade with time
}

Scale, Position & Rotate Parent object to make child object take up entire stage

Using the first photo below, let's say:
The red outline is the stage bounds
The gray box is a Sprite on the stage.
The green box is a child of the gray box and has a rotation set.
both display object are anchored at the top-left corner (0,0).
I'd like to rotate, scale, and position the gray box, so the green box fills the stage bounds (the green box and stage have the same aspect ratio).
I can negate the rotation easily enough
parent.rotation = -child.rotation
But the scale and position are proving tricky (because of the rotation). I could use some assistance with the Math involved to calculate the scale and position.
This is what I had tried but didn't produce the results I expected:
gray.scaleX = stage.stageWidth / green.width;
gray.scaleY = gray.scaleX;
gray.x = -green.x;
gray.y = -green.y;
gray.rotation = -green.rotation;
I'm not terribly experienced with Transformation matrices but assume I will need to go that route.
Here is an .fla sample what I'm working with:
SampleFile
You can use this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15789937/1627055 to get some basics. First, you are in need to rotate around the top left corner of the green rectangle, so you use green.x and green.y as center point coordinates. But in between you also need to scale the gray rectangle so that the green rectangle's dimensions get equal to stage. With uniform scaling you don't have to worry about distortion, because if a gray rectangle is scaled uniformly, then a green rectangle will remain a rectangle. If the green rectangle's aspect ratio will be different than what you want it to be, you'd better scale the green rectangle prior to performing this trick. So, you need to first transpose the matrix to offset the center point, then you need to add rotation and scale, then you need to transpose it away. Try this set of code:
var green:Sprite; // your green rect. The code is executed within gray rect
var gr:Number=green.rotation*Math.PI/180; // radians
var gs:Number=stage.stageWidth/green.width; // get scale ratio
var alreadyTurned:Boolean; // if we have already applied the rotation+scale
function turn():void {
if (alreadyTurned) return;
var mat:flash.geom.Matrix=this.transform.matrix;
mat.scale(gs,gs);
mat.translate(-gs*green.x,-gs*green.y);
mat.rotate(-1*gr);
this.transform.matrix=mat;
alreadyTurned=true;
}
Sorry, didn't have time to test, so errors might exist. If yes, try swapping scale, translate and rotate, you pretty much need this set of operations to make it work.
For posterity, here is what I ended up using. I create a sprite/movieClip inside the child (green) box and gave it an instance name of "innerObj" (making it the actually content).
var tmpRectangle:Rectangle = new Rectangle(greenChild.x, greenChild.y, greenChild.innerObj.width * greenChild.scaleX, greenChild.innerObj.height * greenChild.scaleY);
//temporary reset
grayParent.transform.matrix = new Matrix();
var gs:Number=stage.stageHeight/(tmpRectangle.height); // get scale ratio
var mat:Matrix=grayParent.transform.matrix;
mat.scale(gs,gs);
mat.translate(-gs * tmpRectangle.x, -gs * tmpRectangle.y);
mat.rotate( -greenChild.rotation * Math.PI / 180);
grayParent.transform.matrix = mat;
If the registration point of the green box is at one of it's corners (let's say top left), and in order to be displayed this way it has a rotation increased, then the solution is very simple: apply this rotation with negative sign to the parent (if it's 56, add -56 to parent's). This way the child will be with rotation 0 and parent -> -56;
But if there is no rotation applied to the green box, there is almost no solution to your problem, because of wrong registration point. There is no true way to actually determine if the box is somehow rotated or not. And this is why - imagine you have rotated the green box at 90 degrees, but changed it's registration point and thus it has no property for rotation. How could the script understand that this is not it's normal position, but it's flipped? Even if you get the bounds, you will see that it's a regular rectangle, but nobody know which side is it's regular positioned one.
So the short answer is - make the registration point properly, and use rotation in order to display it like in the first image. Then add negative rotation to the parent, and its all good :)
Edit:
I'm uploading an image so I can explain my idea better:
 
As you can see, I've created a green object inside the grey one, and the graphics INSIDE are rotated. The green object itself, has rotation of 0, and origin point - top left.
#Vesper - I don't think that the matrix will fix anything in this situation (remember that the green object has rotation of 0).
Otherwise I agree, that the matrix will do a pretty job, but there are many ways to do it :)

Understand LibGDX Coordinate system and drawing sprites

So I am super stoked to start using LibGDX for my first android title for OUYA and PC, but I am running into some snags with LibGDX. (All of my questions can be answered by looking at source, but I am really trying to understand the design choices as well).
To start with, the coordinate system. I created a project using the Project Setup jar, and it creates an OrthographicCamera like so
camera = new OrthographicCamera(1, h/w);
From my reading, I understand that LibGdx uses bottom left corner for 0,0 and yUp. Fine.
I see that it is pretty easy to change to y down if I want to, but I am not understanding the next bit of code that was created.
For the default sprite that gets created the position is set like so.
logoSprite.setOrigin(logoSprite.getWidth()/2, logoSprite.getHeight()/2);
logoSprite.setPosition(-logoSprite.getWidth()/2, -logoSprite.getHeight()/2);
When I run this basic program, I see the logo image I have added is centered on the screen. What I am trying to understand is why the values are negative in set position, and why is it using the sprite width and height instead of the graphics w and h of the view port? If I change to the screen width and height, then the image is drawn in some odd position in the lower right hand side of the screen.
My next question is sprite.setSize vs sprite.setScale. Why is the difference between the two? (They appear to do the same thing, except setScale leaves getWidth and getHeight unchanged).
Since my game will be using a 2D camera heavily for panning, zooming and rotation, I am trying to understand as much as I can about the libgdx framework before I start writing any code.
As a side note, I have a game development and math background and I have made several 2D and 3D games using XNA. I am finding LibGdx a bit frustrating as it does not abstract away OpenGL as much as I was expecting it to, and so far the 2D drawing I have been experimenting with seems to be more confusing than it should be!
I also wanted to note that I am planning to use spine for my animations. Should that change my choice to use y-up or y-down?
If you want to draw a sprite in center of screen, do this in your create method
logosprite.setposition(scrw/2-logosprite.getwidth()/2,scrh/2-logosprite.getheight/2);
here scrw is your viewport's width,
and scrh is your viewport's height,
this way your sprite will be in center of screen
sprite.setsize is used for setting size of the sprite and sprite.setscale is used when we scale a large/small texture so that its quality remains good in all devices(hdpi.mdpi,xhdpi,ldpi)..
no need to worry if you are using spine it works smoothly in libgdx..
You can use just this code if possible
logoSprite.setPosition(Gdx.graphics.getWidth()/2 - image.getWidth()/2,
Gdx.graphics.getHeight()/2 - image.getHeight()/2);
To center the sprite into the middle of the screen Where "image" is the Texture you have loaded/declared initially.
As for why it is coming in a odd position is due to the fact that you are using a camera.
Which changes the view a lot just go through the documentations of libgdx about camera here
In my case, I needed to set position of camera and then call update() method.
Then never forget camera's (0,0) is its center. Everything is being placed that way. My camera code:
private void cameralariUpdateEt() {
cameraGame.position.set(cameraGame.viewportWidth * 0.5f,
cameraGame.viewportHeight * 0.5f, 0);
cameraGame.update();
cameraScore.position.set(cameraScore.viewportWidth * 0.5f,
cameraScore.viewportHeight * 0.5f, 0);
cameraScore.update();
}
Call this method from inside render();
Step 1: Set the sprite origin to the position you would like it to rotate around.
// camera center point is (c.x, c.y)
logoSprite.setOrigin(c.x, c.y);
Step 2: make sure to set your sprite center to origin
logoSprite.setOriginCenter();
Step 3: Rotate your sprite
logoSprite.setRotation(Angle);
Step 4: Set the sprite position, [subtract half the sprites width and height to center the sprite]
logoSprite.setPosition(c.x - logoSprite.getWidth() / 2, c.y - logoSprite.getHeight() / 2)

How do I correctly translate my map after scaling?

I'm creating a camera in canvas like the one in Super Smash Bros, where the center of the camera follows the center point of all players and scales to encompass all the players.
I have it set up to find the distance between the 2 players, and if it's larger than the canvas size, the camera scale lowers to decrease the size of the blocks, player sprites, etc.
ctx.scale(cameraS,cameraS);
ctx.translate(-(cameraX*cameraS)+(CANVAS_WIDTH/2),-(cameraY*cameraS)+(CANVAS_HEIGHT/2));
These are what scale and move the drawn images to a position relative to the screen.
This is the actual game using the code and as you can tell, the scaling and moving of the images is slightly incorrect, but I'm not sure why!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51784213/Conjugate/index.html
For reference, the red dot is the position centered between both players. The lines show the dead center of the actual canvas. When scaling is 1(no scaling at all), the red dot is completely centered as it should be. When the scaling starts to decrease, the red dot begins to move off center in weird directions.
For the code to be working correctly, the dot should be centered at all times, even during the scaling process!
Transformations are applied in the reverse order; so you are first translating and then scaling. This means that for a point (x, y), after the current transformation, you get
(
(x + CANVAS_WIDTH/2 - cameraX*cameraS) * cameraS,
(y + CANVAS_HEIGHT/2 - cameraY*cameraS) * cameraS
)
What's actually needed here is the canvas be translated by scaled (cameraX, cameraY) and then be offset by actual (CANVAS_WIDTH/2, CANVAS_HEIGHT/2), so that (cameraX, cameraY) is at center of the visible canvas.
Or rather, the transformation needed here for a point (x, y) is
(
(x - cameraX) * cameraS + CANVAS_WIDTH/2,
(y - cameraY) * cameraS + CANVAS_HEIGHT/2
)
Hence, the code becomes, if you choose to apply translate first,
ctx.scale(cameraS,cameraS);
ctx.translate(-cameraX+CANVAS_WIDTH/(2*cameraS),-cameraY+CANVAS_HEIGHT/(2*cameraS));
Or, if you choose to apply scaling first
ctx.translate(-cameraX*cameraS + CANVAS_WIDTH/2, -cameraY*cameraS + CANVAS_HEIGHT/2);
ctx.scale(cameraS, cameraS);
Working JSFiddle.