LibGDX guidance - sprite tracing 2D infinite random bezier curve - libgdx

I've been able to apply a smooth animation to my sprite and control it using the accelerometer. My sprite is fixed to move left and right along the x-aixs.
From here, I need to figure out how to create a vertical infinite wavy line for the sprite to attempt to trace. the aim of my game is for the user to control the sprite's left/right movement with the accelerometer in an attempt to trace the never ending wavy line as best they can, whilst the sprite and camera both move in a vertical direction to simulate "moving along the line." It would be ideal if the line was randomly generated.
I've researched about splines, planes, bezier curves etc, but I can't find anything that seems to relate close enough to what I'm trying to achieve.
I'm just seeking some guidance as to what methods I could possibly use to achieve this. Any ideas?

You could use sum of 4 to 5 sine waves (each with different amplitude, wavelength and phase difference). All 3 of those parameters could be random.
The resulting curve would be very smooth (since it is primarily sinusoidal) yet it'll look random (it's time period would be LCM of all 4 to 5 random wavelengths which is a huge number).
So the curve won't repeat for a long time, yet it will not be hard on memory. Concerning computational complexity, you can always tune it by changing number of sine terms with FPS.
It should look like this.
It's really easy to implement too. (even I could generate above image.. haha)
Hope this helps. Maths rocks. :D
(The basic idea here is a finite Fourier series which I think should be ideal for your use case)
Edit:
You can create each term like this and assign random values to all terms.
public class SineTerm {
private float amplitude;
private float waveLength;
private float phaseDifference;
public SineTerm(float amplitude, float waveLength, float phaseDifference) {
this.amplitude = amplitude;
this.waveLength = waveLength;
this.phaseDifference = phaseDifference;
}
public float evaluate(float x) {
return amplitude * (float) Math.sin(2 * Math.PI * x / waveLength + phaseDifference);
}
}
Now create an array of SineTerms and add all values returned by evaluate(x) (use one coordinate of sprite as input). Use the output as other coordinate of sprite. You should be good to go.
The real trick would be in tuning those random numbers.
Good luck.

Related

as3 - how to randomize object positions without colliding?

If I have two instances called block1 and block2. And they move off the stage. It scrolls down the y position and it respawns back on top. But I don't want the x/y position colliding with the other blocks? I want it to respawn back to position, but I want it randomized but at the same time I don't want it touching each other?
Heres my code:
if (block1.y > stage.stageHeight)
{
block1.y = -550;
block1.x = (Math.floor(Math.random() * (maxNum - minNum + 5)) + minNum);
}
I'm pretty sure I'm calculating the respawn coordinates the wrong way, but I'm not sure how to put it in a random x and y position without colliding with other blocks.
A very simple method can be just to spawn your box, do a collision check, then if collision, remove and respawn and recheck until you find an empty spot where it fits
This is obviously quite inefficient, but is pretty simple to implement quickly if you have some sort of collision detection already working. Keep in mind if there is no spot that it can fit in, then it'll loop forever so you may want to set a max try count or something of that sort.
How fast/well it'll actually work will depend on if the spawn area is pretty sparse or pretty dense, which will increase/decrease the percentage that it'll find a good empty spot the first few times.
There is some room for improvement, going down this path though, such as if your collision detection system gives a minimum translation vector, you could just move the new shape over and use that position to spawn.
Other simple methods could involve keeping track of known occupied positions and adjusting your random range to avoid those values.

Random bezier blob?

I have some ActionScript3 code I'm using to create liquid-like "droplets", and when they're first generated they look like a curved square (that's as close as I can get them to being a circle). I've tried and failed a lot here but my goal is to make these droplets look more organic and free-form, as if you were looking closely at rain drops on your windshield before they start dripping.
Here's what I have:
var size:int = (100 - asset.width) / 4,
droplet:Shape = new Shape();
droplet.graphics.beginFill(0xCC0000);
droplet.graphics.moveTo(size / 2, 0);
droplet.graphics.curveTo(size, 0, size, size / 2);
droplet.graphics.curveTo(size, size, size / 2, size);
droplet.graphics.curveTo(0, size, 0, size / 2);
droplet.graphics.curveTo(0, 0, size / 2, 0);
// Apply some bevel filters and such...
Which yields a droplet shaped like this:
When I try adding some randomness to the size or the integers or add more curves in the code above, I end up getting jagged points and some line overlap/inversion.
I'm really hoping someone who is good at math or bezier logic can see something obvious that I need to do to make my consistently rounded-corner square achieve shape randomness similar to this:
First off, you can get actual circle-looking cirles using beziers by using 0.55228 * size rather than half-size (in relation to bezier curves, this is sometimes called kappa). It only applies if you're using four segments, and that's where the other hint comes in: the more points you have, the more you can make your shape "creep", so you might actually want more segments, in which case it becomes easier to simply generate a number of points on a circle (fairly straight forward using good old sine and cosine functions and a regularly spaced angle), and then come up with the multi-segment Catmul-Rom curve through those points instead. Catmul-Rom curves and Bezier curves are actually different representations of the same curvatures, so you can pretty much trivially convert from one to the other, explained over at http://pomax.github.io/bezierinfo/#catmullconv (last item in the section gives the translation if you don't care about the maths). You can then introduce as much random travel as you want (make the upper points a little stickier and "jerk" them down when they get too far from the bottom points to get that sticky rain look)

ActionScript 3 Simple Projectile Pathing

Good evening (at the time of writing)
The research I've done on this topic has turned up numerous fruitful code blocks regarding various situations similar to mine, but not quite identical. If one exists which I have not uncovered, I would be grateful for a link!
I have a few pertinent criteria, all on a 2d plane, and the question is related to 2d projectile pathing:
1) Object A: position ax,ay
2) Object B: position bx, by
3) Object P: (projectile) origin position bx,by
Object P leaves object B's X/Y position at a static velocity, traveling toward object A's X/Y position.
Objects A and B continue to move along their paths, irrespective of object P's trajectory. Object P continues to move from ax,ay to bx,by and beyond. I think I just need the angle and velocity, and don't need to continue to track beyond that (just increment movement steps accordingly till off-stage, where the object is disposed).
I'm working in Actionscript 3, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
In most case in 2D x-y plane, it is usually easier to handle movement and momentum in planar(separate in x-axis and y-axis) fashion than polar(angle+distance) fashion. I couldn't get the exact behaviour of projectile you want, so I assume you want a simple, dumbfire-rocket style projectile (which keeps initial direction).
:: 1. Projectile initiation ("Firing" of projectile)
var duration:int //(duration of flight(until getting to (ax,ay) described in number of frames)
var spdX:Number //(x-axis part of speed, described in pixels per frame)
var spdY:Number //(y-axis part of speed, described in pixels per frame)
spdX=(bx-ax)/duration;
spdY=(by-ay)/duration;
:: 2. Projectile movement (listen to ENTER_FRAME Event, executed once per frame)
projectile.x+=spdX;
projectile.y+=spdY;
:: if you want to change velocity of projectile, simple multiplication will handle it.
public function adjustSpeed(ratio:Number):void
{
spdX*=ratio;
spdY*=ratio;
}

Java get point location from angle change

This may be an issue that I simply do no know the proper terminology to research the answer to this, I am pretty sure the solution is a function of trig.
I have a method which accepts an X/Y position coordinate and an angle in degrees. It should return an updated X/Y based on the rotation angle provided.
For example, A point is usually located at x=0,y=2 (top middle). Now I need to rotate it to it's side by 90 degrees. In my mind I know it's location is now x=2,y=0 (middle right) but I do not know the equation to produce this.
I think I need to first determine the quadrant of the starting point, and then perform the proper trig function from there. This is for a game I am developing using libgdx which is where the Vector2 object comes from.
I have come this far:
public Vector2 getPointsRotated(Vector2 startPoint, float angle){
Vector2 newPoint = new Vector2(0,0);
// determine the starting quadrant
int quad=0;
if((startPoint.x>=0)&&(startPoint.y>=0)){quad=0;}
if((startPoint.x<0)&&(startPoint.y>=0)){quad=1;}
if((startPoint.x<0)&&(startPoint.y<0)){quad=2;}
if((startPoint.x>=0)&&(startPoint.y<0)){quad=3;}
if(quad==0){
// doesn't work
newPoint.x = (float) ((newPoint.x)* (Math.sin(angle)));
newPoint.y = (float) ((newPoint.y)* (Math.cos(angle)));
}
// ...
// other quadrants also don't work
// ...
return newPoint;
}
Thanks for any help.
Update:
I have been avoiding and returning to this problem for a few days. Now after finally posting the question here I figure it out within minutes (for ppl using libgdx anyway).
Libgdx provides a rotate function for Vector2s
so something like:
Vector2 position = new Vector2(0,2);
position.rotate(angle);
works perfectly.
I find rotation matrices are very helpful for this sort of problem.
https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/54299/tetris-rotations-using-linear-algebra-rotation-matrices

AS3 smooth rotation direction

I'm not very good with radial calculations, I can't imagine thus I can't be sure. I need some explanation of Math.atan2() thing, please.
Usual task - to make an object rotate after the mouse. I get the differences, get the angle, I see angles in the text areas and DIRECTLY the object does follow the mouse. What I need now is everything to be smooth. I need angles to be 0-360 but after 180 object rotation becomes -180 and counts backwards, and mouse rotation becomes -90 after 270 and also counts back to 0.
More deeply, I want a smooth rotation, it means a set speed of say 2 per frame, to meet the mouse angle the shortest way. It takes to set conditions and I can't do that cause I don't even understand the logic of these values. They are almost random! I don't need it to be done or copied, I need to understand to move on so if you could please explain how does it work and what I do wrong...
Code is simple:
angle = Math.atan2(deltaY,deltaX)/(Math.PI/180) + 90; //+90 cause it lacks it to look at the mouse//
Object01.rotation = angle;
So the problem is I don't even get how it works... if 2 values are different the object can't point at the mouse but it does. Numbers lie and if I need something based on these numbers it will be wrong. Very wrong... Need organization. Meaning I want everything to be ready for further coding that will be based on the rotations to not jump up and down cause of misfit ends.
Add: Explanation of how does it happen, what I described above. Why such a chaos of the values? And an advice on how could I arrange it for further coding, just as I said. Animation alone wont work if I want to make rotation an element of important events such as shooting direction and aiming speed. Or changes of speed rotation of a lockpicked lock. Or anything much more complicated that wont work if I don't make straight and clear values: from A to Z, from 1 to 10, no 8s between 2 and 3, no R before B, no mouse angle 270 when object facing it -90 when they both started from 0 and reached 180 together.
Oh, and as I said, mouse facing works but when I try to make a certain speed of chasing mouse the shortest way it turns the object wrong directions in all 4 quarters. I assume it's also about this arctangens thing that has issues with delta values becoming negative in different quarters. And when I change it, some other value goes wrong... So I need to know exactly what I'm doing to know what's wrong and how to fix it. So yep. Need explanation. Please.
Add2: angleZ = Math.atan2(oppSide,adjSide)/(Math.PI/180);
So I divided rotation to 4 quarters, for each I count atan as opp. side to adj. side, then add 90, 180 and 270 respectively. My mouse rotation does 360, but the object that follow through simple object.rotation = angleZ; still goes to 180, then from -180 to 0 on the left side. Why does it ignore the simple command? The rotation fits but I need it to be equal, no surprises! Why is it happening? How can a number I directly set to be equal to another number as a base of the action change itself to the one of same rotation but completely different number? It doesn't even know it's degrees! It's as simple as "object.rotation, please be equal to the number I choose!"
It's just different coordinate systems. Like how x starts at 0 at the left of the stage, goes +x to the right, and -x to the left, object rotation starts at 0˚ pointing up, and goes +180˚ clockwise and -180˚ anti-clockwise.
Math.atan2 happens to start at 0 pointing left (-x), and go +270˚ clockwise and -90˚ anti-clockwise, which is annoying, but it just means you have to convert between coordinate systems by adding 90˚.
You can spin something around over and over of course, so the numbers jump so that they always stay within the same range, because 361˚ is the same as 1˚, and -270˚ is the same as 90˚. You can tell an object to rotate outside of the -180˚ to 180˚ range, and it will normalise the rotation to within those values.
As mitim described, to smoothly animate rotation you'll either need to use Event.ENTER_FRAME, a Timer, or a tweening library like TweenLite. Most tweening libraries can work out the shortest rotation direction for you, but otherwise you can simply calculate both and see which is smaller.
As an idea, since it seems like you know the angle you need to rotate towards and it's direction, would it be easier to just animate towards that angle to get your smooth rotation? Basically treat it like any other animatable property and just add on your rotation speed (2 degrees it looks like) per frame tick, until it reaches the desired rotation.
Find angle amount needed to rotate by
Figure out if clockwise or counter clockwise direction and set the rotation amount. This can be figured out by checking if the angle is great then 180 / positive or negative
Add the rotation amount * direction every frame tick, until the desired rotation is less then or equal to the rotation amount per frame
Set rotation to desired rotation