Determine Direction of Circular Motion - actionscript-3

I'm doing a motion detection program and want to determine if a person is moving their hand in a clockwise or counterclockwise motion. Would someone know the best way to do this? (I'm coding in AS3, but any ECMA-like code would help).
I believe one way would be to determine if, for instance, a left-right is followed by a top-bottom or a bottom-top, and so on — is there a better way?

If you have a point of reference (0,0), you can sample the change in angle over time:
var sprite:Sprite = new Sprite();
var samples:Array = [];
setInterval(function(){
var len = samples.push(Math.atan2(sprite.mouseY,sprite.mouseX));
if ( len >=2 ) {
if ( samples[len-2]-samples[len-1] > 0 ) {
// clockwise
} else {
// counter-clockwise
}
}
},1000/stage.frameRate);
The reference is the top-left of the sprite (or its natural 0,0 point by atan2), so this snippet samples the mouse coordinate relative to the sprite.
Also, the more samples you consider (I'm only sampling 2 samples[len-2] and samples[len-1]) the better the decision for cw or ccw.
Lastly, and most importantly, my script does consider negative numbers in the radian calculations, it assumes everything is positive - this would require some tweeking.
PS: You'll want to clear samples every now and again since the array length will max out.
My script is incomplete, and I'd welcome edits, suggestions and elaborations. My hope is that it gives you something to consider and work from.

Related

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

Transform easing functions into moving objects on canvas?

I am trying to use these easing functions from this page;
https://gist.github.com/gre/1650294
In my canvas project, I am wondering if anyone could shed some light on how to use these with say a rectangle on my canvas which has an x and y property.
I understand t is time, (I have successfully managed to get the delta time of my frame intervals, not sure if this is needed).
How can I use these functions to make the easing effects be applied to my rectangle which has an x and y property which are the co-ordinates of where it should be placed onto the canvas?
I know this question is kinda vague, but I really do not understand these functions and how they should be integrated with a rectangle on the canvas.
Thanks
You can use it like this -
(Click here to see working example at jsfiddle)
var x = 100; //final position
var t = 0; //0-1, this is what you change in animation loop
In your loop:
function myLoop() {
var tx = EasingFunctions.easeInQuad(t) * x;
// set element by tx
if (t < 1) {
t += 0.1; //determines speed
requestAnimationFrame(myLoop);
//setTimeout(myLoop, 16); //option to above
}
}
See also:
http://greweb.me/2012/02/bezier-curve-based-easing-functions-from-concept-to-implementation/
I know it's nice to write you own code; but should you want to use a library then this one is pretty good:
Tween JS
It uses the easing methods you referenced as supports chaining.

AS3 - geometry - perspective projection of a point on a 2D plane

I'm currently struggling on a problem that seems far beyond my maths capacities (been a long time since I've made some proper maths...) and I would appreciate some help on that.
Here's my setting :
I got some simple shapes (rectangles), and I "project" their bottom points on a line, coming from an Origin point.
Up to this point everything is fine.
But now I'd like to draw the original shape distorted as if it was projected with some perspective on a plane.
Please consider that I have nothing related to any rotation, isometric or any 3D or fake 2D perspective in my code, I'm only trying to draw some shapes using the graphics library to only have a feeling of something real.
Here's a quick drawing of what I'm trying to do :
What I know :
Origin point coordinates
the rect position & sizes
the red line position
the A & B points coordinates
What I want to determine is the coordinates of the C & D points, thing that could be easy if I wasn't struggling to find the "Origin bis" coordinates.
What I'm trying to do is to fake the projection of my rectangle on something that can be considered as a "floor" (related to the plane where my original rectangle is that can be seen as a wall).
Maybe I'm over-complicating the problem or maybe I fail to see any other easier way to do it, but I'm really not good anymore in any geometry or maths thing... :-(
Thanks a lot for your answers !
hmm i don't know if I undestood it correctly but I think you have too few input parameters:
you said the following information is given:
Origin point coordinates
the rect position & sizes
the red line position
the A & B points coordinates
I don't think it is possible to get your projected rectangle with this information alone.
Additionally, I think your green lines and the 'origin Bis' aren't helpful as well.
Perhaps, try this:
Supose, a blue line going through the points C & D is given as well.
Then you could find your projected rectangle by projecting the top of the rectangle onto that blue line.
So in summary:
You define an origin + two parallel lines, a red and a blue one.
Then you can project the top of the rect onto the blue line and the bottom of the rect onto the red line, yielding the points A,B,C,D
I hope this helps.
If I'm right, this code will show what you wanted to see.
First of all, I've ignored your initial setup of objects and information, and focused on the example situation itself; fake-projecting shadow for a "monolith" (any object is possible with the example below, even textured)
My reason was that it's really quite easy with the Matrix class of ActionScript, a handy tool worth learning.
Solution:
You can use the built-in Matrix class to do skew transform on DisplayObjects.
Try this example:
(The "useful" part lies in the _EF EnterFrame handler ;) )
import flash.display.MovieClip;
import flash.geom.Matrix;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.display.BitmapData;
const PIP180:Number = Math.PI / 180;
const MAX_SHADOW_HEIGHT_MULTIPLIER:Number = 0.25; // you can also calculate this from an angle, like ... = Math.sin(angle * PIP180);
const ANIM_DEG_PER_FRAME:Number = 1.0 * PIP180; // the shadow creeps at a +1 degree per frame rate
var tx:BitmapData = new MonolithTexture(); // define this BitmapData in the library
var skew:Number = -10 * PIP180; // initial
var mono:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
mono.graphics.beginBitmapFill(tx);
// drawn that way the registration point is 0,0, so it's standing on the ground
mono.graphics.drawRect(0, -tx.height, tx.width, tx.height);
mono.graphics.endFill();
// align monolith to the "ground"
mono.x = stage.stageWidth / 2;
mono.y = stage.stageHeight - 100;
// make it be 100x300 pixel
mono.width = 100;
mono.height = 300;
var shad:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
// colored:
shad.graphics.beginFill(0x000000);
// or textured:
//shad.graphics.beginBitmapFill(tx);
shad.graphics.drawRect(0, -tx.height, tx.width, tx.height);
shad.graphics.endFill();
addChild(shad); // shadow first
addChild(mono); // then the caster object
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, _EF);
function _EF(e:Event):void {
// animate skew on the positive half circle
skew = (skew + ANIM_DEG_PER_FRAME) % Math.PI;
// Matrix takes 6 parameters: a, b, c, d, x, y
// for this shadow trick, use them as follows:
// a = width scaling (as mono and shad are drawn in the same way, copy mono.scaleX for a perfect fit
// b = 0, because we don't want to project the vertical axis of transformation to the horizontal
// c = horizontal skew
// d = height scaling * skew * making it a bit flat using the constant
// x = mono.x, ...
// y = mono.y since originally mono and shad look alike, only the Matrix makes shad render differently
var mtx:Matrix = new Matrix(mono.scaleX, 0, Math.cos(skew), mono.scaleY * Math.sin(skew) * MAX_SHADOW_HEIGHT_MULTIPLIER, mono.x, mono.y);
shad.transform.matrix = mtx;
}
Now all you got to know to utilize this in your case, is the following N factors:
Q1: from what angle you want to project the shadow?
A1: horizontal factor is the skew variable itself, while vertical angle is stored as constant here, called MAX_SHADOW_HEIGHT_MULTIPLIER
Q2: do you want to project shadow only "upwards", or freely?
A2: if "upwards" is fine, keep skew in the positive range, otherwise let it take negative values as well for a "downward" shadow
P.S.: if you render the internals of the objects that they don't snap to 0 y as a base point, you can make them seem float/sink, or offset both objects vertically with a predefined value, with the opposite sign.
You face 1 very simple problem, as you said:
'What I want to determine is the coordinates of the C & D points, thing that could be easy if I wasn't struggling to find the "Origin bis" coordinates.'
But these co-ordinates relate to each other, so without one (or another value such as an angle) you cannot have the other. If you are to try this in 3D you are simply allowing the 3D engine to define 'Origin bis' and do your calculating for C and D itself.
So regardless you will need an 'Original bis', another value relating to the redline or your Rect for which to calculate the placement of C and D.
I remember making stuff like this and sometimes it's better to just stick with simple, you either make an 'Original bis' defines by yourself (it can be either stationary or move with the player/background) and get C and D the way you got A and B only that you use a lower line than the red line, or as I would of done, once you have A and B, simple skew/rotate your projection from those points down a bit further, and you get something the same as an 'Original bis' that follows the player. This works fine at simulating 'feeling of something real' but sadly as has been said, it looking real depends on what you are portraying. We do not know what the areas above or below the red line are (sky/ground, ground/water) and whether 'Origin' and 'Origin bis' is your light source, vanishing point, etc.

Collision Detection of Sprites in Actionscript 3.0 Flash

I am making an achtung die kurve-like game in AS3.0. So far I've done the movements of the 4 different players, and it works alright.
I am now to make collision detection, in order to test if a 'worm'-so to speak, is colliding with eachother or its own tail.
As I understand it, if I use hitTestObject(); it will use the registration area of the whole object, which would be a huge problem, seeing since this registration makes a 4-sided registration that contains all of the object. So if this is used, it will 'collide' just by entering this rectangle instead of hitting the actual worm. Is this correctly understood?
I've been looking through different methods of collision detection, and can't seem to find an optimal one for my project.
My thought were to check if the 'worms' are drawing their new sprites on a white background. if they aren't, then it must have hit something.
You can see how I used my code here: code in .as format linked to an .fla file
Sorry for my ill-formulated question, hope it makes somewhat sense.
Any help is greatly appreciated!!
Best regards - Jesper
Try this function if you want a Pixel Perfect Collision Detection with efficient CPU usage:
trace("Collided: " + (areaOfCollision(mc1, mc2) != null));
trace("Where: " + areaOfCollision(mc1, mc2));
function areaOfCollision(object1:DisplayObject, object2:DisplayObject, tolerance:int = 255):Rectangle {
if (object1.hitTestObject(object2)) {
var limits1:Rectangle = object1.getBounds(object1.parent);
var limits2:Rectangle = object2.getBounds(object2.parent);
var limits:Rectangle = limits1.intersection(limits2);
limits.x = Math.floor(limits.x);
limits.y = Math.floor(limits.y);
limits.width = Math.ceil(limits.width);
limits.height = Math.ceil(limits.height);
if (limits.width < 1 || limits.height < 1) return null;
var image:BitmapData = new BitmapData(limits.width, limits.height, false);
var matrix:Matrix = object1.transform.concatenatedMatrix;
matrix.translate(-limits.left, -limits.top);
image.draw(object1, matrix, new ColorTransform(1, 1, 1, 1, 255, -255, -255, tolerance));
matrix = object2.transform.concatenatedMatrix;
matrix.translate(-limits.left, -limits.top);
image.draw(object2, matrix, new ColorTransform(1, 1, 1, 1, 255, 255, 255, tolerance), BlendMode.DIFFERENCE);
var intersection:Rectangle = image.getColorBoundsRect(0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFF00FFFF);
if (intersection.width == 0) return null;
intersection.offset(limits.left, limits.top);
return intersection;
}
return null;
}
After a successful preliminary hitTestObject(), this function backgroundly takes a snapshot from the shapes of both objects painted with different colors each, then overlays them intersecting the colors on a new one, returning the Rectangle of the resulting shape. So cool.
To learn more about Pixel Perfect Collision Detection you can google Collision Detection followed by one of these names: "The ActionScript Man", "Troy Gilbert", "Boulevart (wim)", "Grant Skinner (gSkinner)" or "Senocular". Those guys are awesome AS3 references by the way.
The problem you discribe is a very common problem for collission detection because the object has a set width and height and therefor defines a rectangle as the object.
There is a solution however to make a colission detection system on pixel level I have found this on the official site and this made me able to make collission detection for bitmaps on pixel level.
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/ActionScript/3.0_ProgrammingAS3/WS5b3ccc516d4fbf351e63e3d118a9b90204-7d55.html
hope it helps you out in the same way.
Looking at the screenshots of that game, I think the best model would be to describe each worm as a chain of circles. Then divide the world/level in a grid with cells somewhat larger than the circle radii.
The collision check would then be:
clear grid
place each circle into the 1 or more grid cells it falls in
iterate over all cells, for each cell:
for each pair of circles (partially) in this cell, check if they intersect. If they do; collision.
Note that this may result in more than 1 collision occurrence between circle A and B, so you'd also need to check that to avoid duplicates.
Step 1 and 2 can be optimized by not clearing the grid, and instead of step 2, updating each circle's cell after it moves. If you size your cells like 5x the size of a circle, a circle can stay in the same cell for a few frames, avoiding excessive add/remove operations.
I'm doing something similar in a project of mine right now, except with space ships! My grid cells are currently 256x256 (too big for your project I think) and my units have radii of about 20.

How to create a circular "brush tip" in HTML5 canvas drawing application?

I'm using HTML5 lineTo but any stroke greater than 1 creates squarish looking corners on the lines (the stroke extends perpendicular to the path of the line you draw). I want to create a circular brush tip, similar to http://muro.deviantart.com.
Any ideas?
The corners can be rounded by setting the line cap.
ctx.lineCap = "round"
You can also apply a bezier curve to the overall line to create a smoother overall line, by, for each point in the line P'0, …, P'n + 1, applying the equation P'k = (k/(n+1))Pk-1+(1-(k/(n+1)))Pk [NB: You might do well to select which points to which you apply the smoothing of the bezier curve by setting a threshold, perhaps on the angle between Pn and Pn+1]
Combining these two techniques with a standard box blur to the line itself will give you a much smoother appearing line.
Edit
From what I can tell, there's actually a number of ways to do this – which you use is entirely up to you. I'll give you an example, and let you decide: Assume you have a path drawn from a beginning point pm (mousedown) to an endpoint (mouseup) pn. That path is made up of subpaths (the points joined by miters). We can draw the path to the context from p0 to p1 with lineTo() and stroke() as normal. Just from watching console output, the points at which the subpaths join is the mousemove event firing. Record these points in order in an array.
Of course if we draw this to the main context, we have a problem removing it, so this should be done to a buffer context (an additional canvas element, for instance). The buffer is cleared, and we use the points of the miters to calculate the curve. bezierCurveTo prints a cubic function (B(t) = (1-t)3P0+3(1-t)2P1+3(1-t)t2P2+t3P3, t ∈ [0,1]. Step through your array (think for loop) recalculating the line with those points, updating the curve from P0 to Pn-3. (Doing quick head-math. You might need to think over this endpoint. All of this is dependent upon which arcing equation you use).
So let me see if I can do something with this... I'm not testing it so I guarantee bugginess.
// Assume:
// bfr = buffer context.
// ctx = main context.
// md = boolean value for mousedown
// pts = []; <-- already contains lp (below) at pts[0];
// We've also recorded Pm in associative array lp [last point]
// Draw is fired on mousemove. Mousemove records a current point in associative array cp
draw = function() {
if(md) {
bfr.beginPath();
bfr.moveTo(lp.x-.5, lp.y-.5);
bfr.lineTo(cp.x-.5, cp.y-.5);
pts.push({cp.x, cp.y});
bfr.stroke();
}
}
// Optionally, you could make this function recursive.
// This assumes that you want to estimate the curve based on the whole line.
bezier = function(pts) {
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.moveTo(pts[0].x, pts[0].y);
for( var i = 0; i < pts.length - 3; i++ ) {
ctx.bezierCurveTo( pts[i+1].x, pts[i+1].y, pts[i+2].x, pts[i+2].y, pts[i+3].x, pts[i+3].y);
}
ctx.stroke();
}
Again, this is what I see – someone else may have an entirely different and I'm sure better interpretation. I'm trying to tear chunks of things I've done and put them together with some new code quickly to give you some idea.