I am new to working in ActionScript and I'm experimenting with using the Timeline to trigger certain events in my game. In particular, I'm using the timeline to trigger the fire event for a gun so that when the fire animation gets to a certain frame, a bullet is spawned. In the gun class (Enter_Frame) I check that the mouse is being held down and the time between the last shot and the current time is longer than the cool down, if everything checks out I play the animation.
if (time - lastShot > cooldown)
{
canShoot = true;
lastShot = time;
}
if (mouseHold && canShoot)
{
play();
}
This creates a problem when the frame rate is brought below the point where the full animation cannot be played before the cool down is up again. In this instance the bullets fire slower with lower frame rates.
In addition, higher frame rates make the gun more responsive to mouse input because the fire frame comes sooner than in lower frame rates.
The goal is obviously to make the game completely frame rate independent. I would like to have the ability to slow down or speed up the frame rate of the animation depending on the cool down of the gun.
What is the best way to make this animation play in a specific time period without skipping over the actions that I have put into the timeline?
It sounds like you're on the right track, but approaching this the wrong way. Check out the Timer class, it's framerate independent, and will greatly aid you.
var my_timer = new Timer(1000,0); //in milliseconds
my_timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, catchTimer);
my_timer.start();
function catchTimer(e:TimerEvent)
{
trace("event fired");
}
You should look into time based animation instead of frame based if you want your animations to be precise and not depend on the framerate, this way your animations will always be the same and will compensate the slower frame rates of slower computers. Here is an article that explains it very well: http://www.flashgamesclassroom.com/classroom/actionscript/frame-based-vs-time-based-animation/
Related
My employer decided they wanted me to start doing animation with Adobe's new "Animate CC" application. My issue is that I don't know how to loop my animation outside of the Adobe Animate environment. I am new to Adobe Animate CC and ActionScript, unfortunately, so I will probably need a relatively basic answer to understand why my solution isn't working. From what I can tell, my ActionScript code is being ignored by the IDE completely.
In the IDE and in the browser test command, the animation plays beyond frame 100, to the end, and then flashes a frame of white before repeating. I need it to loop without this white frame interrupting the screen, whether that be through a loop or some other means that I'm just not aware of.
For context: my project has about 100 layers of content and I'm unfamiliar with how this program works. I've thoroughly searched the web for tutorials on how to do what I need to do, but I've come up empty handed.
I have an actions layer among my motion tweens and other layers
https://gyazo.com/6e0b8502d98b6c9903bb96ac3a939bae
I've been trying to use gotoAndPlay(0) at frame 100 to start the animation over from the beginning.
https://gyazo.com/704ee7158bae6dfd149b6283cfa33451
Basically, how do I use Action-Script in Adobe Animate CC in order to infinitely loop my animation until closed?
Thanks everyone.
Your flicker may be a result of having an extra blank keyframe on one of your layers.
Assuming that you don't have any additional scripts to stop your animation (e.g. stop()), the Timeline should loop automatically whether your animation is inside a MovieClip or on the main Timeline. You shouldn't have to put any script on your timeline or in a separate AS file to make an animation loop. I would suggest this method.
Additionally, although you have the code specifying that you want it to go the first frame, it will ignore your call because the timeline is still playing and therefore the priority. One way you can combat this is by adding a stop(); function and a delay timer that contains your gotoAndPlay(0) function. This will take focus away from playing the Timeline and will allow you to execute your script. I wouldn't suggest this method because it seems a bit redundant.
However, if you're curious one way that you could approach this is shown below, simply add this script to the frame you want the animation to restart at.
//Stop the Timeline
stop();
//Create a delay timer for 5 miliseconds that is executed once
var timer:Timer = new Timer(5,1);
//Add an event listener that calls once the timer is complete
timer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER_COMPLETE, timerHandler);
//Start the timer
timer.start();
//Timer handler that is called once the delay timer is complete
function timerHandler(event:TimerEvent){
//Go to and play the first frame
gotoAndPlay(0);
}
with University done I've finally had time to go back to practicing my Flash work, and I need some help with getting sound to loop and change depending on what part of the animation is playing.
This is also partly a follow up question to an older one I asked, so look here to get more detail as to where I'm coming from if you don't understand! (I've solved that issue, the current one relates to following up on it!)
Flash AS3 | Finishing current animation set before code is executed
The situation is basic: I have two different scenes, one of a man walking and one of a man running. It loops seamlessly of the man walking until you hit a button, where it finishes the animation then starts looping the run animation. Likewise, hitting the button again, finishes the loop before going back to the looping walk animation. The code for the button is below.
import flash.events.MouseEvent;
Next2.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK, Change_2);
function Change_2(event: MouseEvent): void
{
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, enterFrame);
function enterFrame(e:Event):void {
if (currentFrame == 30) {
gotoAndPlay(31);
removeEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, enterFrame);
}
}
}
My issue is trying to get a footstep sound to match up with these animations. So while the man is walking, the 'walking footsteps' sound clip will play and loop alongside the animation, and when the button is pushed and the animation moves into the running animation, the 'running footsteps'' sound will play.
Any help on this would be much appreciated. I'm terrible when it comes to anything audio/code based.
Well u can check about soundChannel. soundChannel can stop() and play() ur audio.
So import ur external sound or use internal one. ur code probably seems like this.
var mySound:Sound = new Sound(new URLRequest("YourSoundPath"));
var sc:SoundChannel = new SoundChannel();
//when u wanna play
sc = mySound.play();
//when u wanna stop
sc = mySound.stop();
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FlashPlatform/reference/actionscript/3/flash/media/SoundChannel.html
also look this link for more info
If you want to really MATCH the footsteps to the animation (for example, the step sound should play when the player have put his feet down) the only sure way to do that is to place the sound on a different layer where your animation is and set the sound to play as "stream" (if i remember correctly).
Otherwise the animation might be out of sync because of different computer capabilities, current computer or graphics card load etc.
When the sound is set to play as "stream" the flash player is orienting on the sound and drop frames if the graphics are slow to keep the sound and animation in sync
Hey everyone so I have a lot of timers in my game to be specific around 8 timers. They all control different Movie clip objects that appear on the stage at different times. I also change the timers in my difficulty update function. Now I have read a lot to understand that Timers do cause lag and decrease the performance. I am creating this game using AS3 Adobe AIR for Android devices. My game seems to freeze for half a second every second which I believe is do to the timers as well as the garbage collector. Either way I was wondering if I remove all these timers and instead replace them with TweenLite TweenLite.delayedCallfuncion if it would dramatically increase performance. I Have tried this on one of my old timers that i removed and replaced with the tweenlite function and it seems to be working just fine but not sure if this is the correct way of doing it here is how i have it set up in my constructor:
TweenLite.delayedCall(6.0, addWatch);
and the addWatch function:
private function addWatch():void
{
TweenLite.delayedCall(6.0, addWatchTimer);
var newWatch:mcWatchTimer = new mcWatchTimer();
stage.addChild(newWatch);
aWatchTimerArray.push(newWatch);
//Start screen sound
watchSoundChannel;
watchSound = new watch();
watchSoundChannel = watchSound.play(0, 9999);
}
this seems to loop it without me having to attach an ENTER_FRAME Eveent listener to it. But not sure if this would be wise since I want to be able to change the delayedCall in my difficulty update to a faster time interval.
Any feedback on the situation would be appreciated. Hope I made enough sense.
I am building a game for school in AS3. I made a game loop with a timer so this game can run faster.
private var updateTimer:Timer;
updateTimer = new Timer(0);
updateTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, update);
updateTimer.start();
private function update(e:TimerEvent):void { }
This is working, but my teacher did show me a function/command how I can draw/render a frame.
Because of that the frame rate will go up. Unfortunately, I lost that code and I ca'nt find that function anywhere. Does anyone know that function? Yes, I know this way is very unstable.
Thanks a lot.
Are you thinking of TimerEvent.updateAfterEvent()? This causes Flash to render a new frame immediately independent of the movie frame rate in response to a timer or mouse event.
e.updateAfterEvent();
If you want to just change the frame rate of a game without messing with timers, you can always use stage.frameRate and go from there. So if you want to increase the frame rate, just use stage.frameRate++;.
I'm creating a Flash game which is based on the old Pacman and I'm not sure which is the best way to control the animation.
As I understand it these type of games were originally dependent on a game loop which ran faster or slower depending on the CPU, which is why I imagine that the most similar to use would be the ENTER_FRAME event.
This however presents the problem of having to have a specific frame rate and changing it later is out of the question, not to mention being limited to very few different "speeds" (see below). An example could be that the sprite has to move 12 pixels before the next move is determined. If the speed is then 4 pixels per frame, the math is quite simple:
[...]
public var stepCount:uint = 0;
[...]
function enterFrameHandler(e:Event):void
{
if(stepCount==0) {
//Some code to evaluate next move. Let's say it evaluates to MOVE RIGHT
}
if(MOVE_RIGHT)
{
x += 4;
}
stepCount++;
if(stepCount > 2)
{
stepCount = 0; //Now ready to evaluate direction again.
}
}
This all works fine, but let's say that I want the sprite to move 5 pixels per frame. Then the number of frames before making the next evaluation would not compute. The stepSize would have to be a multiple of 12, which limits the different possible speeds (1,2,3,4 and 6 pixels per frame).
This is why I attempted to base the movement on a Timer instead, which I also managed to get to work, but the movement was somewhat erratic and it seemed like the Timer was using far more memory than the ENTER_FRAME event. Instead of an even movement the Timer made the sprite slow down and speed up and slow down again.
Another possible solution could be the Tween class, but it seems extravagant.
Does anyone have experience with what works best in other games?
Morten Twellmann
You have several separate issues here. Your first question is, should you execute your game loop in a frame event or a timer event? The answer is easy - you should do it in a frame event. The reason is that regardless of how you move your characters, the screen is updated precisely once per frame. So any time you're calling your game loop more than once per frame you're wasting CPU, and any time you call it less than once per frame, you're sacrificing visual quality. So this one is easy, don't bother with timer events at all.
The next question is whether your game's movement should be tied to frames or miliseconds, and the answer is that it depends on the game. Ask yourself this: suppose that some user is playing your game, and their spaceship (or whatever) is flying along at a given speed. Suddenly, the user's anti-virus package does something heavy, and the CPU spike causes Flash to stop updating for one second. Once the spike is over, do you want the spaceship to continue moving from where it was when the spike started? Or do you want it to jump forwards to where it would be if it had continued moving during the spike? If you want the former, you should tie your movement to frames; if you want the latter, you should tie it to miliseconds. But which one is best depends on how you want your game to work.
The final question is, how exactly should you move the characters in your game? Based on what you wrote, I'd do it as follows. For frame-based movement (i.e. the first approach described earlier):
// the ship moves 25 pixels per second
var shipSpeed:Number = 25;
// the number of seconds per frame, based on the published framerate
var frameTime:Number = 1 / stage.frameRate;
// game loop called each frame:
function gameLoop() {
// ...
playerShip.x += shipSpeed * frameTime;
// ....
}
This way, the ship's movement on screen is constant, regardless of what framerate you publish your SWF at. Using a higher framerate simply makes the movement smoother. Likewise, to tie your movement to time instead of frames, simply change "frameTime" in the code above to refer to the time elapsed since the previous frame, as described in Allan's answer.
Yes frame rates will vary depending on CPU amongst other things. Therefore you need to take this into account with your game loop. What I like to do is get the time difference between the current frame and the old frame and use that value in my calculations. So if it happens that there is a delay the larger difference value will then make up for the fact less frames ran.
var _previousTime:Number;
//gameLoop is the function called on ENTER_FRAME
public function gameLoop(e:Event):void
{
var currentTime:Number = getTimer();
var difference:Number = currentTime - _previousTime;
_previousTime = currentTime;
//use difference variable with calculations involving movement
}