drawing part of a perfect circle using curveTo - actionscript-3

I need to draw a part of a perfect circle using graphics.curveTo (I have the radius and the angle I want to draw) but i cant manage to understand the exact formula for the cotorol x&y in order for the curve to be perfect
I know how to do it with a loop and many lineTo but this is not good enough for my needs...
thanks in advance!

I use this function to draw circle segments (I think I ported it from an online AS2 example on how to draw full circles long ago):
/**
* Draw a segment of a circle
* #param graphics the graphics object to draw into
* #param center the center of the circle
* #param start start angle (radians)
* #param end end angle (radians)
* #param r radius of the circle
* #param h_ratio horizontal scaling factor
* #param v_ratio vertical scaling factor
* #param new_drawing if true, uses a moveTo call to start drawing at the start point of the circle; else continues drawing using only lineTo and curveTo
*
*/
public static function drawCircleSegment(graphics:Graphics, center:Point, start:Number, end:Number, r:Number, h_ratio:Number=1, v_ratio:Number=1, new_drawing:Boolean=true):void
{
var x:Number = center.x;
var y:Number = center.y;
// first point of the circle segment
if(new_drawing)
{
graphics.moveTo(x+Math.cos(start)*r*h_ratio, y+Math.sin(start)*r*v_ratio);
}
// draw the circle in segments
var segments:uint = 8;
var theta:Number = (end-start)/segments;
var angle:Number = start; // start drawing at angle ...
var ctrlRadius:Number = r/Math.cos(theta/2); // this gets the radius of the control point
for (var i:int = 0; i<segments; i++) {
// increment the angle
angle += theta;
var angleMid:Number = angle-(theta/2);
// calculate our control point
var cx:Number = x+Math.cos(angleMid)*(ctrlRadius*h_ratio);
var cy:Number = y+Math.sin(angleMid)*(ctrlRadius*v_ratio);
// calculate our end point
var px:Number = x+Math.cos(angle)*r*h_ratio;
var py:Number = y+Math.sin(angle)*r*v_ratio;
// draw the circle segment
graphics.curveTo(cx, cy, px, py);
}
}
I think it's close enough to perfect circles. I don't really understand the math inside, but I hope the parameters are clear enough for you.

it would be quite difficult to create a perfect circle (or even part of one) using quadratic bezier curves, so don't feel bad.
a long awaited addition to the graphics API came in Flash Player 11 / AIR 3, which is the cubicCurveTo() function that draws cubic bezier curves, which makes drawing things like half circles especially simple.

You cannot draw a perfect circle with Bézier curves. You only approximate it. See http://cgafaq.info/wiki/Bézier_circle_approximation.

Related

AS3 shooting bullets to cursor from centre of character position

I'm making a top down shooter game. I've got my character moving. All I want to do next is make a bullet shoot from the center of my character to the direction my cursor is at. How would i go about doing this?
I'm really struggling to think of the code i need to make this work.
This will involve simple vector math. There are tons of resources online about this. Here's the basic gist:
1) First, calculate the angle (in radians) between your character and your target (in this case the mouse location). You can use Math.atan2() to perform this calculation.
var angle:Number = Math.atan2(mouseY - playerY, mouseX - playerX);
2) Next, use that angle to create a vector (x,y delta) which represents the direction of travel for your bullet. You use Math.cos() and Math.sin() to compute the x and y value:
var speed:Number = 5;
var vector:Point = new Point(Math.cos(angle) * speed, Math.sin(angle) * speed);
3) Now you can update the bullets position each frame by that vector:
bullet.x += vector.x;
bullet.y += vector.y;
4) And if you want to make your bullet sprite point in the direction of travel, convert that angle to degrees and set the bullet sprite's rotation:
var degrees:Number = angle * (180 / Math.PI);
bullet.rotation = degrees;
Note that for the purpose of the math here, 0 degrees is considered to be right-facing along the x-axis, not up-facing like you might naturally think of 0 degrees (at least I do). What this means is your sprites unrotated orientation should be facing right-ward.

AS3 drawing lines, making shorter after that

i have a little math/coding problem witch i don`t have any idea how could i do it work in a simple way, so the problem is is need to make a line shorter, with 15
in my program i have :
http://gyazo.com/aff5ff61fb9ad3ecedde3118d9c0895e
the line takes the center coordinates of both circles and draws from one to another, but i need it to be from the circumference of the circles, so it wont get inside
the code im using is :
var line:Shape = new Shape();
line.graphics.lineStyle(3,0xFF0000,2);
line.graphics.moveTo(sx,sy);
line.graphics.lineTo(fx,fy);
this.addChild(line);
arrow2(sx,sy,fx,fy);
var rline:Shape = new Shape();
rline.graphics.lineStyle(3,0xFF0000,2);
rline.graphics.moveTo(fx,fy);
rline.graphics.lineTo(xa,ya);
this.addChild(rline);
var rline2:Shape = new Shape();
rline2.graphics.lineStyle(3,0xFF0000,2);
rline2.graphics.moveTo(fx,fy);
rline2.graphics.lineTo(xb,yb);
this.addChild(rline2);
the rline and rline2 function is for the arrow lines, now my question is how do i make it shorter not depending on it direction so it will not overlap the circle
You can use vectors to solve your problem; they're pretty easy to get the hang of, and pretty much indispensable for things like game dev or what you're trying to do. You can get an overview here: http://www.mathsisfun.com/algebra/vectors.html or by searching "vector math" in google
So first step is to get a vector from one circle to another (pretty much what you've done):
var vector:Point = new Point( circle2.x - circle1.x, circle2.y - circle1.y );
var length:Number = vector.length; // store the length of the vector for later
This is the equivalent of saying "if you start at circle1 and move along vector, you'll arrive at circle2"
Next thing we're going to do is normalise it; all this does is set the length to 1 - the direction is unchanged - this makes it easier to work with for what you're looking to do. A vector with length 1.0 is called a unit vector:
vector.normalize( 1.0 ); // you can pass any length you like, but for this example, we'll stick with 1.0
Now, to draw a line from one circle to another, but starting from the outside, we simply find the start and the end points. The starting point is simple the position of circle1 plus vector (normalised to unit length) multiplied by the radius of circle1:
var sx:Number = circle1.x + vector.x * circle1.radius; // or circle1.width * 0.5 if you don't store the radius
var sy:Number = circle1.y + vector.y * circle1.radius;
The ending point can be found by starting at our start point, and continuing along our vector for a distance equal to the distance between the two circles (minus their radii). The length value that we created earlier is the distance between your two circles, from one center point to another, so we can use that to get the distance minus the radii:
var dist:Number = length - ( circle1.radius + circle2.radius ); // or circle1.width * 0.5 etc
And so the end point:
var ex:Number = sx + vector.x * dist;
var ey:Number = sy + vector.y * dist;
And to draw the line between them:
var line:Shape = new Shape;
line.graphics.lineStyle( 1.0, 0x000000 );
line.graphics.moveTo( sx, sy );
line.graphics.lineTo( ex, ey );
this.addChild( line )

Strange stability issues with Matrix scale/rotation in Actionscript

I have a Flash app where I am performing a scale and rotation operation about the center of _background:MovieClip (representing a page of a book). I have simple event listeners on the GESTURE_ROTATE and GESTURE_SCALE events of this MC which update some variables currentRotation and currentScaleX, currentScaleY. I then have the following code trigger on the ENTER_FRAME event of the app.
The problem I am encountering is upon rotating the MC beyond the limits of roughly 60 or -60 degrees, or scaling slightly and rotating, the MC begins to oscillate and finally spin wildly out of control and off the screen. I've tried several things to debug it, and even tried Math.flooring the currentRotationValue and rounding the values of currentScaleX/Y to the tenths place (Math.floor(currentScale * 10) / 10), but neither of these seems to remedy it. I'm a little stuck at this point and have tried researching as much as I can, but couldn't find anything. Any suggestions? Is there an issue with doing this operation on each frame perhaps?
private function renderPage(e:Event) {
var matrix:Matrix = new Matrix();
// Get dimension of current rectangle.
var rect:Rectangle = _background.getBounds(_background.parent);
// Calculate the center.
var centerX = rect.left + (rect.width/2);
var centerY = rect.top + (rect.height/2);
// Translating to the desired reference point.
matrix.translate(-centerX, -centerY);
matrix.rotate(currentRotation / 180) * Math.PI);
matrix.scale(currentScaleX, currentScaleY);
matrix.translate(centerX, centerY);
_background.transform.matrix = matrix;
}
I'm not certain what behaviour you're trying to produce, but I think the problem is that centerX and centerY define the middle of _background in _background.parent's coordinate space. You're then translating the matrix so that _background is rotated around the values centerX, centerY, but in _background's coordinate space.
Assuming you want _background to rotate around a point which remains static on screen, what you actually need to do is use two different Points:
matrix.translate(-_rotateAroundPoint.x, -_rotateAroundPoint.y);
matrix.rotate(currentRotation / 180) * Math.PI);
matrix.scale(currentScaleX, currentScaleY);
matrix.translate(_centerOnPoint.x, _centerOnPoint.y);
Where _rotateAroundPoint is the point around which _background should turn in it's own coordinate space, and _centerOnPoint is the point around which it should turn in its parent's coordinate space.
Both of those values only need to be recalculated when you want to pan _background, rather than every frame. For example:
private var _rotateAroundPoint:Point = new Point(_background.width * 0.5, _background.height * 0.5);
private var _centerOnPoint:Point = new Point(50, 50);
private function renderPage(e:Event) {
var matrix:Matrix = new Matrix();
matrix.translate(-_rotateAroundPoint.x, -_rotateAroundPoint.y);
matrix.rotate((currentRotation / 180) * Math.PI);
matrix.scale(currentScaleX, currentScaleY);
matrix.translate(_centerOnPoint.x, _centerOnPoint.y);
_background.transform.matrix = matrix;
}

Scaling tile grid

I'm working on my own tile bliting engine, this one is using hexagonal tiles - but I think it doesn't differ much from regular tiles.
I have huge x,y array of tiles and they have their x,y coordinates for rendering on canvas, I iterate only the ones that should be visible on canvas in current camera position.
So I'm stuck with scaling and cant resolve this on my own.
Here is my code for drawing tiles on canvas:
public function draw():Void{
clearCanvas(); //Clear canvas (bitmapData)
var _m:Matrix;
iterateTiles(function(_tile:HexTile):Void{ // loop every tile that is visible on screen
_m = new Matrix();
_m.translate(_tile.x + cameraPoint.x,_tile.y + cameraPoint.y);//Get pre calculated tile x,y and add camera x,y
_m.scale(matrixScale, matrixScale);
drawToCanvas(_tile,_m);//Send to draw tile on canvas using Matrix
},true);
}
This works nice and fast but only problem is it scales tiles from left top corner (like regular scale would work)
Before scale
After scale
My question is how to transform tiles to always scale from center. So if tile 10:10 is in center of screen before scaling, then it should
stay there after scaling.
Sorry, I misunderstood the question, but I think I've got it now:
// Scale the distance from the original point to the center of the canvas
var xDistance:Number = ((_tile.x + cameraPoint.x) - xCenter) * matrixScale;
var yDistance:Number = ((_tile.y + cameraPoint.y) - yCenter) * matrixScale;
// Add the distances to the center of the canvas. This is where you want the tile
// to appear.
var x:Number = xCenter + xDistance;
var y:Number = yCenter + yDistance;
// Because the coordinate is going to be scaled, you need to increase it first.
x = (1 / matrixScale) * x;
y = (1 / matrixScale) * y;
_m.translate(x, y);
I have not tested this, I've just drawn it out on graph paper. Let me know if it works.

Problem rotating image with MOUSE_MOVE

Hey gang. Stumped on something.
I have a disc I am rotating with the mouse with event.MOUSE_MOVE, like a jog wheel on some audio equipment. Everything almost works as expected, but the problem I am experiencing is that the disc always jumps to the point where the user clicks on the disc. I need the point on the disc that the user clicks on to remain under the mouse while the user spins the disc but I can't seem to come up with the correct math to make it happen. Here's the code i am using:
var xd = (_knob.x - _stageRef.stage.mouseX);
var yd = (_knob.y - _stageRef.stage.mouseY);
var radAngle = Math.atan2(yd, xd);
_knob.rotation = int(radAngle * 360/(Math.PI * 2) - 90);
_knob is a vector circle wrapped in a movieclip, with the circle centered on the movieclip's reg point. _stageRef represents the main stage.
Any help would be awesome. I've scoured the interweb and can't come up with anything.
Thx!
You are setting _knob rotation to the angle between _knob and mouse cursor. So if rotation was 0, and angle 45, rotation becomes 45, therefore it jumps. What you need is measure changes in this angle, not setting it instantly:
var _mouseAngle:Number;
function getMouseAngle():Number
{
var xd = (_knob.x - _stageRef.stage.mouseX);
var yd = (_knob.y - _stageRef.stage.mouseY);
return Math.atan2(yd, xd);
}
function onMouseDown(event:MouseEvent):void
{
_mouseAngle = getMouseAngle();
}
function onMouseMove(event:MouseEvent):void
{
var newAngle:Number = getMouseAngle();
_knob.rotation += (newAngle - _mouseAngle) * 180.0 / Math.PI; //EDIT: forgot to convert into degrees
_mouseAngle = newAngle;
}
(Code not tested)