I'm building a game of which the interface is one of the first items to load on screen. Sound button, pause and all the bits -
During the game - all manor of things are dynamically added and removed to the stage. Therefore my interface goes behind my game scene.
How do I ensure the movieclip always stays on top?
Can I override the addChild of my Document Class and every time a new child is added, I restack the interface to the top?
You can use setChildIndex to rearrange objects that are already contained within a MovieClip or Sprite. For example, if you have an object called container, which contains a redBall, blueBall and many other ball objects, you can use the following to make sure redBall is behind everything else:
container.setChildIndex(redBall, 0);
Equally you can make sure that blueBall will be displayed infront of everything else using:
container.setChildIndex(blueBall, container.numChildren-1);
addChildAt will sort you out for adding children straight into their correct position, and setChildIndex will allow you to re-position objects already placed. Hope that helps.
debu
Look into addChildAt, it allows you to specify the index that the new object should be added too.
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/flash/display/DisplayObjectContainer.html#addChildAt%28%29
A good strategy is to keep all interface elements in one parent Sprite/MovieClip, and all game assets in another. (With the interface one on top)
With your guys suggestion I made this, apparently, if you addChild an object already on the screen, it's simply reindex'd to the top. Does this look ok?
private var topLevelChildrenArray:Array = [];
public function addTopLevelChild(child:DisplayObject):DisplayObject
{
topLevelChildrenArray.push(child)
return this.addChildAt( child, this.numChildren - 1 );
}
override public function addChild(child:DisplayObject):DisplayObject
{
this.addChildAt(child, this.numChildren);
for each(var topChild:DisplayObject in topLevelChildrenArray)
{
super.addChild(topChild);
}
return child
}
Related
I have a class called Element. It is basically my ultra-movieclip, and nearly all classes in the game subclass it. Element extends Movieclip
The code in the game is built around the idea that all Movieclips are registered at the top-left corner. Register it somewhere else, and everything starts to fall apart.
The problem is, sometimes the in the animation and such, the top-left corner moves, but the registration point doesn't, and you end up with a registration point somewhere in the middle of the Movieclip. This causes problems.
So, how do I fix this problem? We can find the true top-left corner of a Movieclip using getBounds (this is the documentation for it), but using getBounds over and over in code would get kinda tedious.
My idea is to override the x getter in the Element class. That way, we can always know where the Element's true top-left corner is, without having to write a bunch of complicated code every time!
And for the sake of argument, let's assume that just making a new getter like "trueX" will open a trapdoor beneath my feet and plunge me into a cage of starving gophers.
I cannot figure out how to override the x getter! How can we do this? Have I missed an incredibly simple solution to the problem that has nothing to do with overriding?
override public function get x():Number {
//I have no idea what I'm doing!
}
This should be all you need to do: (if I understand your question right)
override public function get x():Number {
return super.x + getBounds(this).x;
}
I am using starling and tweenMax frameworks in my project.
The trouble I am running into is this:
For the purpose of animating along different paths, I am using tweenmax.
There is one _leaderEnemy that animates along a path and I am pushing several other _shooterEnemy (they are of the same class) into it.
public function createEnemies(enemyNo:int, path:Array, offset:int):void
{
for(var i:uint=1;i<=enemyNo;i++){
if (i==1){
_leaderCount++;
_leaderEnemy = new ShooterEnemy();
_leaderEnemy.x=600;
_leaderEnemy.y=300;
_leaderEnemy.name="_shooterEnemy"+_leaderCount;
this.addChild(_leaderEnemy);
leaderEnemyArray.push(_leaderEnemy);
}
else
{
_leaderCount++;
_shooterEnemy= new ShooterEnemy();
_shooterEnemy.x=0;
_shooterEnemy.y=(offset*(i-1));
_shooterEnemy.name="_shooterEnemy"+_leaderCount;
trace("no: "+_shooterEnemy.name);
leaderEnemyArray.push(_shooterEnemy);
_leaderEnemy.addChild(_shooterEnemy);
}
}
Now I want to check for collision using starling between each of the _leaderEnemy and the _shooterEnemy inside it with _shooterHero.
Running this array successfully checks collision with the whole group i.e. _leaderEnemy but not the individual ones inside it.
Technically, I should be able to do this just by:
var Track:Object;
for(var i:uint=0;i<leaderEnemyArray.length;i++) {
Track=leaderEnemyArray[i];
if (Track.bounds.intersects(_shooterHero.bounds)){
Track.rotation=deg2rad(70);
}
}
It may be something stupid I am doing. But I have not been able to solve this.
Any help on this would be appreciated.
Some other questions I have:
Can I check for collision with _shooterHero from inside the _shooterEnemy's class?
I have tried:
if (this.bounds.intersects(stage.getChildByName("_hero"))){
}
although it did not work.
Can I check for collision of one Enemy with everything on stage, so I can assign individual functions for his each contact?
For example: hit with hero: die; hit with another enemy: turn around
If you need more info, I will be happy to provide it.
Thank You.
Can I check for collision of one Enemy with everything on stage, so I can assign individual functions for his each contact? For example: hit with hero: die; hit with another enemy: turn around
Of course you can. You should! This is approximatively how collision engines works.
Running this array successfully checks collision with the whole group i.e. _leaderEnemy but not the individual ones inside it.
Nope. It won't work. Because the bounds property use the parent coordinates.
Meaning you can intersect each child display (of same container) with each other.
But you shouldn't intersect a child display of A with a child display of B.
Except if you convert every bounds coordinates (which are local) to global.
http://doc.starling-framework.org/core/starling/display/DisplayObject.html#localToGlobal()
Using Track.bounds.intersects is one way of checking collosions. Another would be to use hitTest method of starling.displayDisplayObject
You could also check the distance of your hero and other enemies calculated by a pythagorean theorem type calculation.
Are you checking enemies against each other? If you have many enemies you might want to look into "flocking" algorithms. Keith Petes covers this subject nicely in his book Advanced Actionscript Animation.
This problem seems very simple to me, but I've been unable to fix it, or find an answer anywhere.
This is in a class constructor for a class called block, block_maker is the object that called the constructor, an instance of level.
this.bitmap = new Bitmap(this.bitmap_data);
this.addChild(this.bitmap);
this.block_maker.stage_foreground.addChild(this);
In level, stage_foreground is added to the stage, but nothing appears. trace(stage_foreground.numChildren); shows the correct count of children, and var temp = (this.stage_foreground.getChildAt(0)); trace(temp.numChildren); correctly but the children OF the children don't actually show up, the stage just stays blank.
When I change the above code to
this.bitmap = new Bitmap(this.bitmap_data);
this.block_maker.stage_foreground.addChild(this.bitmap);
the blocks appear on the stage, as children of level_instance.stage_foreground, but with this method, the bitmaps aren't appropriately positioned, as they have no position data. I can simply give this.bitmap x and y positions, and it works, but I am curious as to why it won't work when just adding the bitmap as a child to the block and then adding that as a child to stage_foreground.
I've tried replacing this.bitmap with a number of other object classes, such as a temporary MovieClip I made, or a Shape, but nothing shows up, so I know it has nothing to do with it being a Bitmap.
As you stated
This is in a class constructor for a class called block, block_maker
is the object that called the constructor, an instance of level.
this.bitmap = new Bitmap(this.bitmap_data);
this.addChild(this.bitmap);
this.block_maker.stage_foreground.addChild(this);
The level class needs to to extend a display object for it to show up.
In other words
"this"
has to be a display object or extend it in some form.
The reason this doesn't work.
this.block_maker.stage_foreground.addChild(this);
and this does
this.block_maker.stage_foreground.addChild(this.bitmap);
Is because "this" is not a display object but "this.bitmap" is.
The DisplayObject class is the base class for all objects that can be placed on the display list.
First of all, even though it's not neccesary, I'd suggest to make a classname start with a capital letter, and vars always start with a lower-case letter. It's a common 'rule' in AS3 that's mainly to avoid confusion.
The problem most likely lies within you use of this; what you're doing is adding this into this. It seems to me it's not a proper way of coding.
Also, since all of the other attempts didn't work; have you tried to make the var you want ot add a public static var?
i have a bunch of movieclips on the stage and some are nested into others, i would like to have 1 of them to be put on top of everything else on the stage when i start dragging it. Anyone know how to get a nested movieclip on top of parents etc?
You could have a top layer & a bottom layer , whenever you want to add a child on top of everything else, simply add the child to the top layer. This way you don't need to figure what the parent position is , just keep this layer on top for that specific purpose.
var topLayer:Sprite = new Sprite();
var bottomLayer:Sprite = new Sprite();
var childMc:MovieClip; // the mc you want to have on top
//somewhere in your code...
childMc.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN , childMcMouseDownListener );
addChild( bottomLayer );
addChild( topLayer );
//add everything to the bottom layer
//leave the topLayer empty until you add the child mc
//add the following code in your MouseDown Listener
function childMcMouseDownListener(event:MouseEvent ):void
{
topLayer.addChild( event.currentTarget );
}
top of everything else on stage:
stage.addChild(target);
warning from AS3 doc :
The command stage.addChild() can cause problems with a published SWF
file, including security problems and conflicts with other loaded SWF
files. There is only one Stage within a Flash runtime instance, no
matter how many SWF files you load into the runtime. So, generally,
objects should not be added to the Stage, directly, at all. The only
object the Stage should contain is the root object. Create a
DisplayObjectContainer to contain all of the items on the display
list. Then, if necessary, add that DisplayObjectContainer instance to
the Stage.
Suppose, Container is your parent movieClip and it has many children then Now your target and currentTarget property depends on which object the listener is attached and how much you have nested your movieclips. in my case the Container is your parent movieClip having two or more children.
Container.addEventListener(MouseEvent.MOUSE_DOWN, pickUp);
public function pickUp(param1:MouseEvent) : void
{
var objectToDrag = param1.target;
Container.setChildIndex(param1.target,Container.numChildren-1);
objectToDrag.startDrag(true);
}
Pretty basic question here, but its still got me a little confused..
I have an object(navigation menu bar) that I want to change the colors on with code, so in an updateColor function, I get the bounds of the object (which is a drawing shape contained in a movieclip) and redraw a new shape on top of it with the new color, but I've noticed that the last shape still exists behind this redraw.
I tried using obj.graphics.clear(); before the redraw but that didn't get rid of the original shape. Is there another command that I'm overlooking?
Unless you drew the object you wish to remove within the same graphics object, clearing won't work. You need to remove the DisplayObject.
Depending on the number of children you can do:
obj.removeChildAt(0);
This also removes movieclips / buttons you placed on the stage manually.
If you have a reference to the DisplayObject you wish to remove you can simply do
obj.removeChild(backgroundClip);
Note that you can also change the color of a DisplayObject directly:
import flash.geom.ColorTransform;
...
public var test:MovieClip; //instance on stage
...
var cf:ColorTransform = test.transform.colorTransform;
cf.color = 0xff0000;
test.transform.colorTransform = cf;
while(this.numChildren)
{
this.removeChildAt(0);
}
Will clear child object on this MovieClip,
if it's clearing too much, then put the shape drawing in a subclip, and clear the subclip.