Phazon Yoshi seeks help

2007-08-17 07:42:38 am

Hello again, after being ridiculed (well, not quite) for using game maker, I have decided to move on, to other languages. One thing I could use help with is the mathematics of it all, so if anyone wants to help, here is my current wish list:
direction_to_point (x,y,target x, and y) (or, what is the direction from here to there)
animated sprites
For that last one, what I am looking for is a way to extract the frames from an animated image, and animate them, rather than making loads of seperate bitmaps.
Point_free(x,y) as is checking whether an object or instance of something specific is at that point
Advanced collision checking, as in sloping and mishapen masks, not just the little square it exists in.
CAn't think of anything else at the mo', but any help is greatly apreciated(sp?).

Thread title:

Troid92

2007-08-17 11:46:48 am

Game Maker isn't that bad of a program. You've just gotta learn a good supply of cool programming tricks from examples and experiments, and figure out how everything in the program works.

But if you want to move onto other languages... You'll have to give a specific language if you want to get your wish list fulfilled, unless you just want mostly unhelpful descriptions of how you would do them in any.

BioSpark

2007-08-18 12:09:16 am

Suggestion: change the name of the topic to something that pertains to what you are seeking help with. I didn't really feel like clicking on a topic that says "I need help".

Phazon Yoshi

2007-08-29 11:20:18 am

What, but you did anyway?
BASIC, since you asked, but surely maths is platform free?

Phazon Yoshi

2007-09-03 07:41:15 am

Fine, yes, ignore me.
...
...
Hello?
Anyone?

Troid92

2007-09-07 10:41:17 pm

Be patient. Metroid Prime 3 just came out and school just started for many...

Seeing as I'm not very fluent in BASIC (or many languages other than GML and C++), I'll just give you some descriptions in English. I don't consider myself an expert programmer, but I'll try to help.

Quote:

direction_to_point (x,y,target x, and y) (or, what is the direction from here to there)

The standard C/C++ library "math.h" header includes the function atan2() which will return the direction of the vector you give it (from point (0,0) to (x input, y input)) in radians, other than for each multiple of pi/2 (90 degrees), and it returns from -pi to pi (or -180 to 180 degrees). It shouldn't be too hard to make a function direction_to_point() that uses atan2() in most cases and returns what you want it to. If you won't be using C or C++, you'll just have to find your language's trig functions. You may have to solve the problem out with trig if there isn't as convenient of a function as atan2().

Quote:

animated sprites
For that last one, what I am looking for is a way to extract the frames from an animated image, and animate them, rather than making loads of seperate bitmaps.

This is something I have little experience with. It's probably a waste of time to reinvent the wheel and make all the format-specific data-reading code yourself, so I would use google to find classes or functions on the internet for your language that handle image loading and whatever (specifically animated gifs in this case).

An alternative is to use an organized sheet of images instead, so it's all contained in one image. Then when you display the specific frame you want in the program, you find it on the sheet and only display that section of the image. Making all of the "frames" in a long strip with a set width for each would make working with it similar to in Game Maker. (ie. each one would be a GM "subimage", and to get its position on the sheet you take the subimage value times the width of each)

Quote:

Point_free(x,y) as is checking whether an object or instance of something specific is at that point
Advanced collision checking, as in sloping and mishapen masks, not just the little square it exists in.

Yeah, Game Maker really spoiled us with its easy-to-use collision... The point_free(x,y) function depends on how you've set up your own engine. You would have to directly or indirectly look through specific objects' collision masks (only objects with some special properties, to speed up collision checks--obviously you won't have to do, for example, wall on wall collision) and make sure none of them overlap that point. You should check out the N Tutorials for help on the math involved in convex shape collisions, and I'm sure Google searches will bring up nice results.

Be patient. Metroid Prime 3 just came out and school just started for many...

Seeing as I'm not very fluent in BASIC (or many languages other than GML and C++), I'll just give you some descriptions in English. I don't consider myself an expert programmer, but I'll try to help.
[quote]direction_to_point (x,y,target x, and y) (or, what is the direction from here to there)[/quote]
The standard C/C++ library "math.h" header includes the function atan2() which will return the direction of the vector you give it (from point (0,0) to (x input, y input)) in radians, other than for each multiple of pi/2 (90 degrees), and it returns from -pi to pi (or -180 to 180 degrees). It shouldn't be too hard to make a function direction_to_point() that uses atan2() in most cases and returns what you want it to. If you won't be using C or C++, you'll just have to find your language's trig functions. You may have to solve the problem out with trig if there isn't as convenient of a function as atan2().

[quote]animated sprites
For that last one, what I am looking for is a way to extract the frames from an animated image, and animate them, rather than making loads of seperate bitmaps.[/quote]
This is something I have little experience with. It's probably a waste of time to reinvent the wheel and make all the format-specific data-reading code yourself, so I would use google to find classes or functions on the internet for your language that handle image loading and whatever (specifically animated gifs in this case).

An alternative is to use an organized sheet of images instead, so it's all contained in one image. Then when you display the specific frame you want in the program, you find it on the sheet and only display that section of the image. Making all of the "frames" in a long strip with a set width for each would make working with it similar to in Game Maker. (ie. each one would be a GM "subimage", and to get its position on the sheet you take the subimage value times the width of each)

[quote]Point_free(x,y) as is checking whether an object or instance of something specific is at that point
Advanced collision checking, as in sloping and mishapen masks, not just the little square it exists in.[/quote]
Yeah, Game Maker really spoiled us with its easy-to-use collision... The point_free(x,y) function depends on how you've set up your own engine. You would have to directly or indirectly look through specific objects' collision masks (only objects with some special properties, to speed up collision checks--obviously you won't have to do, for example, wall on wall collision) and make sure none of them overlap that point. You should check out the [url=http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/tutorials.html]N Tutorials[/url] for help on the math involved in convex shape collisions, and I'm sure Google searches will bring up nice results.

Phazon Yoshi

2007-09-08 04:26:58 am

Thanks T92! I hadn't thougt of MP3, as I live in England...
No MP3 for me...
I have also done the trig fuctions in school, so I've strted with that, tho I havn't heard of atan(), so I'll try that.
Hopefully you've set me on the parh to being a true programmer!