Borne Games Forum » Topic: V-Camming in as2

dogman on "V-Camming in as2"

dogman — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:49:57 +0000

Cool. I didn't even know there was a stage function I went with the camera most platformers do. I will have to see if there is any reason to make it more like fpa 3.

LifeInAnEgg on "V-Camming in as2"

LifeInAnEgg — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:33:44 +0000

I suppose you are using as2 for this. What I do when i make a platformer, is making a variable y_speed:Number, wich is can be set higher, for more speed. For jumping the var is set to -20 for example, and you add 0.5 per frame for gravity. When you have the x_speed and y_speed variables, you can adjust the camera position and scale according to them. For example:
camera._y = player._y + speed_y
if(camera._y > player._y - (Stage.height/2) - (player.height/2))
{
camera._y = player._y - (Stage.height/2) - (player.height/2)
}

I haven't tested this before, but it's just to give you an idea of how I would do it.

dogman on "V-Camming in as2"

dogman — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 23:00:38 +0000

ok so I'm doing a camera for a platformer in flash. I have got it working fine with horizontal scrolling but I want to improve the vertical scrolling of the camera specifically when the character is falling.
In most platformer when the player is falling the camera follows him when he is near the bottom part of the screen. This is fine and not hard to do, but I would prefer to make the camera move so it would highlight better what is under you when you are falling. It is pretty much perfect in fpa world 3 because when falling the camera does exactly that. This brings up one problem that annoys me and seems like it is solved with ray casting or something in fpa. When you hit a platform the camera is still trying to highlight what is under you so it moves up after you have landed. In fpa 3 it somehow detects platforms under you and stops when it know where you are going to land. So brad or anyone who knows, is it some sort of ray casting?
here is a picture explaining what I'm talking about: http://grab.by/bJGm

DrNeroCF on "V-Camming in as2"

DrNeroCF — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:07:20 +0000

LifeInAnEgg said:
How can you put the animation in an array? The only way I would be able to do it, would be to write on every frame of the character:
onEnterFrame = fuction ()
{
this.currentFrame = 15
}
i'm sure there are better ways to do this, so please tell me.

Would store the movement in an array, and set animation based on the movement. If (moveRL != 0) { gotoAndStop("walk" } sort of thing.

offsetX = 640
offsetY = 360

angle = (cameraRot)*Math.PI/180

ex = 0
ey = 180

//720 divided by 4, your vertical offset

ex2 = Math.cos(angle)*ex-Math.sin(angle)*ey
ey2 = Math.cos(angle)*ey+Math.sin(angle)*ex

// rotate by 'cameraRot'

p1camx = player1_mc.char1_mc._x-offsetX+(ex2 * (1280/720))
p1camy = player1_mc.char1_mc._y-offsetY+ey2
p2camx = player2_mc.char2_mc._x-offsetX-(ex2 * (1280/720))
p2camy = player2_mc.char2_mc._y-offsetY-ey2

set the camera points, offset by half the screen (no need for vCam ), and adjust ex2 to take up half the horizontal screen.

Found that rotation code in a forum awhile back, it's brilliantly simple. I hate Math, or I probably would have thought of that on my own :/

Just found the post:

http://board.flashkit.com/board/showthread.php?t=334234

DrNeroCF on "V-Camming in as2"

DrNeroCF — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 21:55:53 +0000

LifeInAnEgg said:
How can you put the animation in an array? The only way I would be able to do it, would be to write on every frame of the character:
onEnterFrame = fuction ()
{
this.currentFrame = 15
}
i'm sure there are better ways to do this, so please tell me.

Would store the movement in an array, and set animation based on the movement. If (moveRL != 0) { gotoAndStop("walk" } sort of thing.

LifeInAnEgg on "V-Camming in as2"

LifeInAnEgg — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:15:37 +0000

How can you put the animation in an array? The only way I would be able to do it, would be to write on every frame of the character:
onEnterFrame = fuction ()
{
this.currentFrame = 15
}
i'm sure there are better ways to do this, so please tell me.

LifeInAnEgg on "V-Camming in as2"

LifeInAnEgg — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:49:47 +0000

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/2064/1326023168841.jpg
Here's a drawning i made to visualize my idea. I'm still not sure howe the link system works.

LifeInAnEgg on "V-Camming in as2"

LifeInAnEgg — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:26:51 +0000

@Nyubis The problem isn't to calculate the distance between the two characters, I already can. The problem is to keep the characters in the center of the screen, even when it rotates. Supposing you use the fo form a^2 + b^2 = c^2, only c is given. Then an infinite number of solutns is possible. What you can do, is calculate the angle of all corners of the trangle. First, you make a triangle with one 90* corner, one corner on the x and y of char 1, and one corner on the x and y of char 2. With Pythagoras, you can calculate the distances between the characters, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. Then you calculate one corner (c) then you do 180-90-c. And you have the third corner. Then you take one of these corners toyour next triangle. This on has one corner in the center of the screen, one on char 1, and one 90* corner. You don't know the x and y of the corner of the char 1, but you do kmow the x and y ofthe center. Now you only know the y of the 90* corner. You also know the length of the diagonal side, wich is 180 in this case. When you use tangens, sinus or asinus, you can calculate all sides, and then you know the coordinates of char 1 on the screen.

I'll try to visualise it some way, but i only have my ipad. I have to makea drawning on that

@DrNeroCF If you do want to try it, feel free to try it on fpa Still haven't had acces to a pc, so i still can't see the flash file you made...

Nyubis on "V-Camming in as2"

Nyubis — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:03:23 +0000

LifeInAnEgg said:
When it rotates, they must always be 180 pixels away from the center, and I have no idea how I am going to do that... Maybe Pythagoras?

Yup, if you want to calculate the distance between 2 points, Pythagoras is what you need.

Here the distance between X and Y is √((5-2)²+(3-(-2))²) = √(9 + 25) = 5.83

DrNeroCF said:
Bah, that was way too tempting of a challenge Found some rotation code that I've been using in FPA that makes that sort of thing much easier. Alright, well, now you have to make the game

http://www.bornegames.com/Bradsplitscreen.html

http://www.bornegames.com/Bradsplitscreen.fla

Wow, that's really impressive. I don't suppose it's lightweight enough to be in the next FPA?

hajg96 on "V-Camming in as2"

hajg96 — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:00:23 +0000

@TehDoctor(XD): Wow! I'm impressed! It really looks a good thingy but I'm still wondering if a splitscreen falsh-made game with more details would run on my PC xD... As for the detail stuff I'm with you: instead of concentrating at doing an HD game, the most important thing should be getting the splitscreen thing right and then finishing the game. XD
--
OT: Today's my birthday!! My parents got me inFAMOUS 2!!! I'm so excited XDD /OT

DrNeroCF on "V-Camming in as2"

DrNeroCF — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:04:01 +0000

You know, the more I think about it... why even draw the characters twice? They could easily be above the two backgrounds, with their positions just being set relatively... That would fix the animation problem.

Still, EVERYTHING else would have to be drawn twice, though you could save everything's position once in arrays, test collision in one clip, and set the positions from that. Would be easy with bullets and stuff that don't really animate.

Man, now I really want to make a split screen game...

DrNeroCF on "V-Camming in as2"

DrNeroCF — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:00:54 +0000

WJUK said:
Wow, that's actually pretty impressive.

It'd be interesting to see what kind of performance hit you're looking at when you transition from normal->splitscreen.

Shouldn't be much different, second player's view is still being drawn, just off screen.

Though, 720p is WAY too large for most Flash games, so you'd get much better performance at a reasonable resolution.

WJUK on "V-Camming in as2"

WJUK — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:38:08 +0000

DrNeroCF said:
Bah, that was way too tempting of a challenge Found some rotation code that I've been using in FPA that makes that sort of thing much easier. Alright, well, now you have to make the game

http://www.bornegames.com/Bradsplitscreen.html

http://www.bornegames.com/Bradsplitscreen.fla

Wow, that's actually pretty impressive.

It'd be interesting to see what kind of performance hit you're looking at when you transition from normal->splitscreen.

LifeInAnEgg on "V-Camming in as2"

LifeInAnEgg — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:30:32 +0000

I'll look at it tomorrow hopefully, it's 01:30 AM where I live, and iOS doesn't have flash... Btw, my game is far from being finished yet! I'm not that good in as yet, and I'm still learning new things. I just made it a challenge to myself, since that is the best way to learn it. Thanks for all your support everyone!

DrNeroCF on "V-Camming in as2"

DrNeroCF — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:11:53 +0000

Bah, that was way too tempting of a challenge Found some rotation code that I've been using in FPA that makes that sort of thing much easier. Alright, well, now you have to make the game

http://www.bornegames.com/Bradsplitscreen.html

http://www.bornegames.com/Bradsplitscreen.fla

LifeInAnEgg on "V-Camming in as2"

LifeInAnEgg — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:14:38 +0000

Yeah, syncing the two will be quite difficult. Is it possible to make a variable, wich hold the number of the frame the animation is currently on? That you can say: char2_mc.gotAndStop( that variable).

DrNeroCF on "V-Camming in as2"

DrNeroCF — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:09:29 +0000

LifeInAnEgg said:
Thanks everyone! The splitting and merging shouldný be that hard, when both cameras are at the same position, they are basically merged. Then I should make a center, wich is always exactly between the two characters, usually in the center of the screen. Then the masks will pivot around that point, with some basic calculations. The only problem would be the transition between merged and splitted. I will start by making the rotating seperation. I do need to rewrite the code for the cameras, because now the characters are strained to (640, 180) and (640, 540). When it rotates, they must always be 180 pixels away from the center, and I have no idea how I am going to do that... Maybe Pythagoras?

Haha, maybe sorta sounds easy, but will take some time to get right either way. The two masks will probably be a huge performance hit, and syncing the two means that you'll either have to babysit all the animations, or keep them super simple.]

What you've already uploaded looks super promising, lemme poke at the source for a minute...

DrNeroCF on "V-Camming in as2"

DrNeroCF — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:04:54 +0000

Nyubis said:
@Life: IIRC Brad doesn't move the level itself around, he moves the _root (stage) around, which is the same what VCam does.
What you describe may be possible, but I think it will be hell to manage keeping those 2 different sessions synced up and not using a huge amount of resources at the same time.

I've started moving all the clips instead of the root. Made it easier to move the backgrounds, and I was FINALLY able to get the 3d camera working properly with the backgrounds (check out both of the levels with the shell). But yeah, at the end of the day, moving the vCam and just moving the root at a negative with an offset it pretty much the same thing, just without a clip in the middle.

LifeInAnEgg on "V-Camming in as2"

LifeInAnEgg — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:36:10 +0000

Thanks everyone! The splitting and merging shouldný be that hard, when both cameras are at the same position, they are basically merged. Then I should make a center, wich is always exactly between the two characters, usually in the center of the screen. Then the masks will pivot around that point, with some basic calculations. The only problem would be the transition between merged and splitted. I will start by making the rotating seperation. I do need to rewrite the code for the cameras, because now the characters are strained to (640, 180) and (640, 540). When it rotates, they must always be 180 pixels away from the center, and I have no idea how I am going to do that... Maybe Pythagoras?

Nyubis on "V-Camming in as2"

Nyubis — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:23:49 +0000

Nice work, if you could make both screens merge when they're close, it'd be perfect.

PS: I fixed your links for you. Make sure you don't forget the http:// and don't add any quotes.