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Camera Triggers

(16 posts) (5 voices)

Started 4 years ago by VideoGuy
Latest reply from VideoGuy

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VideoGuy
Spielberg
Post Count: 8723

I've been working on my Flash engine for a while (as you probably know), and I've finally found something I can't find on Google.

I have one level (designed by AP) that is very large. What I'd like to do is split it up into for separate MCs, then load the correct MC for the area the character is in. I would think the best way to set that up would be to have some sort of trigger that tells the next MC to load, but I'm not sure how to set that up.

I don't use any virtual cameras in my game. Just simply moving the level around (the character stays in a constant position). Should I try to implement a real camera, or can I still use this method?

And I use AS1, so I most AS2 answers work, but AS3 doesn't

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Posted 4 years ago #
Nyubis
Nyubis of Strata
Post Count: 9151

http://www.bornegames.com/forum/topic.php?id=16
http://www.bornegames.com/forum/topic.php?id=41
You might find something usefull in here. I'm using a V-cam and on hitTest triggers

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Not in wrath
the Reaper came today.

An Angel visited
this gray path
And took the cube away.

Posted 4 years ago #
VideoGuy
Spielberg
Post Count: 8723

hitTest triggers? How would that work?

I tried doing something like this

for (x=-275; x<=275; x++ ) {
for (y=-200; y<=200; y++ ) {

if (_root.lev.enemy.hitTest(this._x+x, this._y+y, true)) { trace ('Active'); }

}}

That code crashed Flash. How would you do it?

And neither of those threads really told me anything about camera triggers. The camera one was useful, but I couldn't get any v-cam code to work with my copy of Flash.

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Posted 4 years ago #
Niall
Member
Post Count: 248

HitTest triggers basically mean that when the end of one movieclip on the stage hits the camera, attach the new one. And then remove it when the original MC moves back fully into the screen - it can get very annoying at times, but it works. Try fiddling around a bit more with movieclip positioning. I can't give a direct answer yet because I don't know exactly how you're coding the screen moving.

Oh by the way, it probably crashed flash because you used 2 for loops.

Posted 4 years ago #
Nyubis
Nyubis of Strata
Post Count: 9151

HitTesting is still a pain in my a*s. I mean, you cant even properly hitTest between 2 circles, because when you use wahtever.hitTest(somemc) you cant add ,true behind the somemc for shapeflaging.

Not in cruelty
Not in wrath
the Reaper came today.

An Angel visited
this gray path
And took the cube away.

Posted 4 years ago #
VideoGuy
Spielberg
Post Count: 8723

HitTest triggers basically mean that when the end of one movieclip on the stage hits the camera, attach the new one. And then remove it when the original MC moves back fully into the screen - it can get very annoying at times, but it works.

Right, that's what I'm trying to set up.

I can't give a direct answer yet because I don't know exactly how you're coding the screen moving.

Right now, there is no "camera" really. I literally just move the level around. The character stays in one place.

Oh by the way, it probably crashed flash because you used 2 for loops.

Actually, I think it was because it was hitTesting 220,000 pixels every 1/30 of a second. Which sounds like it would cause a lot of lag.

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Posted 4 years ago #
DrNeroCF
aka Brad Borne
Post Count: 979

I fooled with something like that with World 1, but loading in clips and caching them is way too slow...

If you're using chunks that are all the same size, do something like -Math.round(_root._x / chunkSize) (if you don't use _x, whatever value you move, then), fool with that until you have 1 when you're at the beginning of the level, and some larger number when you're at the end. Take your level movie clip, f6 a bunch of times to get duplicate frames, then tell that movie clip to go to that number above. Fool around with that, and chop off as much as you can from each frame in that level timeline. If you don't want to tell the clip to 'gotoAndStop' every frame, something like, if (oldFrame != Math.round(levelClip._x / chunkSize)) { LevelClip.gotoAndStop(Math.round(levelClip._x / chunkSize)); oldFrame = Math.round(levelClip._x / chunkSize).

Makes any sense...?

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Posted 4 years ago #
DrNeroCF
aka Brad Borne
Post Count: 979

I just looked at those for loops... holy wow... you're checking every single pixel on the screen! That's just plain silly!

Doodle, sketch, draw, design, fill notebooks with elaborate scenes, funny character designs, and gameplay ideas.
Find your own personal style and run with it. Craft characters and stories that you love.
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Posted 4 years ago #
VideoGuy
Spielberg
Post Count: 8723

I know, that's why I decided not to do it. And thanks for the reply.

And I see what you're doing. Comparing the character's position and dividing it, then loading the right frame based on what you divided. With that method, I would have to split the level up into a bunch of different frames, right?

You think loading them like that is too slow? Should I explore another possibility? Using the whole level makes to lag too much (on my computer, anyway).

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Posted 4 years ago #
DrNeroCF
aka Brad Borne
Post Count: 979

Bitmap caching.

Doodle, sketch, draw, design, fill notebooks with elaborate scenes, funny character designs, and gameplay ideas.
Find your own personal style and run with it. Craft characters and stories that you love.
Enjoy your own work, and donâ€™t be afraid to show it off. Create.

Posted 4 years ago #
VideoGuy
Spielberg
Post Count: 8723

I did some research on that.....good ol' Flash 5 doesn't support that either. AS1 is useless.

I found some education prices for Flash, and I might try and get it. I guess it's now CS4, so I don't know if anyone's tried that yet. You can still use AS2 with that, right?

I tried splitting up the level into four independent clips, and it didn't work as well as I had hoped (no dynamic loading yet, just having it in four clips instead of one). The seams are too visible.

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Posted 4 years ago #
Chade
Member
Post Count: 52

Yeah, you can still use AS 1 and 2 in CS4. Been using it for a few days now Perhaps your best option is to try and acquire a newer version of flash?

Posted 4 years ago #
VideoGuy
Spielberg
Post Count: 8723

Believe me, I really do want a new version. Except the full version is $800, and I don't have that kind of money. (Talk about irony, almost every version of Flash is eligible for the upgrade version except Flash 5! It's not even good for that. ) Although I do want to try and get an education discount version of Flash, which is only about $250 (I can afford that )

And it's good to know that I can still use the old languages with CS4.

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Posted 4 years ago #
VideoGuy
Spielberg
Post Count: 8723

Okay, here's what I've got. I put a mc in the background that's the same size as the stage. I set it to invisible, then I use a code like this

function camera(thing) { //the mc is passed through the parenthesis
if (_root.background.hitTest(thing)) {
return true;
} else { return false; }

then do something like if (camera(this)) { this._visible = true; }
Note: my actual code is more complex than that, but that's the basic version of it.

So that tells me if something is visible or not. Now what I'm trying to do is test if he's hit the edge of a level. Like where there isn't any level there, so I don't want the level to move there, just the character move, then he starts moving when he's far enough away from the wall. But with the code I have now, the level will stop moving when he hits the edge, but it won't start moving again when he's far enough away. Any ideas for this?

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Posted 4 years ago #
Chade
Member
Post Count: 52

You could always check the direction that the player wants to move in. So say they hit the right wall, then want to move left, allow the x co-ords of the camera to change again?

Posted 4 years ago #
VideoGuy
Spielberg
Post Count: 8723

Actually, I already solved this one. I'll post the solution in case anyone else wants it:

(this will describe how to do it for the left side of the level)
1) Make a MC that is slightly more than half your stage. (my stage is 550px, I made this 300) It can just be a black square, since it won't be visible to the player. Give it an instance name edge1.

2) Put this code on your character or wherever your code is:

if (_root.edge1.hitTest(this._x-300, this._y, true)) {
this._x += xspeed;
} else { _root._x -= xspeed; }

And if your speed is controlled in the variable xspeed, the camera will stop moving when you hit the edge. You can also set that MC you made before to invisible just in case.

Just got back on the internet after losing my access for a week. Read more on Random Discussion.

Posted 4 years ago #

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