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Proud moments

by Kevin James · in Torque Game Builder · 11/30/2008 (4:09 pm) · 4 replies

I share this for your benefit, not for mine. We all do some very, very dumb things when it comes to programming; I thought it would be beneficial if I started a support group so that everyone feels like they aren't as stupid as that guy. Meaning me of course.

Here is a splendid function that I was working on:

if([b]!%this.flipX[/b])
   {
      if(%this.cameraMount !$= "CR")
      {
         warn("CR here");
         %this.cameraMount = "CR";
         playerCameraMount.dismount();
         playerCameraMount.mount(%this, [b]"5 0"[/b], 2, false, false, false, false);
      }
   }
      
   else if([b]%this.flipX[/b])
   {
      if(%this.cameraMount !$= "CL")
      {
         warn("CL here");
         %this.cameraMount = "CL";
         playerCameraMount.dismount();
         playerCameraMount.mount(%this, [b]"-5 0"[/b], 2, false, false, false, false);
      }
   }

So that when the player is facing right, the camera will be bias toward the right and when the player is facing left . . . yeah. Little did I know that this would confound me for about half an hour. My thoughts:

WHY IS THE FREAKING CAMERA STAYING IN THE SAAAAMMEE PLACE!!!!!111!!!121111uno uno.

Of course I was angry because it was obviously TGB's fault for being stupid, little did I consider that I was in fact the stupid one.

The fixed code:

playerCameraMount.mount(%this, [b]"5 0"[/b], 2, false, false, false, false);
Kevin James's profile picture
Torque Owner Kevin James

About the author

Computer security, digital forensics, and platform jumper enthusiast. shells.myw3b.net/~syreal/

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    Conor O'Kane
    cokane.com
    #1
    11/30/2008 (8:28 pm)
    Just a suggestion - repeatedly mounting and dismounting will result in new linkpoints getting created. This can build up and cause your game to slow down if its running for a long time or you are mounting/dismounting multiple times per second. Better to mount the camera to a target object, and have that target object's position updated at regular intervals (in an onUpdate or onTimer callback) to stay in front of the player.

    In code:
    function playerCameraMountClass::onUpdate(%this){
%this.setPositionY($player.getPositionY());
if ($player.getFlipX())
   %this.setPositionX($player.getPositionX() -10);
else
   %this.setPositionX($player.getPositionX() +10);
}

    Torque Owner Kevin James
    #2
    11/30/2008 (8:33 pm)
    Hey, thank-you Conor!

    That is actually very similar to what I ended up doing, but it was jerky and made me feel queasy, haha. I went with just a static mount to the player to avoid queasiness and unwanted bugs.

    Thanks,
    Kevin

    ps

    Didn't know that about dismounting and mounting. Good to know.

    Associate Phillip O'Shea
    Violent Tulip
    #3
    11/30/2008 (9:47 pm)
    Hmm, I was also unaware of that. I'll look into it and let Melv know too (if it really is creating duplicate link points).

    Associate Melv May
    #4
    12/05/2008 (4:56 am)
    I would agree that mounting and dismounting should be done with caution as they are not the quickest operation in the world to setup and destroy.

    With that said, mount-points (link-points) are reused and reference counted so if two things ask for the same position, they'll get the same link-point. Likewise when both dismount (and only when both have), the link-point will be destroyed.

    You should be careful though that the position is identical. Being as the type here is float, even a relatively small change is counted as a different point.

    What Conor said is definately good advice though.

    Melv.