AS3: Creating and accessing movieclips from an array - arrays

I know there are quite similar questions here, but I haven't found the proper details. What would be helpful is definitely an explanation of the problems, and perhaps a base example, that anyone who searches later may be able to apply. (Not asking that you write it for me, I just find the examples helpful) I don't want to upset anyone and am kind of worried to post in a forum...
I am wondering alternatives to creating a screen based off tiles created from an array. I have been having an issue myself trying to access the movieclips that have been placed on screen, and trying to trace to find a way to reference them hasn't been working.
Anyway, take something basic like an array, and connecting it to movieclips, then how to access the movieclip itself once done. So I have been working on this, and used many different online resources, so I'm sure a lot of this is going to look familiar, just in a much messier way.
This takes the array to make the movieclips appear (Im sure at least one part in here is unnecessary, and I'm thinking I'm doing something wrong here that makes it not work out later) So this works, but feels pretty bulky.
Both are from the same main class file.
function makeWorld (anyMap, tileW, tileH) {
var worldWidth = anyMap[0].length;
var worldHeight = anyMap.length;
var MAP = this.addChild(new mapHolder());
function tiler(MAP, i, j, tileW, tileH, tile)
{
MAP.addChild(tile);
tile.x = (j * tileW);
tile.y = (i * tileH);
}
for (var i = 0; i < worldWidth; ++i) {
for (var j = 0; j < worldHeight; ++j) {
var curTile:int = anyMap[i][j];
if (curTile == 101) {
var tile1 = new tileGround();
tiler (MAP, i, j, tileW, tileH, tile1);
...
else {
var tile3 = new empty();
tiler (MAP, i, j, tileW, tileH, tile3);
}
}}}
Then there is attempting to reference it, where I'm having the issue. I don't know what to call this.MAP.tileGround by, and I have tried many things. I've read it's not such a good idea to reference by name when not very advanced so I wanted to avoid that sort of thing too.
addEventListener (Event.ENTER_FRAME, hits);
function hits (event:Event) {
var tileCatchG:MovieClip = this.MAP.tileGround;
if(tileCatchG.hitTestPoint(this.MAP.Char.x + leftBumpPoint.x, this.MAP.Char.y + leftBumpPoint.y, true)){
leftBumping = true;
} else {
leftBumping = false;
}
...
}
Thank you!

In looking over what you're doing a second time it would appear that you should have a reference to the 2-indexed array that represents the map.
You can create a regular (single indexed) Array at the top of the file like
public var tileArray:Array = [];
Then where you create them push them into the array
var tile1 = new tileGround();
tileArray.push(tile1);
then to reference them all you can just run a simple loop
for each(var tile:MovieClip in tileArray)
{
//Do stuff
if(tile instanceof tileGround)
{
//Do stuff specific to tileGround
}
}

Related

Best way to end a function that contains an array in AS3

So I'm real new to AS3 and I'm trying to figure out a solution to end a function I created for a matching game. I want to have the function end when all the cards are used up in the array. What is the easiest way to go about this?
private var games:Object = {
easy:{
tiledeck:[1,1,2,2]
,xOffset:450
,yOffset:320
,incrementX:200
,incrementY:200
,columns:2
,rows:2
}
,hard:{
tiledeck:[1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4]
,xOffset:235
,yOffset:320
,incrementX:200
,incrementY:200
,columns:4
,rows:2
}
};
public function KT(game:String){
buttonMode = true
var gameConfig = games[game];
var tiledeck:Array = gameConfig.tiledeck.concat();
for (var x=1; x<=gameConfig.columns; x++){
for (var y=1; y<=gameConfig.rows; y++){
var random_card = Math.floor(Math.random() * tiledeck.length);
var tile:animalTile = new animalTile();
tile.animal = tiledeck[random_card];
tiledeck.splice(random_card,1);
tile.gotoAndStop(5);
tile.x = (x - 1) * gameConfig.incrementX + gameConfig.xOffset;
tile.y = (y - 1) * gameConfig.incrementY + gameConfig.yOffset;
tile.addEventListener(MouseEvent.CLICK,tile_clicked);
addChild(tile);
}
}
}
Your problem is not what you think it is.
The array is properly discarded from memory.
However, you used addChild(tile). This means you'll also have to removeChild(tile). Personally, I recommend adding a DisplayObjectContainer that you add the cards to. Kinda like a plastic sheet to put the cards on. Then, when the user presses the back button, you remove the plastic sheet... and all the cards come with it.
You haven't provided the code for the back button though, so I can't help you with integrating this functionality. My advice: Make some sort of game object responsible for cleanup, so all the button has to do is game.exitGame(); and then whatever code you use to go back right now.

hitTestPoint or hitTestObject?

I'm needing to make my character land on a ledge and stay there, but it only keeps going straight through it. Would I create an array for all my different ledges and test whenever my character hits them? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.
Collision detection for floors and stuff is actually alot diffrent from hitTesting in the idea that needs to consistently see that the objects are touching. Try something like this!
//loop through all the platform objects to generate the level
var level:Array = new Array();
for (var i=0; i<numChildren; i++)
{
if (getChildAt(i) is platform)
{
level.push(getChildAt(i).getRect(this));
}
}
for (i=0; i<level.length; i++)
{
if (player.getRect(this).intersects(level[i]))
{
if (speedX > 0) ////moving right collision and stuffs
{
player.x = level[i].left-player.width/2;
}
if (speedX < 0) ////moving left collision and stuffs
{
player.x = level[i].right+player.width/2;
}
speedX = 0 //kills the speed
}
}
speedX is the speed at which the characters move horizontally, and "platform" is the name of the variable that you're using as the cliff. Also, "player" can be substituted by whatever you are calling your object that's going onto the ledge. That's how I did it in one of my computer classes anyways :) Hope that helps!

Actionscript 3.0 Get all instances of a class?

I got a ton of movieclips in a class. Is there a more efficient way to apply a function to every instance in the class other than this?
var textArray:Array = [
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin1,
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin2,
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin3,
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin4,
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin5,
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin6,
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin7,
//... ... ...
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin15
];
for each (var interludeText:MovieClip in interludeBeginText)
{
interludeText.alpha = 0 //clear all text first
}
Also for some reason this doesn't work:
interludes.interludeIntro.alpha = 0;
It permanently turns that class invisible, even if I try to make specific instances visible later with:
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin1.alpha = 1;
I have NO idea why the above doesn't work. I want to turn every single instance in the class interludeIntro invisible, but I want to turn specific instances visible later.
(btw I have no idea how to insert code on this website, pressing "code" doesn't do anything, so pardon the bad formatting)
I'm not really sure what you're asking, but what may be useful is that, in ActionScript you can refer to properties by name, like myObject["someProperty"].
Using that, you can iterate over properties if they follow some naming scheme, so for example:
for (var i:int = 1; i <= 15; i ++)
interludes.interludeIntro["interludeBegin" + i].alpha = 0;
That iterates over interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin1 through ...15 and sets their alpha properties to 0.
When you do that:
interludes.interludeIntro.alpha = 0;
you turn the movie clip and all its children invisible.
So later when you do that:
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin1.alpha = 1;
You make the movie clip visible, but since its parent is still invisible, you don't see anything. The solution is to loop through the movie clips and make each of them invisible/visible.
// Keep the parent visible at all time
interludes.interludeIntro.alpha = 1;
for (var i:int = 0; i < textArray.length; i++) {
textArray[i].alpha = 0;
}
// Now this will work:
interludes.interludeIntro.interludeBegin1.alpha = 1;

how can i put all the children of a movieClip into an Array?

I have an movieClip Container and I want to move all its children into an Array.
i think about the method I used to delete all children of a container by using while and removechild at 0, but I think it wont work in this situation. Anyone have a solution?
thanks for your help.
var parObj:DisplayObjectContainer = Container; /* Is that the name of your MC? */
var kids:Array = []
var kidCount:int = parObj.numChildren;
// please see note on push at bottom
for( var i:int = 0; i < kidCount; i++ ) kids.push( parObj.getChildAt( i ) );
TA-DA! kids is now an array of all children of parObj
as a function:
function getChildren( parObj:DisplayObjectContainer ):Array
{
var kids:Array = []
var kidCount:int = parObj.numChildren;
for( var i:int = 0; i < kidCount; i++ )
kids.push( parObj.getChildAt( i ) );
return kids
}
Or, if you're courageous enough for vectors (the result of this function can only hold DisplayObjects and it is slightly faster than a normal array):
function getChildren( parObj:DisplayObjectContainer ):Vector.<DisplayObject>
{
var Vector.<DisplayObject> = new Vector.<DisplayObject>();
var kidCount:int = parObj.numChildren;
for( var i:int = 0; i < kidCount; i++ )
kids.push( parObj.getChildAt( i ) );
return kids
}
EDIT
It was pointed out that this loop was not optimizing numChildren. I will agree (within reason -- chances are this will not be a bottleneck), so it is now an int. A good point to that SOer.
But, there have been two comments made vis-a-vis push vs. kids[ kids.length ] = parObj.getChildAt( i );
When it comes to assigning array indexes, my experience is that situations where push vs. arr[ i ] = val truly make that much of a difference, it is likely that something else is going on which should be optimized first -- are you really getting an array of the children of a MovieClip hundreds (thousands?) of times? Then maybe you don't really need an array of DisplayObject, maybe you need to remove the extra loop and handle all of this (more or less) inline. Do you really have a thousand length array? Then your bottleneck is probably going to be related to the fact that you're dealing with a large, unwieldy data structure and not the loop in itself.
I find push to be clear, explicit, and most important, obvious. arr.push takes no time to understand, it is a self-contained statement, whereas array index assignment requires me, at least, to actually look. Further, because push is a method call and arr.length is a property of a dynamic object, push also defends against the possibility of typos: arr[ arr.lengt ] causes no errors! It is valid code! arr.pus(value), on the other hand, causes a TypeError. Don't know about the rest of the world, but I don't have time to deal with obscured typos.
Assigning array indexes directly, to me, is premature optimization. If you feel otherwise, that's fine (and by all means, vote me down, that is the point of the site -- hopefully we'll all agree on an acceptable practice), but push will be my standard.
You can use a combination of numChildren and getChildAt() to loop through your elements within a container. The following code assumes that you're running the code from within the container. If this isn't the case, just prefix those two properties with the name of your container:
var ar:Array = [];
var i:int = 0;
for(i; i<numChildren; i++)
{
var mc:DisplayObject = getChildAt(i);
ar[ar.length] = mc;
}
trace(ar.length);

multiple instances of the same object spaced out using a loop is only creating one

I had a hard time trying to word my question properly, so i'm sorry if it seems confusing. Also i'm using the flixel library in flash builder. It may not be that important butcause probably anyone that knows a little more than me or even a little AS3 could probably see what i'm doing wrong.
Anyway, what i'm trying to do is basically create 10 instances of this square object I made. all I have to do is pass it an x an y coordinate to place it and it works. so ive tested if i just do:
var testsquare:Bgsq;
testsquare = new Bgsq(0,0);
add(testsquare);
it works fine and adds a square at 0,0 just like i told it to, but i want to add 10 of them then move the next one that's created 25 px to the right (because each square is 25px)
my problem is that I only ever see 1 square, like it's only making 1 instance of it still.
anyone possibly have an idea what I could be doing wrong?
var counter:int = 0;
var bgsqa:Array = new Array;
for (var ibgs:int = 0; ibgs < 10; ibgs++)
{
bgsqa[counter] = new Bgsq(0,0);
bgsqa[counter].x += 25;
add(bgsqa[counter]);
counter++;
}
There's a lot you're doing wrong here.
First off, you're using a pseudo-iterator (counter) to access array elements through a loop instead of, well, using the iterator (ibgs).
Second, I don't see anything in the array (bgsqa) you're iterating through. It's no wonder you're having problems. Here's what you should do.
var bgsqa:Array = [];
for(var i:int=0;i<10;i++)
{
var bgsq:Bgsq = new Bgsq(i * 25, 0);
add(bgsq);
bgsqa.push(bgsq);
}
That should probably do it if your post is accurate.
for (var ibgs:int = 0; ibgs < 10; ibgs++)
{
bgsqa[counter] = new Bgsq(0,0);
bgsqa[counter].x = counter * 25;
add(bgsqa[counter]);
counter++;
}
They start at 0, so applying += is simply adding 25 to 0. This should do the trick.

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