Sprite attributes (properties)

I assume that you mean counting ticks. I personally think it would be a useful attribute, and would be pleased with that, but I would not want to be responsible for having things added that nobody would find useful or that you do not think sensible.
If that is not an issue in this case, then thank you.

I find many tests that relate to individual sprites and where they are etc. but I have not been able to find anything for the GameWindow that indicates if a (any) sprite occupies a particular space or pixel. For example a sprite may be permitted to move in a certain direction if no other sprite occupies that space (i.e. if the target sprite were to move it would collide).
To actually cause it to collide in order to discover the fact, would require moving the sprite back afterward, since collision is not a 'touch' it is an overlap.

If I have not missed something, would it be possible to ask the GameWindow if pixel X,Y is occupied (or a range)?

[Edit] Just to add a few comments (and I may be wrong here), everything relies on collision. A sprite's position appears to be its top left corner, but even if one could detect a sprite is present [SpriteAt(x,y)] it would still not appear to be possible to detect any other part of the sprite's presence. So if a sprite were detected at x,y, even though the size of the sprite is known to the coder it is still not possible to detect another part of the sprite. So any setection of a sprite can only be by its TLC, to enable calculation of the remaining occupied pixels. i.e. if the detection were simply that a piece of a sprite occupied x,y, there would be no way of knowing the total location. It might be nice to know that a sprite is sitting, stationary at an edge, thus preventing any attempt to move it off the edge, without being forced into a collision to find out. Ramble...

enonod said:

Ramble...

Click to expand...

I don't understand. You know a Sprites' top left corner X and Y coordinate. You know its' Width and Height and you know if it intersects a point so if necessary you can calculate where every other part of the Sprite is located so what can't you do?

Version 1.29 has the following additions.

Sprite now has a Counter property that if non-zero is decremented every Tick. GameWindow has a CollisionCount event that occurs when a Sprite Counter reaches zero. The other events all have "collision" in their names so I thought why make this one different even though it's not really a collision!

GameWindow has a SpriteIntersectsPoint(x, y) method that returns the index of the first Sprite found that intersects the given point.

Just in case it is needed GameWindow has a RepaintImmediately property that governs whether GameWindow forces a repaint immediately after a Tick (the default) or defers the repaint to the next opportunity. This is only provided for contingency in case of any problems and hopefully should not be needed.

Thank you agraham, all these things are excellent and I look forward now to using them, they simplify coding.

I don't understand. You know a Sprites' top left corner X and Y coordinate. You know its' Width and Height and you know if it intersects a point so if necessary you can calculate where every other part of the Sprite is located so what can't you do?

Click to expand...

I think (I should know) I was trying to say...
Say, two square sprites are side by side (but maybe even offset vertically).
To test this I don't want to have to collide first. The only way to detect a sprite is by its TLC (thanks to this new test) or by collision.

If one wants to move the right hand sprite to the left if clear, then the only way to test for any sprite that blocks the path even by one pixel, would be to calculate using one pixel to the left of the main sprite as being the right side of a possible blocking sprite, then use the width to find the left edge of such a sprite and then scan vertically (the height of the main sprite in an unknown amount of offset) to find whether any of those pixels tested is the TLC of a sprite. If it is then it blocks... it might be useful to instead, ask, is there a sprite overlapping the space adjacent to the main sprite. Or simpler is any pixel to the left of the main sprite (by height) used. We don't as far as I can see have access to pixels.
This was a comment that might trigger some easier way, or a suggestion of how using what exists. I could be (and probably am) talking rubbish. If it is simply ignore this.

Having read your new help file (SpriteIntersectsPoint) I see that any point of a sprite on the specified pixel, triggers. This good!
It means that the number of checks for an overlap of two sprites as I described is limited to the height of the sprite, no TLC required.
Can you please suggest a way in code for me to use this to check a range of adjacent such intersect points to achieve the aim mentioned above?
Do I need to keep changing the property for each pixel checked?

Really appreciate your work on this Andrew. You're doing a fine job!
:sign0060:

Version 1.291 has the following improvements.

Sprite.NextX and Sprite.NextY return the x and y coordinates a Sprite will have after the next Tick

GameWindow.CheckForSpriteCollision(index, x, y, allActiveSprites, nextMove) checks if a Sprite will collide with another Sprite if it is moved to a given x and y. The check can be done against the other Sprites current positions or those after the next Tick. Presently only the first collision will be reported. However I could return all possible collisions as an array if this would be better.

Similarly GameWindow.SpriteIntersectsPoint presently only reports the first Sprite that intersects, again I could return an array.

If I returned an array it would always contain at least one item that would be -1 for no collisions/intersections. I would probaby always return an extra item of -1 in the case of a collision/intersection so the number of collisions/intersections woulld always be ArrayLen(return()) - 1. What do you think?

Wow! Hitting the nail on the head comes to mind. Icing on the cake is another.
Personally I think to be realistically useful the return of the array in both cases would be preferable, nay; fantastic!!!
Everything you say makes sense. Go, Go, Go. On with 1.292

Oh, and thanks again.

[Edit] I must add that the options on CheckForSpriteCollision have been well thought out and cover all possible requirements that I can see.

I am testing some of these new items out and am having difficulty with obtaining the Index of THE sprite returned inside gw.CollisionMouse in order to then use it with gw.CheckForSpriteCollision, still inside gw.CollisionMouse.
I tried
Spr.Value=gw.Sprite1
ind=gw.SpriteIndex(Sprite1) and of course failed then
ind=gw.SpriteIndex(Spr)
Any advice please?

SpriteIndex takes a reference to a Sprite object.

ind=gw.SpriteIndex(gw.Sprite1)

or

Spr.Value=gw.Sprite1
ind=gw.SpriteIndex(Spr.value)

Thank you, it is clear where I went wrong.

Unless I have mis-read the Help on CheckForSpriteCollision Something is odd.
I have a sprite next to empty space and use the above method to check 2 pixels to the left of it. If I use AllActiveSprites as False it works and reports no collision, however, if I reverse to True it fails, saying there will be a collision.
My expectation would be that the latter MUST work if the former works???

Sorry, a misplaced bracket in a logical expression caused a bug.

Version 1.292 has these changes.

GameWindow.CheckForSpriteCollision and SpriteIntersectsPoint now return an array, see the help.

GameWindow.SpriteIntersectsPoint now has a nextMove parameter, see the help.

Many thanks for that agraham.

Any bugs found or more features wanted before I wrap this development up?

Any way to control sprite rotation in code?

Something like:

Sprite.rotation = 47 (rotate sprite 47 degrees)

Thanks for all your hard work Andrew...

--Steve

marathon332 said:

Any way to control sprite rotation in code?

Click to expand...

If you mean rotate the bitmap when it is drawn then no. A Sprite itself is always rectangular although it doesn't necessarily appear so if the Sprites' bitmap has transparent parts. The way to simulate rotation would be to use an appropriate bitmap.

I have been testing the new features and am very pleased with them. You will be pleased to know that I can think of no others (at present, maybe never) and thank you very much for listening and implementing. I feel this library is now extremely useful.

I just noticed that there is a thread running a high priority that effects movement of Sprites.
That is fine as it does not seem to effect performance of an app.

If it is set to Critical the sprite kind of glides along the screen and if set to Idle it is much more accurate and faster as far as where it should move to.

This is not being set with code but with a task manager and while creating a MouseMove event on the gamewindow with the door library.
I haven't tested it anyother way.

Can a method be created to set it's priority?
Say from 1 to 7 to allow the upper an lower priorities.

eww245 said:

I just noticed that there is a thread running a high priority that effects movement of Sprites.

Click to expand...

Is this on device or desktop and is it an optimised compiled application or in the IDE? Out of interest (because I might like to play with it!) which Task Manager are you using to alter the priority?

Basic4ppc applications are single threaded and the Sprite library runs on that single thread so whatever the thread is it has nothing to do with the application unless you are running in the desktop IDE where, although I don't know the architecture, there are several threads running under the IDE.

I believe the device IDE is single threaded and an application running under the IDE runs on that thread which is one of the reasons there is no debugging capability in the device IDE.