help with group Arrays within the Studio Scene editor

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houndog66

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Posted: 3rd Dec 2020 10:16

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Hi all,
for my platform game I have collectables for each level which I have placed using the built in scene creator and then assigned to a group Array called eggz

Then when I want to check if you have picked any of them up I do this :

+ Code Snippet


for x=1 to lvl1_eggz.length
if GetSpriteCollision(player, lvl1_eggz[x])
 		SetSpritePosition( lvl1_eggz[x],9999,9999)
 		inc score,100  
 		inc numeggz // this increases the egg tally, when it reaches  lvl1_eggz.length then you are done with the level
 		endif
 	next x

But because Studio appends a scene specific tag (the 'lvll1' bit) , it means I have an array for each level and I have to have the above piece of code for each level too which seems inefficient. Ideally I want to be able to use the same bit of code for every level because you'll be doing this same thing on each level. It would be great if I could just change the 'lvl1' part to say 'lvl2'

Is there a neater way to do it? is it just so obvious I can't see it?

thanks for any help in advance

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Loktofeit

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Location: Sarasota, FL

Posted: 3rd Dec 2020 10:58

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"But because Studio appends a scene specific tag (the 'lvll1' bit)..."

Remove the scene-specific part of the array name?

It sounds like you are using the Visual Editor. If so, change the variable, array, etc names to whatever you need them to be.

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houndog66

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Posted: 3rd Dec 2020 11:40 Edited at: 3rd Dec 2020 12:57

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maybe it's not immediately clear, but I call each level that i make in the scene editor "lvl X" it could be called anything i guess. it appends the scene name to the start of the array name so my group array 'eggz' gets called 'lvl1_eggz'

I'm using the built in scene editor in studio. and this :

turns into this

if I just remove the lvl1 bit in my code I get 'Error: "eggz" has not been defined as an array'

currently my workaround is to have a separate scene counter and then say

+ Code Snippet

if scene=1 then tempeggz=lvl1_eggz.length
 if scene=2 then tempeggz=lvl2_eggz.length

for x=1 to tempeggz

if scene=1 then eggcollision=lvl1_eggz[x]
if scene=2 then eggcollision=lvl2_eggz[x]

if GetSpriteCollision(player,eggcollision) 
 SetSpritePosition( eggcollision,9999,9999)
        inc score,100  
        inc numeggz // this increases the egg tally, when it reaches  'tempeggz' then you are done with the level
endif

next x

and this works out, but only because there are only 8 levels, Imagine I had 99 levels, what would i do then?

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blink0k

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Posted: 3rd Dec 2020 20:26 Edited at: 3rd Dec 2020 20:52

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I don't use the scene editor but from what you have said I don't think you can get away without referencing each scene individually.
Maybe storing the entire scene in a temporary array would be the go
Something like this (From your example)

+ Code Snippet

eggcollision as integer[]

select scene
	case 1 : eggcollision =  lvl1_eggz : endcase
	case 2 : eggcollision =  lvl2_eggz : endcase
endselect
      
for x=1 to eggcollision.length
	if GetSpriteCollision(player,eggcollision[x]) 
	 	SetSpritePosition( eggcollision[x],9999,9999)
	endif
next x

thinking about it a bit more maybe you should do this;

+ Code Snippet

if EggCollision(player, lvl1_eggz )
     // code here for when egg collides
endif

function EggCollision(player as integer, eggs as integer[])
    x as integer
   r as integer
   r =0
    for x=1 to eggs.length
	if GetSpriteCollision(player,eggs[x]) 
	 	SetSpritePosition( eggs[x],9999,9999)
                r = 1
                exit
	endif
    next x      
endfunction r

On a larger scale it might look like this

+ Code Snippet

select scene
	case 1
      ProcessScene(lvl1_eggz )
       endcase
	case 2 
      ProcessScene(lvl2_eggz )
        endcase
endselect

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houndog66

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Posted: 4th Dec 2020 10:12

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Thanks for the detailed response blinkOK, I really wasn't expecting a thorough breakdown like that, much appreciated!

for this bit though

+ Code Snippet

if EggCollision(player, lvl1_eggz )
     // code here for when egg collides
endif

I'll still need one of these for each level?

Unless I'm misunderstanding your code and despite it being more elegant, I think it has the same issue as mine in that we need to get the fixed level information for each level (lvlX_eggz) into a dynamic format that can be used for all the levels.

Ultimately I guess I was hoping for a a$="lvl_" + str(x) + "eggz" sort of a solution

again though, thanks for putting your time into looking for an answer.

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ruckertheron

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Posted: 5th Dec 2020 15:44 Edited at: 8th Dec 2020 12:27

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I usually would do something like BlinkOk said.. where id set like

+ Code Snippet

global currentworld = 1
global currentlevel = 1


SetUpScene()
do

      UpdateCharacter()
      UpdateEnemy()
      UpdateCollision()
      UpdateFriends()
      UpdateItems()
     

      SyncScene()
     sync()
loop
CleanupScene()


Function SetUpScene()

select currentworld
       case 1
             select currentlevel
                   case 1 : lvl_1_1_setup() : exitfunction : endcase
                   case 2 : lvl_1_2_setup() : exitfunction: endcase
            endselect
      endcase
endselect

endfunction

Only other way I see is maybe #include a blank text file at the beginning.. and then maybe .. hmmm..

+ Code Snippet

#include "temp_function.txt"

Create a function that will rewrite the function on the blank text file and then call it after.
Like if you wanted to get a sprite from a world or level...

+ Code Snippet


Function GetSpr( world, level, whattoget$, ID )
opentowrite(1, "temp_function.txt" )
writeline(1, "Function GetSprFromEditor("+str(world)+","+str(level)+")" )
writeline(1, "spr = lvl_"+str(world)+"_"+str(level)+"_"+whattoget$+"["+str(ID)+"]")
writeline(1, "" )
writeline(1, "Endfunction spr") 
closefile(1)

spr = GetSprFromEditor(world,level)

endfunction spr

Maybe use it like
spr = GetSpr(1,1,"eggs")

JUST A THEORY

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