Huge update now. Are you ready?

Problem with writing a blog about such a creative thing as developing a game is that things happens very fast and sometimes very, very much.

It’s a good thing of course. I don’t have to bother about if I do have something to write about but already now understand that it is very dificult to find a balance between documenting it all carefully but pulling the brakes too much and getting all those creative ideas down on paper (yes digital ones) just to look back and see if they (you) ever will be able to understand and follow what just happened.

I still have decided that some parts of this game must be covered in shadow. not because I’m scared that you’ll exploits my darkest secrets but just the fact that they are not really interesting when it comes to the core subject: building a game with AS3 and PV3D. Remember this carefully now: IF you find yourself saying: “whoaa, how did he do that?” or “hey?? Where did THAT suspicious and geniously functional class come from?” it is just normal. I won’t cover every class and function anymore. Still remember THIS even carefullier: If you are very much interested in finding out exactly HOW I did it it or where you could find that seductive  class of mine, just write me a comment and I’ll try to fit it in.

Why did I tell you this right now? Because I’ve been coding today :) I will from now on try to pack all my source into zip-files so you don’t have to write down every stupid line in here. Still, I believe that reading and writing yourself (and destroying the code with reckless experiments) is the best way to learn.

THIS IS WHERE WE ARE NOW

Let’s see what we got:

First of all. A lot of previous classes has been updated and changed due to.. well new thinking I guess.

The things a just want to sweep away at the moment is the MeshManager and AssetsLoader classes I created. AssetsLoader is called at the init start of the whole game and handles all loading of all assets (duh!).  MeshManager is the Managerclass I have to retrieve the meshes when I need them just by sending in an id so you will see me call this class from time to time so you only need to know that I send in an ID and get a DisplayObject3D.  Yes, it’s kind of a magic box ;)

Let’s then skip Main.as (where all assets are loaded). You can look at it in the zipfiles.

With loading out of the way the View3D is a lot cleaner now. Let’s take a look at that instead:

package
{
    import flash.events.Event;   
    import managers.MeshConstants;
    import org.papervision3d.lights.PointLight3D;
    import org.papervision3d.objects.DisplayObject3D;
    import org.papervision3d.view.BasicView;
    import org.papervision3d.view.layer.util.ViewportLayerSortMode;
    import se.xcom.framework.managers.MeshManager;
    import units.*

    public class View3D extends BasicView
    {
        private var defender:AUnit
        private var light:PointLight3D
        private var topDepth:uint = 100

        public function View3D()
        {
            super();

            initScene()
            createGround()
            createDefender()

            this.startRendering()    // never ever forget to start this one
        }

        private function initScene():void
        {    // inits all basic stuff like camera, light and.. stuff

            // sets ViewportLayers to sort using index-numbers. (just like the DisplayList)
            viewport.containerSprite.sortMode = ViewportLayerSortMode.INDEX_SORT;

            this.camera.y = 3060
            this.camera.z = -4001
            this.camera.zoom = 230 // now look here! you can zoom!

            light = new PointLight3D()
            light.x = 1000
            light.y = 5000
            light.z = -6000
            scene.addChild(light)
        }

        private function createGround():void
        {
            var tGround:DisplayObject3D = MeshManager.getInstance().getMesh(MeshConstants.GROUND)
            tGround.scale=25
            scene.addChild(tGround)
            // Putting the ground in it's own ViewportLayer. Also setting an index-number to it.
            viewport.getChildLayer(tGround, true).layerIndex = ++topDepth;

        }
        private function createDefender():void
        {
            defender = new Defender(0)    // creates our Defender. '0' is the ID and could be any number at this stage of development.
            scene.addChild(defender.mesh)    // News: I removed the DisplayObject3D extension on AUnit so the mesh needs to be added
            viewport.getChildLayer(defender.mesh, true).layerIndex = ++topDepth;    //The unit is rendered on its own viewPortLayer.
        }

        override protected function onRenderTick(event:Event = null):void
        {
            defender.transformUnit();
            super.onRenderTick(event);
        }
    }
}

The greatest news in here is that Defender only takes an ID and nothing more. Everything else (the composition of components) is handled within the specific Defender-class (as Defender is a unique unit and will look and behave in just one way). We’ll look into that one soon.

The other news is Viewport-thingie. As I mentioned earlier, the viewport is like the TV-screen that shows exactly what the camera is looking at (filming). But the viewport does have layers, just like every flash user are used to with simple 2D. As a default every object in the 3D world is put into the same layer and therefor are rendered at the same time. But just like the 2D layers, you can move some objects to another layer and that layer will be rendered AFTER the layer underneath is finished rendering. The end result is that all objects on the layer “above” will be fully visible and not being overwritten by an object from the previous layer. Just learn what it is. I will come back to the question WHY we would want to do such a thing.

Oh and I placed a ground there too. This is not really news, you know how to do that already. But in the end that is what will be visible as progress (not te thousands lines of code behind the rest of the update :D)

package interfaces
{
    // this is the Interface for all controllers, be it local, ai or remote via multiplayer.

    public interface IUnitController
    {
        /*     each Controller gives away a ControlMatrix-object containing at least the following parameters:
        *    horizontal:         think of this as left and right (-1 1)
        *    vertical:             think of this as up and down (1,-1)
        *    newLastPosition:    if true then these values are used: , posX:, posY:, rotation:
        *    mouseDistX:            how far the mouse has been moved horizontally since last update
        *    mouseDistY:            how far the mouse has been moved vertically since last update
        */

        function getControl():Object    // gets the control object
        function updateControl():void    // updates the calues and creates an object
    }
}

Oh look! I updated the IUnitControler interface. Some people will now be saying “AAAHH BUPUPUPUPP. You are not supposed to change an interface like that. The gang of four told us that…” – Screw you I say! (not the Gang Of Four, I like guys with open-source-beards) The game is still in design state so I redesign my interface as much as I want to. “Why can’t you change interfaces” might some other guys now say. -Shut up! You are wasting blogspace! Let’s talk about my new interface.

Most important with the update is that there is now 2 functions that must be in a controller. Added is an UPDATE function that actually recieves all control data and creates the controlobject that will be sent. This has unloaden the burden for the getControl() function that just passes that object out. Main reason why I did this is that it seems like one unit might need to get the latest update several times within one frame so just getting the same object will not only save time but also the new object parameter: mouseDistX and mouseDistY will not screw up. They just show how far the mouse has been moved since last update.

package controllers
{
    import flash.ui.Keyboard;

    import interfaces.IUnitController;

    import se.xcom.input.ArcadeKeyboard;

    public class LocalController implements interfaces.IUnitController
    {
        private var controlObject:Object
        private var key:ArcadeKeyboard
        private var lastMouseX:Number
        private var lastMouseY:Number

        public function LocalController()
        {
            key = new ArcadeKeyboard(Main.scope)
            lastMouseX = Main.scope.mouseX
            lastMouseY = Main.scope.mouseY
        }

        public function getControl():Object
        {
            return controlObject;
        }

        public function updateControl():void
        {
            // getting up, down, left, right from keyboard
            var tVert:Number=0
            var tHoriz:Number=0
            if (key.isDown(Keyboard.UP))
            {
                tVert++
            }
            if (key.isDown(Keyboard.DOWN))
            {
                tVert--
            }
            if (key.isDown(Keyboard.LEFT))
            {
                tHoriz--
            }
            if (key.isDown(Keyboard.RIGHT))
            {
                tHoriz++
            }

            // calculating movement of mouseX and mouseY
            var mouseXdist:Number = lastMouseX-Main.scope.mouseX
            var mouseYdist:Number = lastMouseY-Main.scope.mouseY
            lastMouseX = Main.scope.mouseX
            lastMouseY = Main.scope.mouseY

            // creates new controlObject
            controlObject = {vertical:tVert , horizontal:tHoriz , mouseDistX:mouseXdist , mouseDistY:mouseYdist , newLastPosition:false}
        }

    }
}

The new LocalController now looks like this. Any questions about that? no? good (what, you wonder about that Main.scope call??? check Main.as in the zip-file and leave me be)  Moving further… to.. the fancy…

package units
{
    import controllers.*;

    import interfaces.*;

    import managers.MeshConstants;

    import org.papervision3d.materials.ColorMaterial;
    import org.papervision3d.objects.DisplayObject3D;
    import org.papervision3d.objects.primitives.Sphere;

    import se.xcom.framework.managers.MeshManager;

    import transformers.*;

    import weapons.*;

    public class Defender extends AUnit
    {
        private const CANNON_ANGLE_MAX:int = 75
        private const CANNON_ANGLE_MIN:int = 10

        private var mCannon:DisplayObject3D
        private var mBody:DisplayObject3D

        public function Defender(id:uint)
        {
            var tMesh:DisplayObject3D = initMesh()
            super(tMesh,new LocalController(),new CarTransform(9,0.85,0.2),new MissileLauncher(),id);
        }

        private function initMesh():DisplayObject3D
        {
            // in this function I fetch my meshes with my newly built Meshmanager
            // unfortunately the meshes are not centered nor scaled correctly
            // so I need to tweak them a lot before they are correctly placed.
            // There are 2 meshes. One body and one cannon. They are all a part of
            // "wholeMesh" that is sent to AUnit construcor.
            var wholeMesh:DisplayObject3D = new DisplayObject3D()
            var tMan:MeshManager = MeshManager.getInstance()
            mBody = tMan.getMesh(MeshConstants.DEFENDER)
            mBody.rotationY = 180
            mBody.z += 165
            mBody.x += 180
            mBody.scale = 50
            wholeMesh.addChild(mBody)

            // to be able to rotate my cannon at desired axis, I create a DisplayObject
            // and puts the cannon inside it. Rotation pivot point is always 0,0,0 so I just
            // move my cannon inside so itgets the desired pivot point.
            mCannon = new DisplayObject3D()
            var tMesh:DisplayObject3D = tMan.getMesh(MeshConstants.DEFENDER_TOWER)
            tMesh.rotationY = 180
            tMesh.z -= 30
            tMesh.x -= 70
            tMesh.y += 35
            tMesh.scale = 50
            tMesh.scaleZ = 60
            mCannon.addChild(tMesh)
            mCannon.y = 85
            mCannon.x = -185
            mCannon.rotationZ= 8
            wholeMesh.addChild(mCannon)

            return wholeMesh;
        }

        //
        override public function transformUnit():void
        {
            // Here I call the same function at the parent class AUnit.
            super.transformUnit()

            // get already updated control object.
            var tObj:Object = control.getControl()

            // set cannon rotation by mouseY movements
            mCannon.rotationZ += (tObj.mouseDistY/10)

            // set cannon angles within boundaries
            if (mCannon.rotationZ >this.CANNON_ANGLE_MAX)
            {
                mCannon.rotationZ = this.CANNON_ANGLE_MAX
            } else if (mCannon.rotationZ < this.CANNON_ANGLE_MIN)
            {
                mCannon.rotationZ = this.CANNON_ANGLE_MIN
            } 
        }
    }
}

So here it is! The updated and enhanced Defender-class. Now a lot more code has been added, not only new features but a lot of the “building up a unit” will be inside the final unit-classes like this. Let’s go through it and see if we can learn something new. First of all you can see that I override the transformUnit function that is defined in AUnit. I actually tells Flash to go with this new function instead of AUnit’s old one. Now, there are important code in AUnit’s function that I need to be run so I just start with calling super.transformUnit meaning that I call and run the function transformUnit() in the parent class (super class).  The rest of the function rotates the cannon angle due to mouse movements (try the compiled swf above!).

The other thing that I’d like to mention is the way I set the pivot angle of the cannon. If you are familiar to rotating with AS3 since before this is no news to you but everything is rotated using 0,0,0 (origo) as the pivotpoint. So now when I doesn’t want that as my pivot I need to put the cannon inside another DisplayObject3D and then move it around so that the point of rotation winds up on exactly the local 0,0,0 in that new DisplayObject3D. Then finally I rotate my whole DO3D and voila, my cannon is rotating just like it should.  A few other small tweaks here and there are made in the classes but I guess you can look at them yourselves. I just post this post now (of 1803 words.. blog record?) and Post a new one when the compiled SWF and the source is ready for download.

(1844 now)

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