Develop Reference

Can someone improve my collision detection code, it doesn't work properly ,as even when the mouse is not on the circle, it counts as being on it

It's basically a simple game, in that, when the mouse pointer is within the circle, it adds one to the score. I'm new to processing and tried to create this simple game.
Here's the code:
float dist;
float score;
float x;
float y;
float ran;
float a;
float b;
void setup(){
size(800,600);
background(0);
score = 0;
}
void draw(){
background(0);
text("score: "+score,600,20);
x = random(800);
y = random(600);
circle_(x,y);
if ( (abs(mouseX - x) <= 200) && (abs(mouseY - y) <= 200 )) { // algorithm for checking whether mouse inside the circle or not
score = score + 1;
}
}
void circle_(float x,float y){
delay(1000);
circle(x,y,50);
}

There are 2 problems here: first, you're checking 200 pixels where it should be 25 (as in 25 being half the diameter of the circle). But this is the easy one. The real issue is with the delay(1000); line.
That's the real pain.
It means that your program "sleeps" for about 1000/1001 seconds. While the mouse can go around the screen, this one just isn't listening. It's waiting.
You can track time in Processing with the millis() method. It gives you how many milliseconds have passed since you started running the sketch. I ninja coded you a couple lines to keep track of time and teleport the circle every 1 second. Here's the code:
float score;
float x;
float y;
int respawnCircle;
void setup() {
size(800, 600);
background(0);
score = 0;
}
void draw() {
background(0);
text("score: "+score, 600, 20);
if (millis() > respawnCircle) {
changeCircleCoordinates();
}
circle_(x, y);
if ((abs(mouseX - x) <= 25) && (abs(mouseY - y) <= 25 )) { // using 25 as it's half the circle's diameter
score = score + 1;
// if you want the circle to change place right when you get one point uncomment the next line
// changeCircleCoordinates();
}
}
void changeCircleCoordinates() {
respawnCircle = millis() + 1000;
x = random(800);
y = random(600);
}
void circle_(float x, float y) {
//delay(1000); // this is why your collision detection wasn't working: the program is sleeping for about 1000/1001 milliseconds... you have to be very lucky to be on target at just the right time
circle(x, y, 50);
}
Hope it helps. Have fun!

Objects sharing another object (Processing 3.3.7)

Hello Stack Overflow people :)
I'm a huge newbie when it comes to coding, and I've just ran into a problem that my brain just won't get over...
Before I start blabbering about this issue, I'll paste my code so as to give a little bit of context (sorry in advance if looking at it makes you wanna puke). The main focus of the issue is commented and should therefore be fairly visible :
Main
ArrayList<Individual> individuals = new ArrayList<Individual>();
void setup()
{
size(500,500);
for(int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
{
individuals.add(new Individual());
}
println(frameRate);
}
void draw()
{
background(230);
for(int i = 0; i < individuals.size(); i++)
{
individuals.get(i).move();
individuals.get(i).increaseTimers();
individuals.get(i).display();
}
}
Individual
class Individual
{
float x;
float y;
int size = 5;
Timer rdyBreed; /* Here is the object that appears to be shared
between individuals of the ArrayList */
float breedRate;
float breedLimit;
Individual()
{
x = random(0, width);
y = random(0, height);
rdyBreed = new Timer("rdyBreed", 0);
breedRate = random(.2, 3);
breedLimit = random(10, 20);
}
void move()
{
int i = (int)random(0, 1.999);
int j = (int)random(0, 1.999);
if (i == 0)
{
x = x + 1;
} else
{
x = x - 1;
}
if (j == 0)
{
y = y + 1;
} else
{
y = y - 1;
}
checkWalls();
}
void checkWalls()
{
if (x < size/2)
{
x = width - size/2;
}
if (x > width - size/2)
{
x = size/2;
}
if (y < size/2)
{
y = width - size/2;
}
if (y > width - size/2)
{
y = size/2;
}
}
void display()
{
noStroke();
if (!rdyBreed.finished)
{
fill(255, 0, 0);
} else
{
fill(0, 255, 0);
}
rect(x - size/2, y - size/2, size, size);
}
void increaseTimers()
{
updateBreedTimer();
}
void updateBreedTimer()
{
rdyBreed.increase(frameRate/1000);
rdyBreed.checkLimit(breedLimit);
rdyBreed.display(x, y);
}
}
Timer
class Timer
{
float t;
String name;
boolean finished = false;
Timer(String name, float t)
{
this.t = t;
this.name = name;
}
void increase(float step)
{
if (!finished)
{
t = t + step;
}
}
void checkLimit(float limit)
{
if (t >= limit)
{
t = 0;
finished = true;
}
}
void display(float x, float y)
{
textAlign(RIGHT);
textSize(12);
text(nf(t, 2, 1), x - 2, y - 2);
}
}
Now that that's done, let's get to my question.
Basically, I'm trying to create some sort of a personal Conway's Game of Life, and I'm encountering a lot of issues right off the bat.
Now my idea when writing this piece of code was that every individual making up the small simulated "society" would have different timers and values for different life events, like mating to have children for example.
Problem is, I'm not a huge pro at object-oriented programming, and I'm therefore quite clueless as to why the objects are not having each their own Timer but both a reference to the same timer.
I would guess making an ArrayList of timers and using polymorphism to my advantage could make a change, but I'm not really certain of it or really how to do it so... yeah, I need help.
Thanks in advance :)
EDIT : Here is a screenshot of the debugger. The values keep being the same with each iteration of the updates.
Screenshot

What makes you think they reference the same Timer object? The values of t displayed in the debugger are going to be the same until one of them reaches the breedLimit and gets set to 0, because they're being initialized at the same time.
Try this and see that the values of t are different.
void setup() {
size(500,500);
}
void mouseClicked() {
individuals.add(new Individual());
}
I'd recommend setting the breakpoint somewhere around here:
t = 0;
finished = true;

They do not share the same timer, you create a new Timer object for each Individual.
class Individual {
// ...
Timer rdyBreed;
Individual() {
// ...
rdyBreed = new Timer("rdyBreed", 0);
//...
The only way they could be sharing the same Timer is if you were setting rdyBreed elsewhere, but since you don't want that I recommend making it final.
If you did want to share the same Timer instance across all individuals then you could declare it static.

Why this Simple Loop is Causing Problematic Behavior of my JFrame

I am doing an assignment from the Java Exposure textbook, which was written in 2007. This book includes some code that I usually update to use some of the more recent features (just basic stuff). However, in this one I am running into a problem. All I tried to do is replace the show with setVisible(true) and change the Frame to a JFrame and add a gfx.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);. However, I noticed that this wouldn't actually cause the window to close. If I clicked many times, maybe 1/30 tries it would close. If I reduced the delay from 10 to 1, it usually closed within 2 tries. This of course led me to believe that the delay method is causing this erratic behavior. I tried Thread.sleep, but of course that didn't work. Is there any simply way to get this code so that the frame will close when I hit the close button? If there isn't, what would be the less simple way of doing it?
Here is the code:
// Lab30st.java
// The Screen Saver Program
// Student Version
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.applet.*;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;
public class Lab30st
{
public static void main(String args[])
{
GfxApp gfx = new GfxApp();
gfx.setSize(800,600);
gfx.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {public void
windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {System.exit(0);}});
gfx.show();
}
}
class GfxApp extends Frame
{
private int circleCount, circleSize;
public GfxApp()
{
circleCount = 50;
circleSize = 30;
}
class Coord
{
private int xPos;
private int yPos;
public Coord(int x, int y)
{
xPos = x;
yPos = y;
}
}
public void paint(Graphics g)
{
int incX = 5;
int incY = 5;
int diameter = 30;
int timeDelay = 10;
Circle c = new Circle(g,diameter,incX,incY,timeDelay);
for (int k = 1; k <= 2000; k++)
{
c.drawCircle(g);
c.hitEdge();
}
}
}
class Circle
{
private int tlX; // top-left X coordinate
private int tlY; // top-left Y coordinate
private int incX; // increment movement of X coordinate
private int incY; // increment movement of Y coordinate
private boolean addX; // flag to determine add/subtract of increment for X
private boolean addY; // flag to determine add/subtract of increment for Y
private int size; // diameter of the circle
private int timeDelay; // time delay until next circle is drawn
public Circle(Graphics g, int s, int x, int y, int td)
{
incX = x;
incY = y;
size = s;
addX = true;
addY = false;
tlX = 400;
tlY = 300;
timeDelay = td;
}
public void delay(int n)
{
long startDelay = System.currentTimeMillis();
long endDelay = 0;
while (endDelay - startDelay < n)
endDelay = System.currentTimeMillis();
}
public void drawCircle(Graphics g)
{
g.setColor(Color.blue);
g.drawOval(tlX,tlY,size,size);
delay(timeDelay);
if (addX)
tlX+=incX;
else
tlX-=incX;
if (addY)
tlY+=incY;
else
tlY-=incY;
}
public void newData()
{
incX = (int) Math.round(Math.random() * 7 + 5);
incY = (int) Math.round(Math.random() * 7 + 5);
}
public void hitEdge()
{
boolean flag = false;
if (tlX < incX)
{
addX = true;
flag = true;
}
if (tlX > 800 - (30 + incX))
{
addX = false;
flag = true;
}
if (tlY < incY + 30) // The +30 is due to the fact that the title bar covers the top 30 pixels of the window
{
addY = true;
flag = true;
}
if (tlY > 600 - (30 + incY))
{
addY = false;
flag = true;
}
if (flag)
newData();
}
}

You are "freezing" the Event Dispatch Thread with
public void delay(int n)
{
long startDelay = System.currentTimeMillis();
long endDelay = 0;
while (endDelay - startDelay < n)
endDelay = System.currentTimeMillis();
}
This means that all the other stuff that is trying to happen (like closing the window) has to wait until the thread comes out of the "sleep".
basically you shouldn't be doing the delay in the EDT, it should be on a different thread and then ask the EDT thread to update.
Your "busy wait" delay may cause other problems too. You can improve the behavior by using Thread.sleep()
See Java Event-Dispatching Thread explanation

That's terrible.
You need to restructure the whole code.
Let's start with the really bad:
delay is (almost) a busy wait, I haven't seen busy waits since BASIC was modern. It basically holds the CPU hostage to the thread, not only does it do nothing, no other thread (almost) can use the time slice. The reason I say almost is that calling the system time function causes a context switch that could allow other threads to run, but it is still bad.
The still pretty bad:
Replacing with Thread.sleep. Better yes, no busy wait, but you are still holding the one and only UI thread. This means no other UI work can happen up to and including closing the main window.
What needs to happen:
Get an external timer (e.g. javax.swing.Timer) to trigger the draw event and do next part of the animation.
Search for "Java smooth animation" there are many examples of how to do this, double buffer and all.

Multiple classes in processing

I'm making a game where you're controlling a square, and objects will spawn in random places, which you have to pick up to get points, while also having to dodge big squares going from side to side. Right now I have 2 classes (one for enemies - big squares -, and one for the hero), I haven't done the point system yet with the spawning objects, but that's not what I'm trying to do now.
So my problem right now is that I don't really know how to make the person lose the game/a life when you touch the "enemies" with your hero. I would know how to do it without classes, but I'd like to know how to do it when they are in separate classes.
If someone could explain with code and comments how this would be done, it would help me out a lot :) (I read something about 'extends' for classes but I'm not sure if this is what I should use or not).
Here's a screenshot of what my game looks like at the moment, just to better illustrate it:
Here's the main code page:
Hero myHero = new Hero(400,480,5);
Enemies myEnemies = new Enemies(50,50,10);
Enemies myEnemies2 = new Enemies(50,350,15);
Enemies myEnemies3 = new Enemies(50,650,12);
void setup() {
size(900,800);
frameRate(30);
smooth();
}
void draw() {
background(0);
myHero.keyPressed();
myEnemies.enemyDisplay();
myEnemies.enemyMove();
myEnemies2.enemyDisplay();
myEnemies2.enemyMove();
myEnemies3.enemyDisplay();
myEnemies3.enemyMove();
}
Class 1:
class Enemies {
float xpos, ypos, speed;
Enemies(float x, float y, float s) {
xpos = x;
ypos = y;
speed = s;
}
void enemyDisplay() {
rect(xpos, ypos, 100, 100);
}
void enemyMove() {
xpos += speed;
if((xpos > width - 100) || (xpos < 0)) {
speed *= -1;
}
}
}
Class 2:
class Hero {
float xpos_, ypos_, speed_;
Hero(float x, float y, float s) {
xpos_ = x;
ypos_ = y;
speed_ = s;
}
void keyPressed() {
if (key == CODED) {
if (keyCode == UP) {
ypos_ -= speed_;
}
if (keyCode == DOWN) {
ypos_ += speed_;
}
if (keyCode == LEFT) {
xpos_ -= speed_;
}
if (keyCode == RIGHT) {
xpos_ += speed_;
}
}
rect(xpos_,ypos_,30,30);
}
}

I believe the question you are asking involves basic collision detection and object interactions.
I would first make the Enemies a List and create it / add elements during the setup() call:
List<Enemies> enemies = new List<Enemies>();
enemies.add(new Enemies(50,50,10));
This allows you to store all of your Enemies under one object. So your draw() method would look something like:
void draw(){
background(0);
myHero.keyPressed();
for(Enemies enemy : enemies)
{
enemy.enemyDisplay();
enemy.enemyMove();
if (hero.isCollidingWith(enemy)) // collision method defined in the hero object, but you could define it in the Enemies class as well, it doesn't really matter
{
hero.removeHealth(); // method defined in hero that removes health
}
}
}
This method would be in one of your classes:
public boolean isColliding(Enemies enemy)
{
// check the x and y coordinates of each object
}
I hope this helps to point you in the right direction.

you need to figure out collision detection and when your objects collide with each other, something basic like:
class Enemy
{
//...
public boolean isColliding(Hero hero)
{
//figure out the distance between two objects, if its less than their size, they are colliding..
//...
}
//...
}
then you need a part of your Game Loop that checks if anything is colliding with your hero, pickups, walls, etc...

It seems the first part you need help with is collision detection. The short answer I would give that will almost undoubtedly lead you to more questions is to look at the Area class (specifically Area.intersect). You might also want to look at the classes I've put together for displaying & managing areas in this project here

There are several problems here that touch on both application design as well as conventions. These should be addressed first before trying to tackle the collision detection problem.
The Enemies class only represents a single enemy, so the name of the class should reflect that. Additionally, prefixing the method names with "enemy" is redundant and can be removed. Other changes have been commented in the revised class below.
public class Enemy {
// Instead of hard-coding in the width and height of an enemy, allow the
// instantiating code to specify the enemy's size. This will allow you
// to have different size enemies and prevents you from having "magic numbers"
// in your code.
private float xpos, ypos, width, height, speed;
public Enemy(float x, float y, float s, float w, float h) {
xpos = x;
ypos = y;
width = w;
height = h;
speed = s;
}
/* These getters will be used for collision detection later */
public float getX() {
return xpos;
}
public float getY() {
return ypos;
}
public float getWidth() {
return width;
}
public float getHeight() {
return height;
}
// I've changed `display` to `draw` to be consistent with the method name in
// your main `draw` method.
public void draw() {
rect(xpos, ypos, width, height);
}
// This method now accepts a screenWidth parameter so that the enemy can know
// when they've collided with the left or right wall of the screen without
// having to rely on an global variable.
public void move(int screenWidth) {
xpos += speed;
if ((xpos > screenWidth - width) || (xpos < 0)) {
speed *= -1;
}
}
}
I mention the "magic numbers" in one of the comments above. See this wikipedia article for more on that.
The Hero class contains property names that have an underscore postfix. This ranges from unconventional to inconsistent with respect to all of your other property names in your other classes. The original keyPressed() method mixes the logic for both drawing and moving. These two things have been separated and the methods named like those of the Enemy class for consistency.
public class Hero {
private float xpos, ypos, width, height, speed;
public Hero(float x, float y, float s, float w, float h) {
xpos = x;
ypos = y;
width = w;
height = h;
speed = s;
}
// Change this method name to draw for consistency with the Enemy class
public void draw() {
// Key press functionality has been moved to the `move` method for consistency
// with the Enemy class.
rect(xpos, ypos, WIDTH, HEIGHT);
}
// This method uses the variables key, keyCoded, UP, DOWN, LEFT, and RIGHT. You
// did not include any import statements with your code, so they may be coming
// from there; however, if they are globals, you should pass them to this method
// as arguments whenever you call it.
public void move() {
// If this condition isn't satisfied, return immediately. This prevents
// unnecessary nesting and work below.
if (key != CODED) {
return;
}
if (keyCode == UP) {
ypos -= speed;
}
// Use `else if` here and below to prevent multiple unnecessary
// comparisons of keyCode.
else if (keyCode == DOWN) {
ypos += speed;
}
else if (keyCode == LEFT) {
xpos -= speed;
}
else if (keyCode == RIGHT) {
xpos += speed;
}
}
public boolean isColliding(Enemy enemy) {
// Collision detection is easy since all of your game entities (the hero and
// the enemies) are all rectangles and axis-aligned (not rotated). You can
// use a method known as "bounding box intersection."
return (Math.abs(enemy.getX() - xpos) * 2 < (enemy.getWidth() + width))
&& (Math.abs(enemy.getY() - ypos) * 2 < (enemy.getHeight() + height));
}
}
For more on bounding box intersection, see this gamedev stackexchange question.
Now that your classes are in order, its time to address your main code. We'll need to update the method names and, as #James T suggested, you should make a list of enemies instead of creating a new independent object for each enemy. This will make it easier for you to add or remove enemies in the future and to be able to process all enemies with one block of code without repeating yourself.
// Use constants to remove magic numbers.
private static final int SCREEN_WIDTH = 900;
private static final int SCREEN_HEIGHT = 800;
private Hero myHero = new Hero(400, 480, 30, 30, 5);
private List<Enemy> enemies = new ArrayList<Enemy>();
void setup() {
size(SCREEN_WIDTH, SCREEN_HEIGHT);
frameRate(30);
smooth();
enemies.add(new Enemy(50, 50, 100, 100, 10));
enemies.add(new Enemy(50, 350, 100, 100, 15));
enemies.add(new Enemy(50, 650, 100, 100, 12));
}
void draw() {
hasCollision = false;
background(0);
// I've changed the order of draw->move to move->draw. If you draw first, then
// move, then detect collisions, it will appear to your user that your hero has
// not yet collided with an enemy even though you act as they have (e.g.: they
// will not see the collision until the next time you draw the scene).
myHero.move();
myHero.draw();
for (Enemy enemy : enemies) {
enemy.move();
enemy.draw(SCREEN_WIDTH);
if (!hasCollision && myHero.isColliding(enemy)) {
hasCollision = true;
}
}
if (hasCollision) {
// Handle enemy collision here
}
}
You'll notice that I've also added accessibility modifiers to everything. While it is technically valid to exclude them and use the defaults, it makes your code more readable to include them because it is more obvious. When you're first starting out, the more obvious the better.

Alright got it to work thanks to all you helpful wonderful people!
I did this:
public boolean isColliding(Enemies h){
float distance = dist(x,y,h.x,h.y);
if(distance<100){
return true;
}else{
return false;
}
}
and in my draw(){ I have
if(myHero.isColliding(myEnemies)){
println("You lost!");
}
I had a very similar 'fix' earlier, but the reason I got an error was because I had Hero h instead of Enemies h in the 'if' function, so it was just a very dumb error that I overlooked :P

Moving Between Two Points Using Mouse

I'm trying to move an object on the click of a mouse while the object remains animated. There are a few similar posts on this website, and I've based my code off this answer:
An efficient algorithm to move ostrichs along a line at a constant speed
But I want to use a thread to keep the object animated. How should I do this? Here's my code:
public void movePlayer(Graphics g, int finalX, int finalY)
{
int length = finalX - xpos;
int height = finalY - ypos;
int oldXpos = xpos;
int oldYpos = ypos;
double speed = 20;
double distanceX = (length)/speed;
double distanceY = (height)/speed;
double distance = (Math.hypot(length,height));
double distanceTraveled = 0;
//This currently doesn't work:
move = new Thread(this);
{
while (distanceTraveled<distance)
{
//move the object by increments
xpos += distanceX;
ypos += distanceY;
distanceTraveled = Math.hypot(xpos-oldXpos, ypos - oldYpos);
drawPlayer(img, g);
for(int x = 0; x < 100000; x ++);
}
}
}

If this is Swing, why not simply use a MouseListener to help you drag the object? If you want to animate separate from the mouse, don't use a while(true) loop unless you want to freeze the event thread. Use a Swing Timer instead. If this isn't Swing, tell us more details (shoot, do this anyway)!