How to limit an object's movement to a bounding box, smoothly

[Antikris•]

If anyone finds an effective way to produce this for a moving screen, please tell. My creations with this all rely on the cursor to bounce back off the walls, otherwise you could simply just leave the cursor behind as you move away.

I made bouncing behavior before as well and it left me really unsatisfied, hence the focus on "smooth" in the title of my post.

The blocks that making the bounding box in my tutorial can be glued together and moved. You can either move them by logic or glue them to another base object that moves - like the camel in the Story Mode shooter level.

I also did a tutorial about this.

Great video! Keep on sharing.

[SSTAGG1]

I made bouncing behavior before as well and it left me really unsatisfied, hence the focus on "smooth" in the title of my post.

The blocks that making the bounding box in my tutorial can be glued together and moved. You can either move them by logic or glue them to another base object that moves - like the camel in the Story Mode shooter level.

I meant just for a moving box I had the bouncing. I've produced several of the border versions myself (my level menu test even has it).

My question is how exactly would you get the cursor to move in step with the moving frame. It can be done for views that move at constant speed, but ineffective for variable AFAIK.

[Rogar]

My question is how exactly would you get the cursor to move in step with the moving frame. It can be done for views that move at constant speed, but ineffective for variable AFAIK.

The frame could transmit the current speed through a tag (one for up-down speed, one for left-right), the cursor can pick it up and split the positive (right) or negative (left) component of the speed tag sensor signal. In stead of turning off the movement when colliding, you set the speed to the speed of the frame with a microchip as a relay.

For example, when the frame moves right, the frame sends speed 3 through the Left-Right tag. If you hit the left border, you want to use the positive component of that tag (3) to move right, and if you hit the right border you want the negative component of the tag (-0).

Actually, that's not quite right either. If you hit the left border, you want to use the Left-Right tag speed if the player's speed is less, and if you hit the right border you want to use the Left-Right if the player's speed is greater. Yeah, that sounds about right. Helps thinking backwards.

So uhm, you can take it from here?

[L78948]

Hmmmm I followed all the instructions but its still going through it.... obviously I have done something wrong :/

[Mr_Fusion•]

If anyone finds an effective way to produce this for a moving screen, please tell. My creations with this all rely on the cursor to bounce back off the walls, otherwise you could simply just leave the cursor behind as you move away.

Using a physical means like a string to restrict movement works for this, but an completely logic based method would be nice.

I was checking out something that Evret was messing with in his create mode, the rig was... Impressive to say the least.

He actually had to explain what it did... couldn't really understand HOW it did it.

The cursor can be moved with R Stick and stays in the 'same' spot relative to sackboy, and is limited to how far away it can go.

Still digesting how it works, but it's not up to me to share it, he didn't say top secret, but I don't think its 100% ready.

But, It did inspire me to have a crack at it... well sort of.

In the (scrapped) 2 player version of my stage Miserable Flying Weather, I actually use something to this .

Player 2 can zoom around a screen on a hover board but needed to grab a rope on the DeLorean controlled by player 1. When grabbing a rope attached to Player 1, they lost all control until they let go. Their position stayed the same distance from P1 and if P1 moved they moved with them.

I'll see if I can re-purpose it to be a cursor. In it's current build I'm pretty sure it'll work, but the only thing it won't do is respond to pressing jump. It also relies on using a sackbot.

If I get it working; I'll give it a stupid name and share it.

Hmmmm I followed all the instructions but its still going through it.... obviously I have done something wrong :/

Jump onto scorpskull's video next and grab my example to play with.

[SSTAGG1]

I was checking out something that Evret was messing with in his create mode, the rig was... Impressive to say the least.

He actually had to explain what it did... couldn't really understand HOW it did it.

The cursor can be moved with R Stick and stays in the 'same' spot relative to sackboy, and is limited to how far away it can go.

Still digesting how it works, but it's not up to me to share it, he didn't say top secret, but I don't think its 100% ready.

But, It did inspire me to have a crack at it... well sort of.

In the (scrapped) 2 player version of my stage Miserable Flying Weather, I actually use something to this .

Player 2 can zoom around a screen on a hover board but needed to grab a rope on the DeLorean controlled by player 1. When grabbing a rope attached to Player 1, they lost all control until they let go. Their position stayed the same distance from P1 and if P1 moved they moved with them.

I'll see if I can re-purpose it to be a cursor. In it's current build I'm pretty sure it'll work, but the only thing it won't do is respond to pressing jump. It also relies on using a sackbot.

If I get it working; I'll give it a stupid name and share it.


Jump onto scorpskull's video next and grab my example to play with.

LOOOOOOOL. Seriously, lol. Yesterday, I was going to make a post explaining this exact thing, based on evret's positional movement design and everything! I thought I'd go ahead and make it look nice before I posted it, but wow, what a coincidence.

Have you made a nice design for it. All that needs to be done is set up the location based on distance from each tag. This would be done in a stationary box, the same size as the one that will be moving. The cursor in the moving screen would then change position in relation to where you move the cursor in the stationary screen.

It 'should' work perfectly, at least for what I would need it for.

I should also point out that the string setup is probably the best option. By just attaching a string to the center of the screen and the cursor/etc, you make very effective limiting system for how simple it is. I use this for my Mercenaries game (although that's really only relevant to whoever has seen it ).

[evret]

lol, yeah i used a modified (again :P) version of the positioning system to make the cursor move relative to a sackbot, got all the kinks worked out too (after a lot of cussing)
it would be easy to make it move relative to a screen or any other object too.

[pivottt]

I didn't get all what you guys are talking about, but good luck with your logic.
For your knowledge, AND takes the lowest signal, OR takes the biggest. NOT makes 100% minus signal, so a NAND would take 100 - lowest and NOR 100 - biggest. I'm not sure about how to use XOR and XNOR, but in english speaking, XOR : if and only if one is on /// XNOR : all or nothing.

With some logic and AND gates or OR gates (lol) you can test which signal is the biggest. That's how I made my thank :
Use a piece of logic that outputs the 1st output 100% if Left-right is "bigger" than Up-down. Note the use of " " around bigger, because -2 is bigger than 1 in this system. "Most far from 0" is the correct name for my logic. It outputs from the 2nd output if U-D is bigger than L-R. I place a node on a chip and make the L-R signal go through it before reaching the logic made just like the one in the first post. I do the same with the U-D. With this, if I press more up (or down) than I press left (or right), I will go up (or down) and so on. In english, it means I deleted diagonal movement, but it is still analog!

[Mr_Fusion•]

got all the kinks worked out too (after a lot of cussing)

Not to mention me distracting you, like I knew how to help. Also, no offence to your system but it looked sooooo LBP1

But I can't really talk... I'm still trying to rebuild that staircase thingy you showed me so I can begin to understand the madness!

I should stress to Evret that what I have is very different to you and I'm not trying to reverse engineer your efforts. When you showed me your rig I just started wondering if I had somehow stumbled on to a solution when making something for an entirely different purpose.

Last night I pulled apart what I already mentioned and repurposed it and it looks so much cooler than Evret's. It doesn't work. But it looks great.

Well, it kind of works. It works for a flying DeLorean, and a variable moving screen but doesn't work all that well when a sackboy is introduced as the point to follow!

[Mr_Fusion•]

So I have the first version on the Mr. Cursorator up and running.

Staying away from sackbots and the like it works well. I could see it being quiet useful for an RTS or similar top down game and it is essentially two cursors overlaid. One controls the camera zone (with bounding box edges) the other controls the select cursor.

The select cursor moves independently, but also in step with the view. It works and it works well...

The next part of it is to have it respond to the edge of the screen. So if you push the cursor to the edge of the screen and keep pushing it will scroll the screen. This bit does sort of work but at the moment the cursor judders when it transitions to camera control.

EDIT: As I type this I realise that after an hour of playing, this may be a little silly in terms of logic. If you want the cursor to do this you could just make a floating cursor that has camera tracking and do away with the bounding box all together... so not sure if it is useful to have scrolling after a pause... thoughts?

Also without tipping my hand too much I think that I have a half hatched scheme to make a select box that you can click and drag... but it requires a better understanding of positional movers that lock to only one axis.

[Antikris•]

EDIT: As I type this I realise that after an hour of playing, this may be a little silly in terms of logic. If you want the cursor to do this you could just make a floating cursor that has camera tracking and do away with the bounding box all together... so not sure if it is useful to have scrolling after a pause... thoughts?

It is actually very useful to stop the scrolling. Especially in an RTS things can become very hectic and having the screen move with the cursor at all times is not a good thing, IMO.

Also without tipping my hand too much I think that I have a half hatched scheme to make a select box that you can click and drag... but it requires a better understanding of positional movers that lock to only one axis.

Not sure if you already can, but try and see if you can include Move support when it comes out. Keep it flexible.

[evret]

Not to mention me distracting you, like I knew how to help. Also, no offence to your system but it looked sooooo LBP1

it only looks lbp1 while in create mode, in play or preview all you see is the cursor and sack bot.
the only issue with using positional movers is it can cause massive visual issues with online lag

Also without tipping my hand too much I think that I have a half hatched scheme to make a select box that you can click and drag... but it requires a better understanding of positional movers that lock to only one axis.

i've seen a very good drag select box done b4, however i cant really talk about it in this forum :P
it can b done in retail though coz it doesnt need any tools i cant talk about......lol

[SSTAGG1]

the only issue with using positional movers is it can cause massive visual issues with online lag

Lol, it sure does. That was likely due to being on opposite sides of the world though.

Also, bah, keep your secrets .

[Mr_Fusion•]

@Evret

It was funny seeing something so advanced using string and pistons.

It really highlighted to me that my default to use holo and follower logic may not always be the best place to start when creating logic, LBP 1 tools are still valid.

And if you are suggesting that I shouldn't move on making a select box the maybe I should just polish off what I have and share it. To be honest it's not that amazing. I thought that somebody would have already made this setup. So I just need to make sure that mine is cooler but has a stupider name.

[evret]

nah there's nothing wrong with making your own, i know how to do one myself (i didn't see how the other was done) but i just havnt had the need, nor had a request for one so i havnt bothered