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How to add a logic statement to an object entering a moving area

I am trying to make a game. The object of the game is to move the square across the screen without hitting a raindrop falling from the roof. How do i make it so that if one of the raindrops enters the square, the square returns to the beginning of the canvas or x =0. Here is the code:
var canvas = document.getElementById('game');
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
var WIDTH = 1000;
var HEIGHT = 700;
var x = 0;
var y = HEIGHT-20;
var xPos = [0];
var yPos = [0];
var speed = [1];
var rainDrops = 50;
var rectWidth = 20;
var rectHeight = 20;
for (var i = 0; i < rainDrops; i++) {
xPos.push(Math.random()* WIDTH);
yPos.push(0);
speed.push(Math.random() * 5);
}
function rainFall () {
window.requestAnimationFrame(rainFall);
ctx.clearRect(0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT);
for (var i = 0; i <rainDrops; i++) {
//Rain
ctx.beginPath();
ctx.arc(xPos[i], yPos[i], 3, 0, 2 * Math.PI);
ctx.fillStyle = 'blue';
ctx.fill();
//Rain movement
yPos[i]+=speed[i];
//Box
ctx.fillStyle = 'red';
ctx.fillRect(x, y, rectWidth, rectWidth);
if (yPos[i] > HEIGHT) {
yPos[i]= 0;
yPos[i]+=speed[0];
}
//This is the part where I need the Help!!!!!!!!!
if (){
x = 0;
}
}
};
//Move Object
function move (e) {
if (e.keyCode === 37) {
ctx.clearRect (0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT);
x -=10;
}
if (e.keyCode === 39) {
ctx.clearRect (0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT);
x+=10;
}
canvas.width=canvas.width
}
//Lockl Screen
window.addEventListener("keydown", function(e) {
// Lock arrow keys
if( [37,39,].indexOf(e.keyCode) > -1) {
e.preventDefault();
}
}, false);
rainFall();
document.onkeydown = move;
window.addEventListener("load", doFirst, false);

Conditional statements
I am never too sure how to answer these types of questions. As you are a beginner I don't want to overwhelm you with code and techniques, but at the same time I don't want to give an answer that perpetuates some bad techniques.
The short answer
So first the simple answer from your code where you wrote
//This is the part where I need the Help!!!!!!!!!
// the test checks the center of the drop
// if drop is greater than > top of player (y) and (&&)
// drop x greater than > left side of player x and (&&) drop is less than <
// right side of player (x + rectWidth) then drop has hit player
if (yPos[i] > y && xPos[i] > x && xPos[i] < x + rectWidth ){
x = 0; // move player back
}
BTW you are drawing the player rectangle for each rain drop. You should move that draw function outside the loop.
The long answer
Hopefully I have not made it too confusing and have added plenty of comments about why I did this and that.
To help keep everything organised I separate out the various elements into their own objects. There is the player, rain, and keyboard handler. This is all coordinated via the mainLoop the is called once a frame (by requestAnimationFrame) and calls the various functions to do all that is needed.
The player object holds all the data to do with the player, and functions to draw and update the player (update moves the player)
The rain object holds all the rain in an array called rain.drops it has functions to draw and update the rain. It also has some functions to randomize a drop, and add new drops.
To test if the rain has hit the player I do it in the rain.update function (where I move the rain) I don`t know what you wanted to happen when the rain hits the player so I just reset the rain drop and added 1 to the hit counter.
I first check if the bottom of the rain drop drop.y + drop.radius is greater than the top of the player if(drop.y + drop.radius >= player.y){
This makes it so we dont waste time checking rain that is above the player.
The I test for the rain in the x direction. The easiest is the test the negative (if the rain is not hitting the player) as the logic is a little simplier.
If the right side of the drop is to the left of the left side of the player, or (use || for or) the left side of the drop is to the right of the right side of the player than the drop can not be hitting the player. As we want the reverse condition we wrap it in a brackets a put a not in front if(! ( ... ) )
The test is a little long so I break it into 2 lines for readability.
// drop is a single rain drop player is the player
if (drop.y + drop.radius >= player.y) {
if ( ! (drop.x + drop.radius < player.x ||
drop.x - drop.radius > player.x + player.width) ) {
// code for player hit by rain in here
}
}
The rain.update function also checks if the rain has hit the bottom of the canvas and resets it if so.
Demo
I copied your code from in the question and modified it.
addEventListener("load",function(){ // you had onload at the bottom after all the code that gets the canvas
// etc. Which kind of makes the on load event pointless. Though not needed
// in this example I have put it in how you can use it for a web page.
// Using onload event lets you put the javascript anywhere in the HTML document
// if you dont use onload you must then only put the javascript after
// the page elements you need eg Canvas.
var canvas = document.getElementById('gameCanvas');
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');
ctx.font = "20px arial";
var frameCount = 0; // counts the frames
var WIDTH = canvas.width;
var HEIGHT = canvas.height;
var currentMaxDrops = 5; // rain will increase over time
const numberFramesPerRainIncrease = 60 * 5; // long name says it all. 60 frames is one second.
const maxRainDrops = 150; // max number of rain drops
// set up keyboard handler
addEventListener("keydown", keyEvent);
addEventListener("keyup", keyEvent);
requestAnimationFrame(mainLoop); // request the first frame of the animation (get it all going)
//==========================================================================================
// Setup the keyboard input stuff
const keys = { // list of keyboard keys to listen to by name.
ArrowLeft : false,
ArrowRight : false,
}
function keyEvent(event){ // the key event argument event.code hold the named key.
if(keys[event.code] !== undefined){ // is this a key we want
event.preventDefault(); // prevent default browser action
keys[event.code] = event.type === "keydown"; // true if keydown false if not
}
}
//==========================================================================================
const player = { // object for everything to do with the player
x : 0, // position
y : HEIGHT - 20,
width : 20, // size
height : 20,
speed : 4, // speed per frame
color : "red",
showHit : 0, // when this is > 0 then draw the player blue to indicate a hit.
// This counter is counted down each frame so setting its value
// determins how long to flash the blue
hitCount : 0, // a count of the number of drops that hit the player.
status(){ // uses hit count to get a status string
if(player.hitCount === 0){
return "Dry as a bone.";
}
if(player.hitCount < 5){
return "A little damp.";
}
if(player.hitCount < 15){
return "Starting to get wet.";
}
return "Soaked to the core";
},
draw(){ // draw the player
if(player.showHit > 0){
player.showHit -= 1; // count down show hit
ctx.fillStyle = "blue";
}else{
ctx.fillStyle = player.color;
}
ctx.fillRect(player.x,player.y,player.width,player.height);
},
update(){ // this updates anything to do with the player
// Not sure how you wanted movement. You had it so that you move only when key down events
// so I have done the same
if(keys.ArrowLeft){
player.x -= player.speed; // move to the left
keys.ArrowLeft = false; // turn off the key. If you remove this line then will move left while
// the key is down and stop when the key is up.
if(player.x < 0){ // is the player on or past left side of canvas
player.x = 0; // move player back to zero.
}
}
if(keys.ArrowRight){
player.x += player.speed; // move to the right
keys.ArrowRight = false; // turn off the key. If you remove this line then will move right while
// the key is down and stop when the key is up.
if(player.x + player.width >= WIDTH){ // is the player on or past right side of canvas
player.x = WIDTH - player.width; // move player back to inside the canvas.
}
}
}
}
//==========================================================================================
const rain = { // object to hold everything about rain
numberRainDrops : 50,
drops : [], // an array of rain drops.
randomizeDrop(drop){ // sets a drop to random position etc.
drop.x = Math.random() * WIDTH; // random pos on canvas
drop.y = -10; // move of screen a little so we dont see it just appear
drop.radius = Math.random() *3 + 1; // give the drops a little random size
drop.speed = Math.random() * 4 + 1; // and some speed Dont want 0 speed so add 1
return drop;
},
createDrop(){ // function to create a rain drop and add it to the array of drops
if(rain.drops.length < currentMaxDrops){ // only add if count is below max
rain.drops.push(rain.randomizeDrop({})); // create and push a drop. {} creates an empty object that the function
// randomizeDrop will fill with the starting pos of the drop.
rain.numberRainDrops = rain.drops.length;
}
},
draw(){ // draw all the rain
ctx.beginPath(); // start a new path
ctx.fillStyle = 'blue'; // set the colour
for(var i = 0; i < rain.drops.length; i ++){
var drop = rain.drops[i]; // get the indexed drop
ctx.arc(drop.x, drop.y, drop.radius, 0, 2 * Math.PI);
ctx.closePath(); // stops the drops rendered as one shape
}
ctx.fill(); // now draw all the drops.
},
update(){
for(var i = 0; i < rain.drops.length; i ++){
var drop = rain.drops[i]; // get the indexed drop
drop.y += drop.speed; // move down a bit.
if(drop.y + drop.radius >= player.y){ // is this drop at or below player height
// checks if the drop is to the left or right of the player
// as we want to know if the player is hit we use ! (not)
// Thus the next if statement is if rain is not to the left or to the right then
// it must be on the player.
if(!(drop.x + drop.radius < player.x || // is the rigth side of the drop left of the players left side
drop.x - drop.radius > player.x + player.width)){
// rain has hit the player.
player.hitCount += 1;
player.showHit += 5;
rain.randomizeDrop(drop); // reset this drop.
}
}
if(drop.y > HEIGHT + drop.radius){ // is it off the screen ?
rain.randomizeDrop(drop); // restart the drop
}
}
}
}
function mainLoop () { // main animation loop
requestAnimationFrame(mainLoop); // request next frame (don`t need to specify window as it is the default object)
ctx.clearRect(0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT);
frameCount += 1; // count the frames
// when the remainder of frame count and long name var is 0 increase rain drop count
if(frameCount % numberFramesPerRainIncrease === 0){
if(currentMaxDrops < maxRainDrops){
currentMaxDrops += 1;
}
}
rain.createDrop(); // a new drop (if possible) per frame
rain.update(); // move the rain and checks if the player is hit
player.update(); // moves the player if keys are down and check if play hits the side of the canvas
player.draw(); // draw player
rain.draw(); // draw rain after player so its on top.
ctx.fillStyle = "black";
ctx.fillText("Hit " + player.hitCount + " times.",5,20);
ctx.setTransform(0.75,0,0,0.75,5,34); // makes status font 3/4 size and set position to 5 34 so I dont have to work out where to draw the smaller font
ctx.fillText(player.status(),0,0); // the transform set the position so text is just drawn at 0,0
ctx.setTransform(1,0,0,1,0,0); // reset the transform to the default so all other rendering is not effected
};
});
canvas {
border : 2px black solid;
}
<canvas id="gameCanvas" width=512 height=200></canvas>
Hope this was helpfull.

Algorithm to find space for an object within a 2d area

I'm building a website which uses jQuery to allow users to add widgets to a page, drag them around and resize them (the page is fixed width and infinite height.) The issue that I'm having is that when adding a new widget to the page I have to find a free space for it (the widgets cannot overlap and I'd like to favour spaces at the top of the page.)
I've been looking at various packing algorithms and none of them seem to be suitable. The reason why is that they are designed for packing all of the objects in to the container, this means that all of the previous rectangles are laid out in a uniform way. They often line up an edge of the rectangle so that they form rows/columns, this simplifies working out what will fit where in the next row/column. When the user can move/resize widgets at will these algorithms don't work well.
I thought that I had a partial solution but after writing some pseudo code in here I’ve realized that it won’t work. A brute force based approach would work, but I'd prefer something more efficient if possible. Can anyone suggest a suitable algorithm? Is it a packing algorithm that I'm looking for or would something else work better?
Thanks

Ok, I've worked out a solution. I didn't like the idea of a brute force based approach because I thought it would be inefficient, what I realized though is if you can look at which existing widgets are in the way of placing the widget then you can skip large portions of the grid.
Here is an example: (the widget being placed is 20x20 and page width is 100px in this example.)
This diagram is 0.1 scale and got messed up so I've had to add an extra column
*123456789A*
1+---+ +--+1
2| | | |2
3| | +--+3
4| | 4
5+---+ 5
*123456789A*
We attempt to place a widget at 0x0 but it doesn't fit because there is a 50x50 widget at that coordinate.
So we then advance the current x coordinate being scanned to 51 and check again.
We then find a 40x30 widget at 0x61.
So we then advance the x coordinate to 90 but this doesn't leave enough room for the widget being placed so we increment the y coordinate and reset x back to 0.
We know from the previous attempts that the widgets on the previous line are at least 30px high so we increase the y coordinate to 31.
We encounter the same 50x50 widget at 0x31.
So we increase x to 51 and find that we can place a widget at 51x31
Here is the javascript:
function findSpace(width, height) {
var $ul = $('.snap-layout>ul');
var widthOfContainer = $ul.width();
var heightOfContainer = $ul.height();
var $lis = $ul.children('.setup-widget'); // The li is on the page and we dont want it to collide with itself
for (var y = 0; y < heightOfContainer - height + 1; y++) {
var heightOfShortestInRow = 1;
for (var x = 0; x < widthOfContainer - width + 1; x++) {
console.log(x + '/' + y);
var pos = { 'left': x, 'top': y };
var $collider = $(isOverlapping($lis, pos, width, height));
if ($collider.length == 0) {
// Found a space
return pos;
}
var colliderPos = $collider.position();
// We have collided with something, there is no point testing the points within this widget so lets skip them
var newX = colliderPos.left + $collider.width() - 1; // -1 to account for the ++ in the for loop
x = newX > x ? newX : x; // Make sure that we are not some how going backwards and looping forever
var colliderBottom = colliderPos.top + $collider.height();
if (heightOfShortestInRow == 1 || colliderBottom - y < heightOfShortestInRow) {
heightOfShortestInRow = colliderBottom - y; // This isn't actually the height its just the distance from y to the bottom of the widget, y is normally at the top of the widget tho
}
}
y += heightOfShortestInRow - 1;
}
//TODO: Add the widget to the bottom
}
Here is the longer and more less elegant version that also adjusts the height of the container (I've just hacked it together for now but will clean it up later and edit)
function findSpace(width, height,
yStart, avoidIds // These are used if the function calls itself - see bellow
) {
var $ul = $('.snap-layout>ul');
var widthOfContainer = $ul.width();
var heightOfContainer = $ul.height();
var $lis = $ul.children('.setup-widget'); // The li is on the page and we dont want it to collide with itself
var bottomOfShortestInRow;
var idOfShortestInRow;
for (var y = yStart ? yStart : 0; y <= heightOfContainer - height + 1; y++) {
var heightOfShortestInRow = 1;
for (var x = 0; x <= widthOfContainer - width + 1; x++) {
console.log(x + '/' + y);
var pos = { 'left': x, 'top': y };
var $collider = $(isOverlapping($lis, pos, width, height));
if ($collider.length == 0) {
// Found a space
return pos;
}
var colliderPos = $collider.position();
// We have collided with something, there is no point testing the points within this widget so lets skip them
var newX = colliderPos.left + $collider.width() - 1; // -1 to account for the ++ in the for loop
x = newX > x ? newX : x; // Make sure that we are not some how going backwards and looping forever
colliderBottom = colliderPos.top + $collider.height();
if (heightOfShortestInRow == 1 || colliderBottom - y < heightOfShortestInRow) {
heightOfShortestInRow = colliderBottom - y; // This isn't actually the height its just the distance from y to the bottom of the widget, y is normally at the top of the widget tho
var widgetId = $collider.attr('data-widget-id');
if (!avoidIds || !$.inArray(widgetId, avoidIds)) { // If this is true then we are calling ourselves and we used this as the shortest widget before and it didnt work
bottomOfShortestInRow = colliderBottom;
idOfShortestInRow = widgetId;
}
}
}
y += heightOfShortestInRow - 1;
}
if (!yStart) {
// No space was found so create some
var idsToAvoid = [];
for (var attempts = 0; attempts < widthOfContainer; attempts++) { // As a worse case scenario we have lots of 1px wide colliders
idsToAvoid.push(idOfShortestInRow);
heightOfContainer = $ul.height();
var maxAvailableRoom = heightOfContainer - bottomOfShortestInRow;
var extraHeightRequired = height - maxAvailableRoom;
if (extraHeightRequired < 0) { extraHeightRequired = 0;}
$ul.height(heightOfContainer + extraHeightRequired);
var result = findSpace(width, height, bottomOfShortestInRow, idsToAvoid);
if (result.top) {
// Found a space
return result;
}
// Got a different collider so lets try that next time
bottomOfShortestInRow = result.bottom;
idOfShortestInRow = result.id;
if (!bottomOfShortestInRow) {
// If this is undefined then its broken (because the widgets are bigger then their contianer which is hardcoded atm and resets on f5)
break;
}
}
debugger;
// Something has gone wrong so we just stick it on the bottom left
$ul.height($ul.height() + height);
return { 'left': 0, 'top': $ul.height() - height };
} else {
// The function is calling itself and we shouldnt recurse any further, just return the data required to continue searching
return { 'bottom': bottomOfShortestInRow, 'id': idOfShortestInRow };
}
}
function isOverlapping($obsticles, tAxis, width, height) {
var t_x, t_y;
if (typeof (width) == 'undefined') {
// Existing element passed in
var $target = $(tAxis);
tAxis = $target.position();
t_x = [tAxis.left, tAxis.left + $target.outerWidth()];
t_y = [tAxis.top, tAxis.top + $target.outerHeight()];
} else {
// Coordinates and dimensions passed in
t_x = [tAxis.left, tAxis.left + width];
t_y = [tAxis.top, tAxis.top + height];
}
var overlap = false;
$obsticles.each(function () {
var $this = $(this);
var thisPos = $this.position();
var i_x = [thisPos.left, thisPos.left + $this.outerWidth()]
var i_y = [thisPos.top, thisPos.top + $this.outerHeight()];
if (t_x[0] < i_x[1] && t_x[1] > i_x[0] &&
t_y[0] < i_y[1] && t_y[1] > i_y[0]) {
overlap = this;
return false;
}
});
return overlap;
}

How do I determine a movable area in game squares

I'm building a turn based HTML game based on a 2D square grid. Each grid square could take a variable number of movement points to cross (IE: 1 MP for roads, 1.5 MP for grasslands, 2 MP for forests, etc). When the user clicks on a unit I want to determine all possible movable spaces with said unit's allotted movement points so that I can highlight them and make them clickable.
Is there a free library available to do this? I've seen a few pathing algorithms but nothing about determining movable area. How do other game developers handle this problem? I'm open to both vanilla JS and JQuery solutions.

Well, I decided to try and attack this myself. I've never been great at these sorts of algorithms so I'm sure there's a more efficient way to handle it than what I've done. However, for my purposes it runs quickly enough and is very simple and easy to understand.
In case it's helpful to anyone else looking to do the same, I've included the code below. This is an updated version of my original answer, which I modified to also store the path taken so that you can show the units moving through the correct spaces. This answer uses JQuery in the lower examples, but only in a few places; you can easily enough replace them with vanilla JS. And the first block of code, containing the actual path/area finding functionality, is pure JS.
<script>
var possibleMovementAreaArray = new Array(); // This array will hold our allowable movement tiles. Your other functions can access this after running possibleMovementArea().
function possibleMovementArea(unitIndex) {
// I'm storing each unit in my game in an array. So I pass in the index of the unit I want to determine the movement area for.
var x = unitList[unitIndex][10]; // x coordinate on the playgrid
var y = unitList[unitIndex][11]; // y coordinate on the playgrid
var mp = unitList[unitIndex][15]; // number of movement points
possibleMovementAreaArray.length = 0; // Clear our array so previous runs don't interfere.
findPossibleMovement(x, y, mp);
}
function findPossibleMovement(x, y, mp, prevStepX, prevStepY) {
// This is a recursive function; something I'm not normally too good at.
for (var d=1; d<=4; d++) {
// We run through each of the four cardinal directions. Bump this to 8 and add 4 more cases to include corners.
if (d == 1) {
// Check Up
var newX = x;
var newY = y - 1;
} else if (d == 2) {
// Check Down
var newX = x;
var newY = y + 1;
} else if (d == 3) {
// Check Left
var newX = x - 1;
var newY = y;
} else if (d == 4) {
// Check Right
var newX = x + 1;
var newY = y;
}
// Check to see if this square is occupied by another unit. Two units cannot occupy the same space.
spaceOccupied = false;
for (var j=1; j<=numUnits; j++) {
if (unitList[j][10] == newX && unitList[j][11] == newY)
spaceOccupied = true;
}
if (!spaceOccupied) {
// Modify this for loop as needed for your usage. I have a 2D array called mainMap that holds the ID of a type of terrain for each tile.
// I then have an array called terList that holds all the details for each type of terrain, such as movement points needed to get past.
// This for loop is just looking up the ID of the terrain for use later. Sort of like a "SELECT * FROM terrainInfo WHERE ID=terrainOfCurrentTile".
for (var j=1; j<=numTerrains; j++) {
if (newX > 0 && newX <= mapWidth && newY > 0 && newY <= mapHeight && terList[j][1] == mainMap[newX][newY])
break; // After finding the index of terList break out of the loop so j represents the correct index.
}
if (j <= numTerrains) { // Run if an actual terrain is found. No terrain is found if the search runs off the sides of the map.
var newMp = mp - terList[j][7]; // Decrement the movement points for this particular path.
if (newMp >= 0) { // Only continue if there were enough movement points to move to this square.
// Check to see if this square is already logged. For both efficiency and simplicity we only want each square logged once.
var newIndex = possibleMovementAreaArray.length
var alreadyLogged = false
if (possibleMovementAreaArray.length > 0) {
for (var j=0; j<possibleMovementAreaArray.length; j++) {
if (possibleMovementAreaArray[j][1] == newX && possibleMovementAreaArray[j][2] == newY) {
alreadyLogged = true;
var alreadyLoggedIndex = j;
}
}
}
if (!alreadyLogged) {
// This adds a row to the array and records the x and y coordinates of this tile as movable
possibleMovementAreaArray[newIndex] = new Array(6);
possibleMovementAreaArray[newIndex][1] = newX;
possibleMovementAreaArray[newIndex][2] = newY;
possibleMovementAreaArray[newIndex][3] = prevStepX; // This tracks the x coords of the steps taken so far to get here.
possibleMovementAreaArray[newIndex][4] = prevStepY; // This tracks the y coords of the steps taken so far to get here.
possibleMovementAreaArray[newIndex][5] = newMp; // Records remaining MP after the previous steps have been taken.
}
if (alreadyLogged && newMp > possibleMovementAreaArray[alreadyLoggedIndex][5]) {
// If this tile was already logged, but there was less MP remaining on that attempt, then this one is more efficient. Update the old path with this one.
possibleMovementAreaArray[alreadyLoggedIndex][3] = prevStepX;
possibleMovementAreaArray[alreadyLoggedIndex][4] = prevStepY;
possibleMovementAreaArray[alreadyLoggedIndex][5] = newMp;
}
if (newMp > 0) {
// Now update the list of previous steps to include this tile. This list will be passed along to the next call of this function, thus building a path.
if (prevStepX == '') {
var newPrevStepX = [newX];
var newPrevStepY = [newY];
} else {
// This code is required to make a full copy of the array holding the existing list of steps. If you use a simple equals then you just create a reference and
// subsequent calls are all updating the same array which creates a chaotic mess. This way we store a separate array for each possible path.
var newPrevStepX = prevStepX.slice();
newPrevStepX.push(newX);
var newPrevStepY = prevStepY.slice();
newPrevStepY.push(newY);
}
// If there are still movement points remaining, check and see where we could move next.
findPossibleMovement(newX, newY, newMp, newPrevStepX, newPrevStepY);
}
}
}
}
}
}
</script>
After running the above, you can then loop through the array to find all usable tiles. Here is how I did it:
<script>
// Shows the movement area based on the currently selected unit.
function showMovement() {
var newHTML = "";
curAction = "move";
possibleMovementArea(curUnit); // See above code
for (x=0; x<possibleMovementAreaArray.length; x++) {
// Loop over the array and do something with each tile. In this case I'm creating an overlay that I'll fade in and out.
var tileLeft = (possibleMovementAreaArray[x][1] - 1) * mapTileSize; // Figure out where to absolutely position this tile.
var tileTop = (possibleMovementAreaArray[x][2] - 1) * mapTileSize; // Figure out where to absolutely position this tile.
newHTML = newHTML + "<img id='path_" + possibleMovementAreaArray[x][1] + "_" + possibleMovementAreaArray[x][2] + "' onClick='mapClk(" + possibleMovementAreaArray[x][1] + ", " + possibleMovementAreaArray[x][2] + ", 0);' src='imgs/path.png' class='mapTile' style='left:" + tileLeft + "px; top:" + tileTop + "px;'>";
}
$("#movementDiv").html(newHTML); // Add all those images into a preexisting div.
$("#movementDiv").css("opacity", "0.5"); // Fade the div to 50%
$("#movementDiv").show(); // Make the div visible.
startFading(); // Run a routine to fade the div in and out.
}
</script>
Since we determined the path, we can easily show movement as well by looping through the stored information:
<script>
for (j=0; j<possibleMovementAreaArray[areaIndex][3].length; j++) {
// This loop moves the unit img to each tile on its way to its destination. The final destination tile is not included.
var animSpeed = 150; // Time in ms that it takes to move each square.
var animEase = "linear"; // We want movement to remain a constant speed through each square in this case.
var targetLeft = (possibleMovementAreaArray[areaIndex][3][j]-1) * mapTileSize; // This looks at each step in the path array and multiplies it by tile size to determine the new horizonal position.
var targetTop = (possibleMovementAreaArray[areaIndex][4][j]-1) * mapTileSize; // This looks at each step in the path array and multiplies it by tile size to determine the new vertical position.
$("#char_"+curUnit).animate({"left":targetLeft, "top":targetTop}, animSpeed, animEase); // Do the animation. Subsequent animations get queued.
}
// Now we need to move to that last tile.
newLeft = (x-1) * mapTileSize;
newTop = (y-1) * mapTileSize;
$("#char_"+curUnit).animate({"left":newLeft, "top":newTop}, 400, "easeOutCubic"); // Slow unit at the end of journey for aesthetic purposes.
$("#char_"+curUnit).addClass("unitMoved", 250); // Turns the image grayscale so it can easily be seen that it has already moved.
</script>
Hopefully this is helpful to others.

Javascript/HTML5 - Trying to make a simple game AI

My concept is rather simple. Animate an image one way, then make it come back.
var xPos = 10;
function main(){
window.requestAnimationFrame(main);
var canvas = document.getElementById("myCanvas");
var c = canvas.getContext("2d");
//Initialize images
var img = new Image();
img.src = "goomba.png";
c.clearRect(0,0,500,500);
c.drawImage(img,xPos,10);
//increment coordinates
if(xPos <= 250){
xPos+=2;
}
else if(xPos >= 250){
xPos-=2;
}
}
window.requestAnimationFrame(main);
I already know what the problem is with my code. When the xPos goes over 250, then the second if statement becomes true. However, once it goes below 250, the first if becomes true again.
So I know what the problem is, I just dont know how to fix it. Any help is appreciated!

Have a velocity variable (positive is right, negative is left, amplitude is number of pixels to change each loop):
var xVelocity = 2;
And use it to determine what to add to the xPos each loop:
xPos += xVelocity;
Then set it based on xVelocity and xPos so that the image will "bounce":
if(xVelocity > 0){
if(xPos > 250){
xVelocity = -2;
}
} else {
if(xPos < 10){
xVelocity = 2;
}
}

http://jsbin.com/uweyam/1/edit
is this what you want? Or do you want to stop it at the left edge?
UPD.: You can also make it bounce like this - http://jsbin.com/uweyam/4/edit

Determining the dimensions of an image drawn on a canvas and when the mouse is over the image

I've got an animation on my canvas where I have some images (drawn using drawImage()). For the sake of simplicity, let's say there's only two images. These images are following a circular path in faux-3d space such that sometimes one image overlaps the other and other times the second image overlaps the first. These images are also scaled as they move "closer" or "further" from the viewer.
Each of these images is an object with the following (simplified) code:
function slide_object() {
this.x = 0.0; // x = position along path (in radians)
this.xpos = 0.0; // x position on canvas
this.ypos = 0.0; // y position on canvas
this.scale = 0.0;
this.name = ""; // a string to be displayed when slide is moused over
this.imgx = 0.0; // width of original image
this.imgy = 0.0; // height of original image
this.init = function (abspath, startx, name) { // startx = path offset (in radians)
this.name = name;
this.x = (startx % (Math.PI * 2));
var slide_image = new Image();
slide_image.src = abspath;
this.img = slide_image;
calcObjPositions(0, this); // calculate's the image's position, then draws it
};
this.getDims = function () { // called by calcObjPositions when animation is started
this.imgx = this.img.width / 2;
this.imgy = this.img.height / 2;
}
}
Each of these objects is stored in an array called slides.
In order to overlap the images appropriately, the drawObjs function first sorts the slides array in order of slides[i].scale from smallest to largest, then draws the images starting with slides[0].
On $(document).ready() I run an init function that, among other things, adds an event listener to the canvas:
canvas = document.getElementById(canvas_id);
canvas.addEventListener('mousemove', mouse_handler, false);
The purpose of this handler is to determine where the mouse is and whether the mouse is over one of the slides (which will modify a <div> on the page via jQuery).
Here's my problem -- I'm trying to figure out how to determine which slide the mouse is over at any given time. Essentially, I need code to fill in the following logic (most likely in the mouse_handler() function):
// if (mouse is over a slide) {
// slideName = get .name of moused-over slide;
// } else {
// slideName = "";
// }
// $("#slideName").html(slideName);
Any thoughts?

Looks like I just needed some sleep before I could figure this one out.
I've got everything I need to determine the size of the image and it's placement on the canvas.
I added the following function to my slide_object:
this.getBounds = function () {
var bounds = new Array();
bounds[0] = Math.ceil(this.xpos); // xmin
bounds[1] = bounds[0] + Math.ceil(this.imgx * this.scale); // xmax
bounds[2] = Math.ceil(this.ypos); // ymin
bounds[3] = bounds[2] + Math.ceil(this.imgy * this.scale); // ymax
return bounds;
};
Then in my mouse_handler function, I get the index of the currently moused-over slide from a function I call isWithinBounds() which takes a mouse x and mouse y position:
function isWithinBounds(mx,my) {
var index = -1;
for ( var i in slides ) {
bounds = slides[i].getBounds();
if ((mx >= bounds[0] && mx <= bounds[1]) && (my >= bounds[2] && my <= bounds[3])) {
index = i;
}
}
return index;
}
Since slides is sorted in order of scale, smallest to largest, each iteration will either replace or preserve the value of index. If there's more than one image occupying a space, the top-most slide's index gets returned.
The only problem now is to figure out how to make the code more efficient. Chrome runs the animation without any lag. Firefox has some and I haven't even thought about implementing excanvas.js yet for IE users. For browsers lacking canvas support, the canvas object is simply hidden with display:none.