Predicting Collisions - Page 4

In the previous page, I started explaining the code. Let's pick up where we left of with the drawpath code.

numTargets = initial_targets.length;

numPaths = initial_paths.length;

final_paths = [];

final_targets = [];

I first declare and initialize four variables. The first two variables store a number representing the number of items in our initial_targets and initial_paths arrays. The next two variables refer to arrays, and I initialize them with brackets representing an empty set.

for (m=0; m<numTargets; m++) {

cirA = initial_targets[m];

for (j=0; j<numPaths; j++) {

cirB = initial_paths[j];

if (eval(cirA).hitTest(eval(cirB))) {

if (contains(final_targets, cirA) != 1) {

final_targets.push(cirA);

}

if (contains(final_paths, cirB) != 1) {

final_paths.push(cirB);

}

}

}

}

This large section of code should look familiar to you if you have already taken a look at Page 2 of the Multiple Object Collision Detection tutorial. There is one major difference between our code and the code used in that other tutorial, though, and I will be covering that difference in detail here. I strongly suggest you look and understand how the code works in the above underlined link. It will better help you to appreciate the subtle change in the code for this tutorial.

In our multiple object collision code, the initial value condition of our inner for loop was j = m + 1 where m was the index variable for the outer for loop. That would work great if you are checking for collisions among a handful of the same objects. In our case, we are not checking for collisions among our target movie clips. Instead, we check collisions among two different sets of objects. We are checking for a collision among our target movie clips and among our circle path movie clips. The names of those movie clips are are stored in our initial_targets and initial_paths arrays.

Our earlier code would have worked only if we are checking for a collision among either only movie clips referenced in our initial_targets array or our initial_paths array. Since we are combining our collisions to work among both sets of movie clips stored in both arrays, our shortcut method will not work. We have to scan through the full range of movie clips for both arrays.

if (contains(final_targets, cirA) != 1) {

final_targets.push(cirA);

}

I created a separate function called contains that very closely resembles the indexOf function. indexOf searches through an array containing string values. If a specified search term is found within the array, the indexOf function returns the position the string appears in.

In my function, you are not limited to only searching for strings. You can search for numbers, objects, etc. The variable cirA and cirB store a  movie clip name from our initial_targets and initial_paths arrays, so I search our final_targets array to see if cirA is one of the values it contains. If that particular value is not contained in our array, I add the movie clip reference from cirA to our final_targets array by using the push command.

The reason I do that is to avoid duplicate references to the same movie clip stored in our final_targets array. In the future if the same value is found, the contains function will return a 1, thus making sure that the particular value of cirA will not be added again to our final_targets array.

if (contains(final_paths, cirB) != 1) {

final_paths.push(cirB);

}

This is the same as the above section of code I explained. The only difference is that I check for a collision with objects in our final_paths array and add those collided objects to our array while, at the same time, ignoring duplicates.

moveAway();

Finally, I call a function called moveAway. It is the last thing that our collisionDetect function executes. The moveAway function moves any squares that collide with your path circles. This function ensures that your main circle movie clip has a clear target out.

Onwards to the next page where I discuss the moveAway function. You are almost done!

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