Move and shoot at the same time

ID:1482791
 
Jan 27 2014, 6:57 pm
(See the best response by Ter13.)
Hey I want to somehow make it so in my game a player can shoot and move at the same time. Right now if they are holding a directional key down, then begin holding the shoot key down at the same time, the movement macro stops and the shoot macro takes over. Then if while still holding the shoot key, they begin also holding a directional key, of course the shoot key will stop activating and they begin moving instead.

I need them to be able to do both at once. Can anyone give me information on how to do this? I want it so if people are holding a directional key and the shoot key at the same time, both macros are doing their thing simultaneously.

Can anyone tell me how this is done?

Hopefully this will also allow me to figure out how to have players move diagonally if they hold for example NORTH and EAST macros at the same time to move NORTHEAST.
Jan 27 2014, 7:47 pm
Keep a list of held keys, and loop through and execute actions for those keys each tick.

Add the keys to the list when they are pressed, and remove them when they are released.
Jan 27 2014, 8:00 pm
Makes sense thanks
Jan 27 2014, 8:10 pm
Best response
http://www.byond.com/developer/Ter13/InputHandler

Take a look at the forum for that library. I include examples of how I implemented a very basic space shooter control scheme using InputHandler.

You can do something very similar.
Jan 27 2014, 10:17 pm (Edited on Jan 27 2014, 10:32 pm)
Ok I will try that out.

But also, could anyone explain to me why my custom code below still cancels out the movement if I press my shoot macro? The code is very simple

mob/var/tmp
    north
    south
    east
    west
    move_looping //prevent move_loop() from being able to double loop

//called from interface
mob/verb/KeyDown(d as text)
    set hidden=1
    switch(d)
        if("north") north=1
        if("south") south=1
        if("east") east=1
        if("west") west=1
    move_loop()

//called from interface
mob/verb/KeyUp(d as text)
    set hidden=1
    switch(d)
        if("north") north=0
        if("south") south=0
        if("west") west=0
        if("east") east=0
    src<<"KeyUp() [d]"

//just calculate and return the direction of movement by which keys are being held down
mob/proc/move_dir()
    if(north)
        if(east) return NORTHEAST
        if(west) return NORTHWEST
        return NORTH
    if(south)
        if(east) return SOUTHEAST
        if(west) return SOUTHWEST
        return SOUTH
    if(east) return EAST
    if(west) return WEST

//actually move the character while they are holding any movement keys
mob/proc/move_loop()
    if(move_looping) return //don't let this run again because it is already running
    move_looping=1
    sleep(1)
    while(north||south||east||west)
        step(src,move_dir())
        sleep(1)
    move_looping=0

As you can see I have some debug text that tells me when KeyUp() is called.

Well, when I press the Shoot macro, it says KeyUp() is called even though I haven't released that arrow key. So then when I do actually release it, KeyUp() is called -again-.

So for every KeyDown() event KeyUp() could be called twice if you pressed another macro before actually releasing the arrow key.

The good news is that it does let me move diagonally by simply holding the UP+LEFT arrow keys and so on.
Jan 27 2014, 11:54 pm
Can I see your macro setup? I haven't had this problem with my approach.
Jan 27 2014, 11:59 pm
http://i41.tinypic.com/2hdo9kn.jpg

Ignore the "D" macro that is for something else

Not only is it sometimes producing more key up events than it does key down events, but sometimes key up events will be inexplicably lost as well when you do certain other things. But that is for another thread I suppose.

It would seem that BYOND would need the number of key up events to be EXACTLY the same as the number of key down events once a person completely removes their hands from the keyboard, or the system would be completely borked. Some people's games rely on "what goes down must come up" if you know what I mean.
Jan 28 2014, 12:03 am (Edited on Jan 28 2014, 12:11 am)
Okay, do me a favor and adjust your firing macro to use a similar approach to your movement keys.

In other words, rather than using +REP, use a key-up/key-down pair. I have the feeling that the +REP bit reports a keyup when it shouldn't be. This appears to be a BYOND bug, which might be best reported as well, if this turns out to be the case.

I myself, have found a handful of bugs that were quickly fixed with BYOND's key-handling. Pop a solid report in, and I'm sure Lummox can take a look and have it fixed relatively soon. (We have a new beta coming out tomorrow)
Jan 28 2014, 12:20 am (Edited on Jan 28 2014, 12:30 am)
Now that I did what you said and changed the shoot macro from +REP to a key down/up system to begin/end shooting, it works.

So you must be right.

I don't like to post more than 1 problem per thread but, there is another problem:
1) hold right arrow key. you are now moving right as expected.
2) begin holding up arrow key as well. you are now moving northeast as expected
3) release right arrow key, continue holding up arrow key. you are now moving north as expected.
4) begin holding left arrow key while still holding north arrow key. you are now INCORRECTLY moving NORTH, when you should be moving northwest.

The fact that you began to hold the left arrow key doesn't seem to register.

I have this demo prepared if you would like to try it out: http://www.mediafire.com/download/11ls4lxqb9r81rl/Demo.zip

It doesn't have the adjusted firing macros though.

I will try out your library and hope that fixes the problems. But too tired to implement it right now.
Jan 28 2014, 1:36 am
I don't have the advertised secondary problem with your demo.

I do, however, have the shooting problem.
Jan 28 2014, 1:39 am
I would advise against using +REP, its not stable or reliable in my tests. It will also function differently on each client because it uses the windows setting for repeat-delay per keyboard.
Jan 28 2014, 1:40 am
Alright, quick update here, I found the problem, and have determined that both issues are not actually bugs.

You are losing KeyUp events due to the procs/verbs not being marked as instant.

By default, only one verb can be called from a keybind per tick. Since your system presumes that multiple binds will be active per tick, you need to ensure that the excess commands are called properly by ensuring that the functions are all set to instant.

Check out proc/verb settings in the reference for more information.
Jan 28 2014, 1:47 am (Edited on Jan 28 2014, 3:03 am)
Wow thanks that makes perfect sense. It seems to work.

Problem: In the demo I can shoot and move northeast or southeast at the same time just fine, but if I try to move northwest or southwest while shooting, it doesn't work.

That has to be a BYOND problem right? Because it can't be a problem with my keyboard since I use up+left and down+left arrow all the time in every 3d game I play and it works there.

An engine such as Unity3d has an input system that solves all of these problems and more, I'm not sure why BYOND's leaves so much to be desired.
Jan 28 2014, 1:48 am
In response to Tens of DU
Tens of DU wrote:
Wow thanks that makes perfect sense. I don't have time to test if it solves the problems right now but it sounds probable to me.

Already did that for you. Seems to solve the problems on my end.
Jan 28 2014, 3:12 am
In response to Tens of DU
Tens of DU wrote:
Wow thanks that makes perfect sense. It seems to work.

Problem: In the demo I can shoot and move northeast or southeast at the same time just fine, but if I try to move northwest or southwest while shooting, it doesn't work.

That has to be a BYOND problem right? Because it can't be a problem with my keyboard since I use up+left and down+left arrow all the time in every 3d game I play and it works there.

An engine such as Unity3d has an input system that solves all of these problems and more, I'm not sure why BYOND's leaves so much to be desired.

In the interface's macro editor I switched it so that left arrow goes right and right arrow goes left. Yet the problem still only happens with the left arrow combined with north or south, same as before. Right arrow combined with north or south works fine, same as before too. I'm not sure what this means. Is it BYOND's macro handling?
Jan 28 2014, 3:30 am
For example spamming all of the movement keys repeatedly and then after stopping you continue to move for another few seconds.

Once beta 1229 comes out, this can be fixed by the developer. Until then, part of what you are noticing is command queueing and network delay.
Jan 28 2014, 3:32 am
Is the whole "+REP causes every other held down macro to register their 'key up' event even though the player is still holding that key down" thing still considered a BYOND bug that needs reported?
Jan 28 2014, 3:52 am
Tested your demo again, found no reason to think that KeyUp is being triggered incorrectly when +REP actions are called.

My initial feeling was led by what you were reporting, output-wise, and on my machine, I'm not seeing the extra KeyUp outputs.