Game Maker Help Thread (Post your Qs here!)

Originally Posted by dislekcia

Of course, it pretty much does what RedNax did manually. Although I'd recommend using a pointer to the object the healthbar is monitoring instead of a global variable: targetObj.health instead of global.health, then all you do is set targetObj to the id of the object the healthbar should track.

Thanx for that Dislekcia. And so the learning experience continues! =D

[Cyberninja]

Originally Posted by dislekcia

No worries, and I really don't mind directing people where to look in the helpfile, something that big and detailed takes a while to get to grips with. In general it's more about approach and implementation of what you want to get done than knowing some nifty command or algorithm. -D

Yep! So true. I have to say though, I'm really impressed with Game Maker's capabilities. I honestly didn't think that one could create a professional looking game in this program. But it has really suprised me over this past month. I really love this program. :-)

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by Cyberninja

Yep! So true. I have to say though, I'm really impressed with Game Maker's capabilities. I honestly didn't think that one could create a professional looking game in this program. But it has really suprised me over this past month. I really love this program. :-)

Don't worry, everyone comes around eventually ;) Now all I need to do is get GM on TV.

-D

[Gazza_N]

This is quite a nasty one, but here goes!

Is there any way to create dynamic collision masks in Game Maker? I'm working with a complex object for which I want precise collision checking, but this involves having a different collision sprite for each step in its rotation, as well as masks for moving components (large turrets). Rather than manually creating 360+ bitmaps, is there any way that I can create and assign the mask dynamically?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[dislekcia]

Is this registered or unregistered?

Unregistered I'd simply use a bunch of invisible collision only objects tied to the complex object, each repositioning itself according to current rotation and animation data. Any collision with one of those "shadow collision" objects would be a collision normally.

Actually, re-reading your description, why can't you simply use precise collision checking on the object and each turret? Precise will always check against the current frame, transparency and all. Then all you do is have the collision event set a flag variable that you check in your step (or end-step) event on the main object. Easy.

If I misread you and there's some other reason why you can't simply spread the collision across multiple tester objects and you're using registered GM, then you could draw the object to a surface and create a sprite from that surface and assign it as a mask/sprite to the core object each frame, although it would probably be a tad inefficient.

-D

[Gazza_N]

Registered.

Thanks Dis. I'll try drawing to an offscreen surface (first time I work with them). Fortunately I'm only looking at tracking two main components at the moment, so I doubt there'll be any major slowdowns. As for precisely why I need to do it this way... Well, hopefully you'll be seeing soon enough ;).

[Vexo]

ok i have a weird problem.
I want to create the basic ground for my game.
So i made it in Photoshop.
http://www.pixilive.com/viewbig.php?...7/Untitled.jpg
Then i made a Sprite and a object but when i create a room and want to place my ground i does this.
http://www.pixilive.com/viewbig.php?...Untdfitled.jpg
some weird green stuff above.
Please help

[Gazza_N]

EDIT: Never mind. Better answer given by ninja master in next post ;). "Advice" removed to protect innocents from harm.

[dislekcia]

Vexo, that's happening because you're leaving an area transparent in the image when you save it. JPG doesn't support transparency, so it's using any old colour there, that's where the green is coming from.

In GM you can make a sprite have a transparent colour by checking the "Transparent" box in the sprite's properties. That will treat the colour in the bottom left pixel as transparent and not draw it at all... Be warned though, this is only that EXACT colour! Anything else will appear, so I suggest using bmp as your format for now, it doesn't compress colours at all. Otherwise use tga, which saves transparency information that GM can load.

-D

[Vexo]

ok tanx allot.
My master piece continues 1 step at a time :)

Uhh, its me again =P

How do I get GM to check whether there is no object relative to my object's current position? I might just be messing up with my if statements here so I'm just wondering. Do I use Check Object?

EDIT: Nvm that, I got it =)

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by RedNax

EDIT: Nvm that, I got it =)

Grats! Now you can answer that question when someone else asks it :)

-D

[Gazza_N]

Dynamic surface-drawn mask failed, sadly, because I'm working in 3D. 3D mode doesn't support surfaces without me turning it on and off all the time. Looks like I'll just have to stick to my functional but inelegant collision cylinder.

[dislekcia]

What's wrong with turning it on and off? Technically all that's doing is setting up a different projection/view matrix combo, which isn't exactly an expensive operation... Provided you do it during a step and not a draw cycle, you should be happypants.

-D

[Gazza_N]

It... er... seemed inefficient.

Please don't hurt me?

[dislekcia]

Originally Posted by Gazza_N

It... er... seemed inefficient. Please don't hurt me?

Alright, I won't... For now...

-D

P.S. Most modern games have several render-mode/context switches per frame. Essentially all you're doing is setting up the graphics card with slightly different values for the next stream of vertices it gets squirted. See it as a tool waiting to be used, not a heavy mode-dependant dinosaur ;)

[CiNiMoDZA]

Hmm, stupid problem! Trying to make a timer, this is what I've got:

Create:
time = 0

Alarm 0:
time +=1

Step:
Set alarm 0 to 2

Draw:
draw_text(10, 10, time)

Im not getting any errors, but all my text is saying is 0? Dont know what to do!!!
Please help!!!

Thanks guys!!!

[cairnswm]

Create

Time = 0

Step
Time +=1

Draw
draw_text(10,10,time)

(That should give you a count of 30 per second)

[cairnswm]

Create

StartTime = current_time;

Draw

draw_text(10,10,(current_time-StartTime)/1000);

Shows you for how many seconds the game has been running.

[dislekcia]

cairnswm is made of win.

Also, the reason your alarm was never firing is because you were constantly setting it to 2 frames every frame... It would decrease to 1 frame and then get set back to 2 all the time.

-D