Time-step


Setup

The setup consists of a timestep.collection and a game.collection.

timestep.collection
This is the bootstrap collection specified in game.project. Contains:
  • A Script that handles loading of the game.collection and controls the time-step of game.collection using the set_time_step message.
game.collection
This collection contains a “game” with some animated game objects. Contains:
  • Five animated game objects that are animated using go.animate()
  • A Script that starts the game object animations and lets the user control the time-step through messages sent to the Script in the timestep.collection.

Scripts

controller.script

-- speed of the time in the collection proxy
go.property("speed", 1)

function init(self)
    -- acquire input for this script
    msg.post(".", "acquire_input_focus")
    -- load the collection proxy
    msg.post("#gameproxy", "async_load")
end

function update(self, dt)
    -- update the time step of the proxy each frame since it might be animated
    msg.post("#gameproxy", "set_time_step", { factor = self.speed, mode = 0 })
    label.set_text("#label", tostring(self.speed))
end

function on_message(self, message_id, message, sender)
    if message_id == hash("proxy_loaded") then
        msg.post(sender, "enable")
    elseif message_id == hash("animate_speed") then
        -- cancel any current animation of the speed property
        go.cancel_animations("#", "speed")
        -- start animation of the speed property
        local to = message.to
        local change = math.abs(self.speed - to)
        local rate_of_change = 2
        local duration = change / rate_of_change
        go.animate("#", "speed", go.PLAYBACK_ONCE_FORWARD, to, go.EASING_LINEAR, duration)
    elseif message_id == hash("change_speed") then
        -- cancel any current animation of the speed property
        go.cancel_animations("#", "speed")
        -- make sure speed never goes below 0
        self.speed = math.max(self.speed + message.amount, 0)
    end
end

game.script

function init(self)
    -- get input to this script
    msg.post(".", "acquire_input_focus")

    -- animate some game objects
    go.animate("enemy1", "position.x", go.PLAYBACK_LOOP_PINGPONG, 720, go.EASING_INOUTQUAD, 5, 0)
    go.animate("enemy2", "position.x", go.PLAYBACK_LOOP_PINGPONG, 720, go.EASING_INOUTQUAD, 5, 0.5)
    go.animate("enemy3", "position.x", go.PLAYBACK_LOOP_PINGPONG, 720, go.EASING_INOUTQUAD, 5, 1)
    go.animate("enemy4", "position.x", go.PLAYBACK_LOOP_PINGPONG, 720, go.EASING_INOUTQUAD, 5, 1.5)
end

function on_input(self, action_id, action)
    if action_id == hash("left") then
        msg.post("timestep:/controller", "change_speed", { amount = -0.01 })
    elseif action_id == hash("right") then
        msg.post("timestep:/controller", "change_speed", { amount = 0.01 })
    elseif action_id == hash("action") and action.pressed then
        -- flip self.to between 0 and 3 each time
        self.to = 3 - (self.to or 0)
        msg.post("timestep:/controller", "animate_speed", { to = self.to })
    end
end

If you want to play with these examples, you can get the project on Github.

Do you want to see more examples? Why not write a few yourself and submit a pull request? We love contributions.

GITHUB