E's Lua Dev Thread

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jman420

its flexible, it uses a timer for the time that the button is pressed, therefor, as long as the button is pressed, it will count up untill it is told to reset

it works just fine :D

and the multiple if statements dont slow down the usability, the if statements are just there for when the assigned is done...

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You misunderstood. Here is the code for your animation:

Quote:

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if timerL >= 10 then characterL = playerL2 end

-- change when numbers are hit --

if timerL >= 20 then characterL = playerL3 end

if timerL >= 30 then characterL = playerL4 end

if timerL >= 40 then characterL = playerL5 end

-- change when less then 10 --

if timerL <= 10 then characterL = playerL end

-- other animation directions --

if timerR == 50 then timerR = 0 end
if timerR <= 10 then characterR = playerR end
if timerR >= 10 then characterR = playerR2 end
if timerR >= 20 then characterL = playerR3 end
if timerR >= 30 then characterL = playerR4 end
if timerR >= 40 then characterL = playerR5 end

if timerD == 20 then timerD = 0 end
if timerD <= 10 then characterD = playerD end
if timerD >= 10 then characterD = playerD2 end
if timerD >= 20 then characterL = playerD3 end
if timerD >= 30 then characterL = playerD4 end
if timerD >= 40 then characterL = playerD5 end

if timerU == 20 then timerU = 0 end
if timerU <= 10 then characterU = playerU
if timerU >= 10 then characterU = playerU2 end
if timerU >= 20 then characterL = playerU3 end
if timerU >= 30 then characterL = playerU4 end
if timerU >= 40 then characterL = playerU5 end

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Without changing the animation control code (above), how would an extra attack animation that is 3 times long fit in? More if statements? Bad design move.

Currently you have 24 if statements running each loop, that is 24 branches of code and it WILL slow down the framerate (at least it does on complied languages). Now considering that this section of code is just for the player graphic, what happens when we have 20 NPCs on the screen at the same time? Taking the current coding method it would be 20 x 24 more if statements ran each frame. Not good for framerate.

The usability is fine, the performence is what worries me.

There are two ways to improve it:

move to elseif:

if timerD == 50 then
timerD = 0
elseif timerD <= 10 then
characterD = playerD
elseif timerD <= 20 then
characterD = playerD2
elseif timerD <= 30 then
characterD = playerD3
elseif timerD <= 40 then
characterD = playerD4
else
characterD = playerD5
end

(which improves the number of tests) or of course make it use tables:

earlier (after images are loaded, but before the main while loop):

playerDframe={playerD,playerD2,playerD3,playerD4,p layerD5}

then instead of the list of ifs/elseifs:

if timerD == 50 then timerD = 0 end
characterD = playerDframe[math.floor(timer/10)]

Edit: fixed cut and paste errors.

I would have done the latter as there would only be two tests per frame per object. One for the time passed and another to reset the current frame in the table if it reaches the last frame.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yaustar

I would have done the latter as there would only be two tests per frame per object. One for the time passed and another to reset the current frame in the table if it reaches the last frame.

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And as an added bonus, there is less chance of cut and paste errors. Just fixed two more from my example.

wait, did you copy that exactly? because yeah, thats realy messed up, I didnt mean to move the frame direction changes around..


Edit:
Yeah, that code was realy Funky, the directions werent supposed to change, so I modified it and made all the directions correct... I should have checked it before I posted it eh? :p