I have a programming question about C++. I am currently wtiting a space "Shoot-Em-Up" game. It is a 3-person veiw, where you ship is on the bottom of the screen, and the enemies come from the top, i am having a problem with the laser firing. First of all i can get the first laser to fire, thats easy, but i need to get it to fire two lasers at a time. Im thinking i need an array that holds three numbers... laser[lasernumber][x][y]. Somthing like that where the lasernumber would be like 1, if it is the first laser, 2 if it is the second and so on... I dont really know if this would be the way i would want to hold the laser number and assosiate the x and y coordinates to them, if you know of a better way please tell me. Email Me!

I''m assuming you''ll also want the bad guys to fire weapons? Right? So what I''d do is create an array of "shots" so then each time AYNONE fires a weapon it fills in the next available shot in the array specifiying the x and y co-ords and the type of weapon and probably destination x and y co-ords and the speed of the weapon, then in your main game loop you would:
1.)Paint your terrain
2.)Paint all the untis
3.)Paint all the shots

When you paint the shots you simply go through the list and depending on which type of shot it is Blit a different sprite like a missile or bomb or bullet or whatever, now when you get to type laser you simply draw a line (Maybe red?) from the start x and y to the dest x and y and then check for a collision with other ships. Also if you use bullets, and especially if you have anysort of network play, it''s ridiculous to shoot a bullet gun and actually create 100 bullet objects and update them all, so most people consider the whole shot of bullets as one line of bullets, so draw bullets from start x and y to destination x and y and move them along according to the speed variable...
Missile would be similar just move the missile towards it''s destination x and y according to it''s speed variable..
Hope this helps!
See ya,
Ben

Personally, I would use classes, so you have something like:
laser[LaserNum].x and laser[LaserNum].y
It''s not really a good idea to have 3 dimensional arrays.

Martee
Magnum Games
http://MagnumGames.8m.com

That last post put my tag in, but not my name????


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Disco Love For Everyone

You probably put in your username but not password...

Thanks for all your help, but im still confused... i could struct something to hold all the values, but wouldnt it be faster just to make an array?

int move_laser = 0;
int laser[50];
int laser_height = 100;
int i = 0; //number of lasers
int x = 100; //Laser X Value
int y = 100; //Laser Y Value

void movelaser(void);
void main(void);

void main(){
while(1){
blah;
blah;
blah;
blah;

if(move_laser == 1){
while(laser[x] >= 0){
for(a=0;a;a++){ //do it for as many times as there are //lasers
BLT(laser[x], laser[y],bltfast);
laser[x] = laser[x] - 1;
}
}
}
}

void movelaser(){
for(a=0;a;a++){<br> laser[x] = ship_y - 10;<br> laser[y] = ship_x - 50;<br> }<br>move_laser = 1;<br>}<br><br>I was thinking something like that, no thats not my real code, its just a skeleton, but i think im resetting the value of the array too many times, i think i need an array thats like what i desribed the first time laser[#][X][Y] something like that, but im not sure, its not a 3-dimensional array, just one that can hold 2 others besides the first, if this helps any, please feel free to post more, sorry i wasnt very clear the first time… </i> <br><br><a href = "mailto: Wtopace@croswinds.net">Email Me!</a>