Tank Game: Movement Question
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So I've been experimenting with programming a game in pure C/Win32. At first I wasn't sure what kind of game to make, but I've since decided to make a top-down tank game. Right now I'm at the stage where I'm ready to implement a basic sort of tile map, which will require a distinction between world coordinates and screen coordinates. This leads to my question.
I'm not sure which way would be better to handle the movement of the player's tank: always keep it centered on the screen (i.e. in the window), or simply keep it viewable on the screen. If I go with the former, I'll scroll the map whenever the player moves; with the latter, I'll only need to scroll it when the player would go "invisible" otherwise. A potential drawback with the latter approach is that the player could get killed at the edge of the map's "viewport" by something he can't see.
What do the rest of you think? How do existing tank games handle this?
You need to be able to view enough in front of you to cover your firing range and then some.
If your tanks can only fire short distances, then you can put your tank in the center of the screen. If combat is longer range, you can put the camera in front of the turret. Compared to the first method, you will lose a constant point a reference for your position and the player may get dizzy, but that allows you to create longer range battles without making everything tiny.
A fixed screen method would combine disadvantages of both methods. You lose your constant point of reference and you do not allow for longer range battles.
If your tanks can only fire short distances, then you can put your tank in the center of the screen. If combat is longer range, you can put the camera in front of the turret. Compared to the first method, you will lose a constant point a reference for your position and the player may get dizzy, but that allows you to create longer range battles without making everything tiny.
A fixed screen method would combine disadvantages of both methods. You lose your constant point of reference and you do not allow for longer range battles.
I generally like the viewport to smoothly and continuously track the player (e.g. travel 50% of the distance between the player and the center of the screen every second).
You can try to center screen at tankx+speedx*k, tanky+speedy*k so more of the screen shows area you are moving toward.
What about centering on a point a bit forward of the turret's view so that you see something like 2/3 of the screen real estate ahead and 1/3 behind. I'm not sure if that'd look wonky rotating, but it might give you a feeling of vulnerability to the rear, which would be consistent in terms of right feel.
Alternately if you expect to be attacked from all directions and there's no such thing as hind quarters vulnerability then I think it's best to put the tank in the center. This suggests an action game maybe a bit akin to bullet hell type games. (But of course if you wanted more tactical variety you could not allow shooting while moving, or give shooting a long cool down time, which would be fine even if you're in the center of the screen).
Alternately if you expect to be attacked from all directions and there's no such thing as hind quarters vulnerability then I think it's best to put the tank in the center. This suggests an action game maybe a bit akin to bullet hell type games. (But of course if you wanted more tactical variety you could not allow shooting while moving, or give shooting a long cool down time, which would be fine even if you're in the center of the screen).
I would recommend doing something like Wavinator suggests. I did something like this for a game that I'm working on and it works quite well.
The way I did it, your view direction is controlled by the mouse, so if your mouse is in bottom left corner, you are looking towards bottom left. The trick is that the screen positions itself such that it is halfway between the cursor and the player. This means that the player ends up being opposite the cursor on the screen. I find this nice because you can concentrate on what is close to you, or move the mouse way out to look far (only one screen). I was worried about dizziness or awkwardness when i came up with the idea, but it is actually quite nice and natural.
So the math of it would be get the distance from centre of screen to mouse, add that to player position, and then position the screen centred at that point. screencentreworld = playerworld + (mousescreen - screenmiddle)
I hope this gives you some good ideas, Good luck!
The way I did it, your view direction is controlled by the mouse, so if your mouse is in bottom left corner, you are looking towards bottom left. The trick is that the screen positions itself such that it is halfway between the cursor and the player. This means that the player ends up being opposite the cursor on the screen. I find this nice because you can concentrate on what is close to you, or move the mouse way out to look far (only one screen). I was worried about dizziness or awkwardness when i came up with the idea, but it is actually quite nice and natural.
So the math of it would be get the distance from centre of screen to mouse, add that to player position, and then position the screen centred at that point. screencentreworld = playerworld + (mousescreen - screenmiddle)
I hope this gives you some good ideas, Good luck!
For the game I made in grad school we picked a camera that is fixed to the tank, keeping it in the center of the screen. ASWD to move and the mouse to aim.
http://curiositystudios.net/games/tankfrenzy/
http://curiositystudios.net/games/tankfrenzy/
Author
Thanks guys!
After downloading and trying out WinBolo (it's free), I decided that I'll handle movement basically the same way it does. The screen will follow the player's tank and try to keep it in the center, unless it reaches an edge of the map. Otherwise, the player can scroll the map to look around, but only as far as the tank stays on the screen.
By the way, RaydenUni, that game looks awesome! Great work!
After downloading and trying out WinBolo (it's free), I decided that I'll handle movement basically the same way it does. The screen will follow the player's tank and try to keep it in the center, unless it reaches an edge of the map. Otherwise, the player can scroll the map to look around, but only as far as the tank stays on the screen.
By the way, RaydenUni, that game looks awesome! Great work!
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