Hey there people,

I'm creating a very simple Mario clone for myself and i'm trying to create a smooth movement for Mario, I'm using C++ and SFML for this project,

This is the code I have at the moment

void State::KeyboardEvent(sf::Event event)
{
	if (state == GameStates::GS_Level1)
	{
		if (sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::D))
		{
			//Set move right to true
			Characters.at(0).UpdateMovement(2, 0);
		}
		if (sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::A))
		{
			//Set move left to true
			Characters.at(0).UpdateMovement(-2, 0);
		}
	}
}

This works but not smoothly at all, when the D or A key is pressed down, Mario will move once, then he will continue after about a second delay, it's like holding key down on your keyboard, it will type a letter, but if you keep it held down it will repeat that character, I'm thinking the best way is to maybe set a state, so if A key is pressed set mario state to moving left, and when a is released change the state to stopmoving and once speed is 0 set state to not moving, but i can't really find a good site explaining this and was hoping for some help from your guys,

Any idea on how I should implement this?

I'm guessing you're only getting the "KeyboardEvent" when the repeat key is triggered, which mimics the behavior you've outlined.

Instead, you might just want to check isKeyPressed every update loop. Or, if you must use events, then just set a state with the keyboard pressed event, and then clear that state when the keyboard released event happens.

I'd suggest you just poll every frame, much simpiler, and I guarantee you won't see any decrease in performance.

Well at the moment BeetNutts I have this has my keyboard event handler

Same as above

void State::KeyboardEvent(sf::Event event)
{
	if (state == GameStates::GS_Level1)
	{
		if (sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::D))
		{
			//Set move right to true
			Characters.at(0).moveRight = true;
		}
		else if (sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::A))
		{
			//Set move left to true
			Characters.at(0).moveLeft = true;
		}

		if (!sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::D))
		{
			Characters.at(0).moveRight = false;
		}

		if (!sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::A))
		{
			Characters.at(0).moveLeft = false;
		}
	}
}

Feel free to show code on how to make mine better

and here is my character update method

void CharacterObject::UpdateMovement()
{

	if (moveRight == true || moveLeft == true)
	{
		if (xSpeed < xSpeedMax)
		{
			xSpeed += xIncrease;
		}
	}

	if (moveRight == true)
	{
		xPos += xSpeed;
	}

	if (moveLeft == true)
	{
		xPos -= xSpeed;
	}

	if (moveLeft == false && moveRight == false)
	{
		if (xSpeed > 0)
		{
			std::cout << "X speed : " << xSpeed << std::endl;
			if ((xSpeed - 0.1) > 0)
			{
				xSpeed -= 0.1;
			}
			else
			{
				xSpeed = 0;
			}
		}
		else
		{
			xSpeed = 0;
		}
	}
}

At the moment the out come is pretty good, but the problem I am facing now is if I move right and hit my maxspeed, when I then press left and stop pressing right, I need to slow Mario down and then turn him around, but at the moment Mario just turns around and get's full maxspeed, trying to work out how I can deal with this. But also if i dont have right or left down my character stops moving, but the xSpeed isn't 0 yet

I'm not familiar with SMFL, but, according to some googling, SMFL has a function IsKeyDown. Try using that instead of IsKeyPressed. Depending on your loop speed, you may have to reduce the amount you move the character - it should be proportional to the time between render cycles if that's not a constant delta-time.

Well at the moment BeetNutts I have this has my keyboard event handler

Same as above

void State::KeyboardEvent(sf::Event event)
{
	if (state == GameStates::GS_Level1)
	{
		if (sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::D))
		{
			//Set move right to true
			Characters.at(0).moveRight = true;
		}
		else if (sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::A))
		{
			//Set move left to true
			Characters.at(0).moveLeft = true;
		}

		if (!sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::D))
		{
			Characters.at(0).moveRight = false;
		}

		if (!sf::Keyboard::isKeyPressed(sf::Keyboard::A))
		{
			Characters.at(0).moveLeft = false;
		}
	}
}

Feel free to show code on how to make mine better

and here is my character update method

void CharacterObject::UpdateMovement()
{

	if (moveRight == true || moveLeft == true)
	{
		if (xSpeed < xSpeedMax)
		{
			xSpeed += xIncrease;
		}
	}

	if (moveRight == true)
	{
		xPos += xSpeed;
	}

	if (moveLeft == true)
	{
		xPos -= xSpeed;
	}

	if (moveLeft == false && moveRight == false)
	{
		if (xSpeed > 0)
		{
			std::cout << "X speed : " << xSpeed << std::endl;
			if ((xSpeed - 0.1) > 0)
			{
				xSpeed -= 0.1;
			}
			else
			{
				xSpeed = 0;
			}
		}
		else
		{
			xSpeed = 0;
		}
	}
}

At the moment the out come is pretty good, but the problem I am facing now is if I move right and hit my maxspeed, when I then press left and stop pressing right, I need to slow Mario down and then turn him around, but at the moment Mario just turns around and get's full maxspeed, trying to work out how I can deal with this. But also if i dont have right or left down my character stops moving, but the xSpeed isn't 0 yet

instead of having maxspeed go from 0 - max, let it go from -max to max and "reduce" speed if the left key is down, always add xSpeed to your xPos (if xSpeed is negative it will move left, if it is positive it will move right and if it is 0 it won't move)

something like.

[source]

if (moveLeft) {

xSpeed -= xIncrease;

}

if (moveRight) {

xSpeed += xIncrease;

}

if (!(moveLeft || moveRight)) {

if (abs(xSpeed) > 0.1) {

xSpeed -= xSpeed > 0 ? 0.1 : -0.1;

} else {

xSpeed = 0;

}

}

xPos += xSpeed;

[/source]

Here is a quote from the documentation:

Sometimes, people try to react to KeyPressed events directly to implement smooth movement. Doing so will not produce the expected effect, because when you hold a key you only get a few events (remember, the repeat delay). To achieve smooth movement with events, you must use a boolean that you set on KeyPressed and clear on KeyReleased; you can then move (independently of events) as long as the boolean is set.
The other (easier) solution to produce smooth movement is to use real-time keyboard input with sf::Keyboard (see the dedicated tutorial).

I suggest reading the tutorial first.

http://www.sfml-dev.org/tutorials/2.1/

Edit:: Anyway, in the quote the "Dedicated tutorial is not the one you want, this is what you want to read"

http://www.sfml-dev.org/tutorials/2.1/window-events.php

Thank you for the all the posts guys, I have looked at the my KeyboardEvent method and I have notice I wasn't using the event that is my bad, I have updated my mario to move smoothly now, but the one part I can't get my head around is the new switch statement I'm attempting to implement for my keyboard event

Here is my switch statement so far

		switch (event.type)
		{
			case sf::Event::KeyPressed:
			case sf::Keyboard::D:Characters.at(0).moveRight = true; break;
			case sf::Keyboard::A:Characters.at(0).moveLeft = true; break;
			break;
			case sf::Event::KeyReleased:
			case sf::Keyboard::D:Characters.at(0).moveRight = false; break;
			case sf::Keyboard::A:Characters.at(0).moveLeft = false; break;
			break;
			default:
			break;
		}

I'm getting an error at the second sf::Keyboard::D and sf::Keyboard::A, the error states case label value has already appeared in this switch, how do I get around this? I want to change the a variable if a key is released.

Its ok I have it working now

Here is my switch statement

switch (event.type)
		{
			case sf::Event::KeyPressed:
				if (event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::D)
				{
					Characters.at(0).moveRight = true;
				}
				else if (event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::A)
				{
					Characters.at(0).moveLeft = true;
				}
			break;
			case sf::Event::KeyReleased:
				if (event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::D)
				{
					Characters.at(0).moveRight = false;
				}
				else if (event.key.code == sf::Keyboard::A)
				{
					Characters.at(0).moveLeft = false;
				}
			break;
			default:
			break;
		}

Now at the moment i'm trying to swap the sprite around when Mario is moving left or moving right, this is what I have at the moment

if (leftSpeed > 0)
	{
		sprite.setScale(-1.0, 1.0);
	}

	if (rightSpeed > 0)
	{
		sprite.setScale(1.0, 1.0);
	}

it works fine when moving right, but if I am moving left and then turn right the sprite will turn straight around to the right side, I have tried to change the if statement to be if else if and then it works the other way around, where left is more dominant then right. How do I fix this?