Table of Contents

Corning Community College

CSCS1320 C/C++ Programming

PROJECT: Fun With Games (FWG1)

OBJECTIVE

Using Vircon32 and its DevTools, write code and design graphics assets that creates some sort of sprite that, with the controller (ie cursor keys), lets you move it, and either recognizes the edges of the screen as boundaries, preventing crossing, or wrap-arounds.

Use the text output functions to display the sprite's X and Y coordinates on the screen.

Use a structure to store pertinent information related to the sprites.

EDIT

You will want to go here to edit and fill in the various sections of the document:

FWG1

URLs

Vircon32 API

displaying text
processing textures and regions
displaying a region at location
gamepad

By default Vircon32 uses the keyboard as the gamepad

  • D-Pad: Arrow keys
  • L/R Bumpers: 'Q' and 'W' keys
  • Y/X Buttons: 'A' and 'S' keys
  • B/A Buttons: 'Z' and 'X' keys

To use player inputs you need to include input.h

gamepad_direction provides a simple way to read and store player D-Pad inputs

//Initialize variables used to store player input
int xDirection;
int yDirection;

//The addressof operator is used because the gamepad_direction methods changes the value of its inputs
gamepad_direction(&xDirection, &yDirection);

structures

The Vircon32 c compiler uses different syntax to gcc, and has more limitations placed on structures. For more information see the quick guide

//declare structure
struct exampleStructure
{
    int myVariable;
    int myValue;
};

//declare a variable of type exampleStructure
exampleStrucutre somethingUseful;

//assign values to each property of variable
somethingUseful.myVariable = -30;
somethingUseful.myValue = 99;

bounds checking

Bounds checking is the process of checking to make sure a variable remains bounded by some defined limit. In our case, and as is the case for many games, we want to check to see if the character is going to coordinates off-screen so that we can regain the player's perspective and ensure they can still see the playable character.

To bound check, we can simply view the coordinates of our main player character to determine if they are at coordinates that rest outside of the screen height and width. Here is an example of how one might horizontally check bounds and wrap the player around to the opposite side:

void ourFunction(player* p){
    if(p->position_x > screen_width)
    {
        p->position_x -= screen_width;
    };
}

This assumes that we've passed in a pointer to our player structure that we will call p for this function.

There is also the assumption that there is a member variable of this structure called “position_x” that is the X coordinate of the player as it is rendered on the screen. If we reach the screen_width, which would be the very right of the screen, then we render the player at the lowest x coordinate within our bounds, 0.

 

SUBMISSION

To be successful in this project, the following criteria (or their equivalent) must be met:

Submit Tool Usage

Let's say you have completed work on the project, and are ready to submit, you would do the following:

lab46:~/src/SEMESTER/DESIG/PROJECT$ submit DESIG PROJECT file1 file2 file3 ... fileN

You should get some sort of confirmation indicating successful submission if all went according to plan. If not, check for typos and or locational mismatches.

RUBRIC

I'll be evaluating the project based on the following criteria:

234:fwg1:final tally of results (234/234)
*:fwg1:code, build script, XML, and v32 cartridge submitted [39/39]
*:fwg1:code compiles, cartridge builds with no warning or error [39/39]
*:fwg1:sprite interacts successfully with screen bounds [39/39]
*:fwg1:sprite cleanly moves around the screen with controls [39/39]
*:fwg1:code makes central use of a struct for sprite data [39/39]
*:fwg1:project files tracked in semester repository, cartridge NOT tracked [39/39]

Pertaining to the collaborative authoring of project documentation

Additionally