Rope/whip

[Andrew Davie]

Here's a first pass at some code to use the particle system for a rope object. Or a whip. Or an electical arc. Whatever. Basically grouping the particles together with a few parameters to adjust the position between each. Looks quite interesting.

[Andrew Davie]

V2 of rope. Nice!

[Andrew Davie]

A study in rope dynamics; the propogation of kinks in the rope is now blended, which makes it look a bit less like water pouring out of a hose, and more like an actual rope. What's interesting here is how everyting looks super-blocky and clunky when it's running slow, but the eye smooths it all out into fluid movement and "higher resolution" when it's full-speed. It's good now; I should move onto something else.

[Andrew Davie]

See https://woodgrain.taswegian.com/ for updates to this project.

Although I have a limited number of particles (in terms of storage for their x/y positions), I do have greater capacity as far as drawing goes. I can draw more particles than I have memory for, in other words.

This is one example of particle re-use; here I am multiplexing the coordinates to get mirrored particles. It's a neat effect.  The up/down movement is correctly tied to the player movement; the left/right has issues so that's why it's glitchy when I move to the side.

It's really neat visually. I don't know if/how I could use it in gameplay.

[Andrew Davie]

There are a number of things I can tweak with the "physics" of the "rope" object, including inertia ad rotation characteristics. They end up affecting how the visuals look as it whips around.

In this version I've slowed down the propogation so it's a much gentler, smoother movement. I've also added some experimental gameplay items; the very tip of each rope will change a geodoge into a rock, and back again. And if there's a blank sapce, the tip will leave a dust "sparkle".  It's very interesting.

[Andrew Davie]

Using the "rope tool" - first example of actual tool use via tool icon/menu...

Here's a sequence where the "rope" might be used as a tool. In this case we start up in a world full of boulders. Yes, you can pick-axe each boulder but it takes ages. However, if you double-click, then the tool menu comes up (the circle icon) and if you select that then your rope tool is enabled. As the rope(s) spin around, when the tips hit a rock, the rock changes to a geodoge. If they hit a geodoge, it changes to a dogecoin.  So the "rope tool" is a pretty cool transmogrifier which gives you dogecoin where there were apparently none, and it's a great way to clear out an area to blanks.  Double-click again, and your tool menu comes up and you can disable the tool, as shown a few times in the video.

[Andrew Davie]

Stress-testing the rope. Here with 124 elelments. Not much useful for anything, but clearly the system is capable of handling this many particles.

[Bomberman94]

Great effects - we see (let's say) ideas for at least 3 games on the screen.