12.4 Viewer listeners


Each CPopView has a cCritterViewer *_pviewpointcritter member that is used to set the projection matrix and the view matrix inside the CPopView::OnDraw call. We discuss the details of this process in Chapter 24: Two- and Three-dimensional Graphics. But the basic notion is simple: a view shows the game world as seen from the viewpoint of its _ pviewpointcritter .

The user changes the appearance of the view by moving or rotating the _pviewpointcritter . It's also possible to change the magnification scale, or field of view angle, by making a pviewpointcritter->zoom(zoomfactor) call.

In order to let the user change the viewpoint, the CPopView code can attach a listener to the viewer with a call like _pviewpointcritter->setListener(new cListenerViewerOrtho()) . The cListenerViewerOrtho is one of the three specialized cListener child classes that the Pop Framework provides for use with the viewers . Let's say a few words about the three kinds of viewer listeners.

  • cListenerViewerOrtho is always used as the _pviewpointcritter listener for two-dimensional worlds . This listener reacts to Ctrl+Arrow key combinations to move the _pviewpointcritter back and forth parallel to the XY plane, and it causes the Ins and Del keys to generate zoom calls.

  • Either cListenerViewerFly or cListenerViewerRide are always used as the _pview pointcritter listener for three-dimensional worlds. cListenerViewerFly reacts to the Ctrl+Arrow key combinations to move the _pviewpointcritter along its intrinsic axes, that is along its tangent, normal, and binormal directions. The Ctrl+Shift+Arrow key combinations rotate the _pviewpointcritter around its intrinsic axes, and the Ins and Del keys zoom the viewpoint.

  • cListenerViewerRide is used in three-dimensional worlds to let the viewer 'ride' upon the game's pplayer() . That is, this listener maintains a fixed cVector _offset , keeps the _pviewpointcritter always at this offset from the player's position, and adjusts the _pviewpointcritter attitude to change along with the player's attitude. (Rather than exactly matching the player attitude to look parallel to the player, we have the rider tilt a bit to look at a point slightly ahead of the player.) The Ctrl+Arrow keys can be used to change the viewer's fixed offset from the player.

Here as an example is the cListenerViewerOrtho::listen code.

 void cListenerViewerOrtho::listen(Real dt, cCritter *pcritter)  {      cController *pcontroller = pcritter->pgame()->pcontroller();  // Use the Control + (Arrow keys, Insert or Delete) to translate.      if (pcontroller->keyoncontrol(VK_LEFT))          pcritter->setVelocity(pcritter->maxspeed() * cVector::XAXIS);      if (pcontroller->keyoncontrol(VK_RIGHT))          pcritter->setVelocity(- pcritter->maxspeed() *              cVector::XAXIS);      if (pcontroller->keyoncontrol(VK_DOWN))          pcritter->setVelocity(pcritter->maxspeed() * cVector::YAXIS);      if (pcontroller->keyoncontrol(VK_UP))          pcritter->setVelocity(- pcritter->maxspeed() *              cVector::YAXIS);      if (!pcontroller->keyoncontrol(VK_LEFT) &&          !pcontroller->keyoncontrol(VK_RIGHT) &&          !pcontroller->keyoncontrol(VK_DOWN) &&          !pcontroller->keyoncontrol(VK_UP) )          pcritter->setVelocity(cVector::ZEROVECTOR);  // Use the Insert, Delete keys to zoom.      cCritterViewer *pcritterv = (cCritterViewer*)(pcritter); /* Need          the cast to use zoom      ASSERT(pcritterv); //To make sure the cast didn't fail. */      if (pcontroller->keyon(VK_INSERT))          pcritterv->zoom(cCritterViewer::DEFAULTZOOMFACTOR);      if (pcontroller->keyon(VK_DELETE))          pcritterv->zoom(1.0/cCritterViewer::DEFAULTZOOMFACTOR);  } 

Note that the Ctrl+Left combination moves the _pviewpointcritter to the right, which gives an effect of the visible world moving to the left. Users tend not to think in terms of there being a separate _ pviewpointcritter (and why should they?), so it makes for a better interface to move the visible world in the direction of the arrows.

In most of our games both the player and the _pviewpointcritter will have a listener, and at every full update of the game, each of them gets a chance to 'listen' to the key information in the game's cController object.



Software Engineering and Computer Games
Software Engineering and Computer Games
ISBN: B00406LVDU
EAN: N/A
Year: 2002
Pages: 272

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net