Making a character flicker alpha to 0 then 100

[the--flash]

Hey thar,

I'm making a Super Mario Bros-like game, and when you get hit, you get 3 seconds of "invincible" time until you become vulnerable again. During these 3 seconds, I want to make my character flicker to 0 alpha and then to 100 (to show he's still invincible), but I can't think of how to do it effeciantly. I want to put this in a function that is called every frame...I thought maybe using getTimer() and checking if it's even or odd, but I don't think you can do that in Flash.

Can anyone lend some input?

Thanks in advance,
the--flash.

[jasonpeinko]

you could use set interval or something

flicker=false;

function flicker()
{
if(flicker)
{
player._alpha=0;
}else
{
player._alpha=100;
}
flicker=!flicker;
}

[renderhjs]

or

function flicker()
    player._visible = !player._visible;
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker; 

[WesIsGood]

function flicker()
    player._alpha = -player._alpha+100;
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker; 

[jasonpeinko]

Even simpler,

depending on your fps either way would look pretty bad.

What you could try is easing the value so that it is smoother.

flick=1;
function flicker()
{
	if(flick==1)
	{
		player._alpha+=(0-player._alpha)/2;
		if(player._alpha<=2)
		{
			flick=0;
		}
	}else{
		player._alpha+=(100-player._alpha)/2;
		if(player._alpha>=98)
		{
			flick=1;
		}
	}
}
this.onEnterFrame=flicker;

[/code]
}

[WesIsGood]

function flicker()
    player._alpha = 50 + 50*Math.cos(getTimer()/100);
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker; 

[iopred]

function flicker()
    player._alpha = (player._alpha == 100?0:100);
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker; 

[the--flash]

Seems like a popular topic.

Thanks for all the replies, I'll try a couple out and see which works best.

EDIT:Aight, went with the _visible one, since I do like simple solutions. It's only 24FPS, and it's a Mario game so I wanted to do it like the old flicker. Thanks again.

[Captain_404]

Aight, went with the _visible one

DANGIT! I knew I should have set the _visible property of my post to true!


Nobody ever picks the !visible ones...

[renderhjs]

this is fun, another one:

function flicker() 
    player._alpha = getTimer()%100; 
} 
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker; 

[iopred]

function flicker()
player._alpha = random(100);
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker;

could look pretty

[WesIsGood]

function flicker()
    player._alpha = 2*Math.abs(getTimer()%100-50);
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker; 

[renderhjs]

just to prove that there is yet another way

setInterval( function(){ player._visible=!player._visible }, 200 ); 

[WesIsGood]

alphaArray = new Array;
alphaArray[0] = 100;
alphaArray[100] = 0;
function flicker()
    player._alpha = alphaArray[player._alpha];
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker; 

[WesIsGood]

alphaArray = new Array;
alphaArray[0] = 20;
alphaArray[20] = 40;
alphaArray[40] = 60;
alphaArray[60] = 80;
alphaArray[80] = 100;
alphaArray[100] = 90;
alphaArray[90] = 70;
alphaArray[70] = 50;
alphaArray[50] = 30;
alphaArray[30] = 10;
alphaArray[10] = 0;
function flicker()
    player._alpha = alphaArray[player._alpha];
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker; 

[WesIsGood]

function flicker() {
    player._alpha ^= 100;
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker; 

I like this one

[renderhjs]

nice one,
smaler array version:

function flicker(){
    player._visible = [1,0][int(player._visible)];
}
_root.onEnterFrame = flicker;