General Game Code Q's

During my time coding games with AS i have needed to know i few things that i havent been able to find out my self, i was just hoping some other people have.

Running a function untill it returns what i want.

Code:

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function Random() {
ran = random(10)
return ran
}
Random()
if (ran > 3) {
// Do Somthing
} else {
// Run this function again
}

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Is it possable to do this? Without running a huge loop and hope it returns what i want eventualy?

Whats faster running 1 loop of 10 or 2 loops of 5? Is there no difference?

Can flash draw squares faster than circles as vectors?

The larger the bitmap the longer flash takes to load it to screen is this the same with vectors?

First off, that's some very bad programming - your function returns something, yet you access the variable that's been used in the function. Pretty messy. Your function should use var to declare a global scope variable. Or better yet, don't create a variable and just return the value directly.
To run the function until some condition is met, just do something like this :

Code:

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function myRandom() {
        return random(10);
}
var r:Number=myRandom();
while (r <= 3) {
        r=myRandom();
}

---

Quote:

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Whats faster running 1 loop of 10 or 2 loops of 5? Is there no difference?

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Not sure, there's probably not much difference, but I'd guess 1 loop would be faster.

Quote:

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The larger the bitmap the longer flash takes to load it to screen is this the same with vectors?

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Probably, but I'd say for vectors the most important part is the complexity, not the size.

"Whats faster running 1 loop of 10 or 2 loops of 5? Is there no difference?"

One loop will always be quicker. Loop unrolling will speed the process up even more ( For more on that look at the optimisation thread, think I wrote about it on the first couple of pages ).

Squize.

To do what you show in your code example i use this:

Code:

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_root.looping = setInterval(_root.runcheck, 20); // Change the 20 to higher or lower

function runcheck(){

  if (ran > 3) {
      clearInterval(_root.looping); // Stops the call to the function being made
    // call whatever you need after the number is right
  }

}

---

This will stop flash from crashing saying its in a bad loop.

Its just a way of keep calling a function to check if its right, if its right, it stops calling it. But you can set how often its checked, so it doesnt crash.


About this:

The larger the bitmap the longer flash takes to load it to screen is this the same with vectors?

I dont think it works with "size" with vectors. A really small image, could have loads of points, but a really large one might only have 2. So i think it just depends on the complexity of your vector image.

cheers.

Quote:

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First off, that's some very bad programming - your function returns something, yet you access the variable that's been used in the function. Pretty messy. Your function should use var to declare a global scope variable.

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Sorry i rushed that post and wasnt thiking of weather my code was bad or not.

Thanks for the answers

Sorry if I offended you, didn't mean to sound harsh or anything, just thought I'd point that out.

Dont worry its kewl, yeah i could written that code better but it was just a surpise to see some one have such a strong reaction to how it was coded.

Hi

Am I being stupid??? Would you not just do something like:

Code:

---

function myRandom():Number{
    var r:Number = 0;

    while(r <= 3){
        r = random(10);
    }

    return r;
}

---

Why would you need to recall the function? Maybe I have not understood the question properly!

Thanks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marraboy

Hi

Am I being stupid??? Would you not just do something like:

Code:

---

function myRandom():Number{
    var r:Number = 0;

    while(r <= 3){
        r = random(10);
    }

    return r;
}

---

Why would you need to recall the function? Maybe I have not understood the question properly!

Thanks.

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Sure, that would work as well. Depends on what you want from the function.

Actually the best thing to do (in this case) would be something like "random(6)+4" which should return a number in the same range, but that's not the point.

You can do that statement in one line. With no loops or repeated methods.

r = random(7) + 3;

You get numbers between 3 and 10. You can make that into a very nice method:

Code:

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function myRandom(min:Number, max:Number):Number
{
    return random(max) + min;
}

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Dont need no loops for the above statement.

The more complex the vector the longer it will take to draw to screen. If you have heaps of lines, corners and overall detail in your vector it will be slower than bitmaps. The size of a vector shouldn't matter too much though.

FallX beat me to it.

Of course you can... your method is much neater! ;o)

Am I the only person who uses

Math.round(Math.random()*n);

then ? No one seems to use the random method of the Maths class ( Which I know is slightly slower ).

Squize.

PS. I use int instead of Math.round before anyone flags that up :)

Quote:

---

function myRandom():Number{
var r:Number = 0;

while(r <= 3){
r = random(10);
}

return r;
}

---

This is what i needed, i needed away to keep running code (In that example random() untill i got somthing i wanted.

I think random(n) automatically 'randomizes' the generator (probably based upon system time).

Could somebody confirm this is correct? As I understand it Math.random() would always produce the same value each time the program is run. This is why I use random(n).

Gloo_Pot - Glad my code helped. You should be using conditional statements in these cases rather than recursive function calling (Is this the correct wording!?!?!?!?!).

Thanks.

Recursive is when a function calls itself (which can easily generate infinite loops if you're not careful).

Nope, Math.random() produces the same level of "randomness", it's just good practise to use it. No biggie, just wondering if anyone used it that way.

Actually looked at that waitForARandomValue function, that's shocking! You should never halt the program flow like that.

If you want to do something like that, use a simple onEnterFrame and *try* to get the result you want every frame, not force it into what could be an infinite loop like that.
This is where just having 1 onEnterFrame to control everything, not to mention function pointers, comes into it's own.

Squize.

Hmm strange... Im going to have a play with that, I was convinced Math.random() wasn't randomized, I'm probably wrong! Maybe I'm thinking of something else... been doing alot of Java recently!!!

I've never needed to use recursive functions. I suppose you could go into an infinite loop in a while statement just as easily if you're not careful.

Not sure if any of this is helping the original poster! :o)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Squize

Actually looked at that waitForARandomValue function, that's shocking! You should never halt the program flow like that.

If you want to do something like that, use a simple onEnterFrame and *try* to get the result you want every frame, not force it into what could be an infinite loop like that.

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Sometimes it can be harmless. In one game, I had to generate colored blocks but they had to meat a certain condition (a match should always be possible). The easiest way to do this was just generate some, and if it wasn't correct, I generated again. I'm guessing about 40% of the possible combinations were okay, so it would raraly have to try more than 3 times, and in the 1000s of tests I did, it never once hung my computer. Off course, if the chance of generating the correct values is very slim, I would have had to find a better algorithm, or let it only try it X times, and then just use some default values if that was possible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marraboy

Hmm strange... Im going to have a play with that, I was convinced Math.random() wasn't randomized, I'm probably wrong! Maybe I'm thinking of something else... been doing alot of Java recently!!!

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If I'm not mistaking, in Java you have to seed the random number generator. In Flash, this happens automatically, which can actually be a problem. In java, you could use the same seed on two computers, and let them generate the same exact "random" level for multiplayer games. All you would need to communicate is the seed, and the levels would be the same - in theory that is, it's possible that different processors or OS'es generate different values with the same seed. But since java is supposed to be cross platform, I assume that is not the case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marraboy

I've never needed to use recursive functions. I suppose you could go into an infinite loop in a while statement just as easily if you're not careful.

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True, but it's usually a bit more obvious where the problem lies.
Recursion is sometimes very useful. One typical example would be generating Fibonacci numbers (not that that's useful, but hey).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marraboy

Not sure if any of this is helping the original poster! :o)

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Probably not, but I guess all he wanted to know was how to use "while".

Just checked, there is a Random class in Java that doesn't need seeded.

Fibonacci numbers... Put the Da Vinci Code down!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Marraboy

Fibonacci numbers... Put the Da Vinci Code down!!!

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Never read it, never seen the movie. Fibonacci numbers is just what they usually teach you recursion with when you're studying computer science.