dynamic text and speed

[bwong]

I have an object that I move with the arrow keys. If you open up movement-thrust.fla example in program files\macromedia\flash mx\samples\fla you will see what I am working with. If you replace the current action script for the bug with this:

onClipEvent (load) {
	// declare and set initial variables
	thrust = 1;
	decay = 1;
	maxSpeed = 5;
	xthrust = 1;
	flames._visible = 0;
	ySpeed = -1;
	xSpeed = -1;
}
onClipEvent (enterFrame) {
	if (Key.isDown(Key.RIGHT)) {
		//Move right
		xSpeed += xthrust;
		flames._visible = 0;
	}
	if (Key.isDown(Key.LEFT)) {
		// move left
		xSpeed -= xthrust;
		flames._visible = 0;
	}
	// 
	if (Key.isDown(Key.UP)) {
		//move up
		ySpeed += thrust;
	}
	if (Key.isDown(Key.DOWN)) {
		//move down
		ySpeed -= thrust;
	}
	// maintain speed limit
	speed = Math.sqrt((xSpeed*xSpeed)+(ySpeed*ySpeed));
	if (speed>maxSpeed) {
		xSpeed *= maxSpeed/speed;
		ySpeed *= maxSpeed/speed;
	}
	// 
	// move beetle based on calculations above
	_y -= ySpeed;
	_x += xSpeed;
	// 
	// Keep the bug from moving off screen. 
	if (_y<0) {
		_y = 0;
	}
	if (_y>232) {
		_y = 232;
	}
	if (_x<0) {
		_x = 0;
	}
	if (_x>465) {
		_x = 465;
	}
}

You will see what I am working with.

Eventually I want to apply this script to the hot air balloon in this picture:



My problem is that I would like to somehow output a correlation between the xSpeed, ySpeed, and the various forces. I would like to do this using dynamic text. For example, when the ySpeed=2, I would like the gravity to be 20,000 and the air pressure to be 40,000.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can do this?

Thanks.
Brian

[muckyMuckMan]

You could just assign variables to dynamic text fields.

Try this:

// Create some text fields to display your variables
_root.createTextField("tfGravity", 1, 10, 10, 40, 20);
tfGravity.autoSize = true;
tfGravity.variable = "gravity";
_root.createTextField("tfAirPressure", 2, 10, 30, 40, 20);
tfAirPressure.autoSize = true;
tfAirPressure.variable = "airPressure";

// You can put this pretty much anywhere
// Also, I don't know what kind of calculations you're doing, so I
// just put these types of calculations in.
gravity = ySpeed*10000;
airPressure = 2*gravity;

I hope this helps.

L8r.