Puzzling!

 

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I am trying to create a puzzle where I can assemble the pieces and move completed chunks around. How can I do this with lingo?

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Ah, puzzles.  The first thing most people love to do with Director is create games, and it is a great tool for this.  The thing that gets a lot of people is that a puzzle appears simple, but there are a few layers of programming that must go into this.  It isn't especially hard, but you need to plan it out carefully from the beginning.  To make the system work there are three main areas we need to look at: We need to be able to move "groups" of pieces We need to be able to know if a piece is dropped close to one of the pieces it connects to We need to test if the puzzle is complete So where do we start?  For this example I am using a simple rectangular puzzle that is broken down on a grid pattern, with a slight tab for overlap.   This allows us to just let lingo check where pieces intersect.  The most valuable lingo command for something like this is the sendAllSprites command.  This command is basically like running a loop that gets each sprite to execute a piece of code, but it happens much faster.  The other nice thing is that if the sprite does not have that script attached to it, the command is ignored.  This way we can have one behavior on all the pieces and each can tell all the others to check and do things.   When we start off the puzzle will be in one piece.  Since everything is in place we can do a number of things.  The beginSprite handler can record the location of the piece, its locZ (height in 3d space), and give it a group number.  The group is how we know when a sprite is connected to other sprites.  When 2 sprites "lock" together we set their group numbers the same.  Then when we click on a sprite we can start a loop that moves them all together.  We also need to get a list of all the sprites that are touching the current sprite.  We can not execute this in the beginSprite handler as all of the sprites will not respond.  (On sprite 1's beginSprite handler, 2,3,4, etc. do not yet exist on the stage).  So how do we do this?  For simplicity we can set a property in the beginSprite handler telling it that it has not initialized yet.  On the exitFrame handler it checks this property and runs the initialization script the first time it exits the frame, then resets the variable so the loop will not happen again. So now what?  Well, once we know all this, we can turn the box upside down and throw everything out on the table!  You will see below that there is a command called shuffle.  This takes the pieces size and the stage size and picks a random place inside the stage to drop the piece.  Now the fun starts.  We don't want to set the sprites to moveable as it is harder to track them.  We only want them to move when we let them.  This way we can make everything move together using one handler.  Every time the sprite is clicked a loop starts that runs until the mouse is released.  In this loop we do a sendAllSprites call that tells every sprite to check its group number, and if they match, move the same amount as the mouse.  Then when we let go we tell all the sprites to gather a list of all the sprites they can connect to and send them back.  With this list we use the sendSprite command to send each sprite in the list a command to see if they are the same amount of space away from their original location as our clicked piece.  If so we change the group and lock them.  For ease of use I have also added a number of pixels that the user can be within and the pieces will snap together, as well as using the locZ to put the clicked piece above the other pieces.  Below is the code... property spriteNum, origonalLoc, group, lockSpritesList, baseMove, initialized global topZ, allPieces, tollerance, amDone on beginSprite me   if amDone = void then amDone = false   if tollerance = void then tollerance = 5   if allPieces = void then allPieces = 0   allPieces = allPieces + 1   topZ = sprite(spriteNum).locZ   origonalLoc = sprite(spriteNum).loc   group = spriteNum   baseMove = sprite(spriteNum).loc   initialized = false end on mouseDown me   if amDone = false then     topZ = topZ + 1     sendAllSprites(#pullUp, group)     startClick = the mouseLoc     sendAllSprites(#getBase)     repeat while the stilldown       sendAllSprites(#moveMe, group, (the mouseLoc - startClick))       updateStage     end repeat       --see if it "locked" with another bordering sprite     searchList = []     --get a searchList     sendAllSprites(#checkGroup, group, searchList)     returnList = []     --check the locking location of all touching sprites     repeat with x = 1 to searchList.count       sendSprite(searchList[x], #checkLock, group, origonalLoc - sprite(spriteNum).loc, returnList)       if returnList <> [] then         sendAllSprites(#lockGroup, group, returnList[1][1], returnList[1][2])         exit repeat       end if     end repeat     updateStage     winList = []     sendAllSprites(#checkWin, winList, group)     if winList.count = 0 then       --all true, winner       amDone = true       go "win"     end if   end if end on exitFrame me   if initialized = false then     lockList = []     sendAllSPrites(#getConnected, spriteNum, lockList)     lockSpritesList = lockList     initialized = true   end if end on getConnected me, whatSprite, lockList   if sprite(spriteNum).intersects(whatSprite) and whatSprite <> spriteNum then   lockList.add(spritenum) end if end on shuffle me   okW = the stageRight - the stageLeft - sprite(spriteNum).width   okH = the stageBottom - the stageTop - sprite(spriteNum).height   randomH = random(okW)   randomV = random(okH)   sprite(spriteNum).rect = rect(randomH, randomV, randomH + sprite(spriteNum).width, randomV + sprite(spriteNum).height) end on pullUp me, whatGroup   if whatGroup = group then     sprite(spriteNum).locZ = topZ   end if end on getBase me   baseMove = sprite(spriteNum).loc end on checkGroup me, theGroup, searchList   if theGroup = group then     if lockSpritesList.count > 0 then       repeat with x = 1 to lockSpritesList.count         if searchList.getOne(lockSpritesList[x]) = 0 then searchList.add(lockSpritesList[x])       end repeat     end if   end if end on lockGroup me, whatGroup, newGroup, newOffset   if group = whatGroup then     group = newGroup     sprite(spriteNum).loc = origonalLoc - newOffset   end if end on moveMe me, whatGroup, whereMove   if group = whatGroup then     sprite(spriteNum).loc = sprite(spriteNum).baseMove + whereMove   end if end on dropDown me, howMany   sprite(spriteNum).locZ = sprite(SpriteNum).locZ - howMany end on checkLock me, whatGroup, whatOffset, returnList   --if already linked no reason to run   if whatGroup <> group then     myOffset = origonalLoc - sprite(spriteNum).loc     compareOffset = (myOffset - whatOffset)     if abs(compareOffset.locH) <= tollerance and abs(compareOffset.locV) <= tollerance then       --it is "snapable"       returnList.add([group, myOffset])     end if   end if end on checkWin me, winList, whatGroup   if group <> whatGroup then     winList.add(spriteNum)   end if end This may look like a lot at first, but basically all that we have done is taken each command out as a separate handler and allowed it to be accessible through a sendSprite or sendAllSprites command.  From here we make our pieces, set them to background transparent (matte will not work as no pixels actually overlap), and make a marker called "win" to go to when all pieces match.  Put the assembled puzzle on the stage, drop on the behavior, and let it go.  To mix them up just issue the following command... sendAllSprites(#shuffle) That's it!  Here is an example of the finished script inaction.   All that was added were the two buttons, an exitFrame handler to issue the shuffle command, and a basic "go to the frame" script.