NodeMovement

[LarkSS]

I'm submitting this here due to lack of proper documentation as well as the system itself being highly experimental. ( It's kinda hard to use without a level editor. )

Anyhow, I took my Identification tutorial and fixed up the movement. There is no more point snapping so the object moves more freely as well as I finally figured out how to get the speed of the object to always stay the same.

The big part of this though is my second modded example, which includes non-linear interpolation and an example of making a group of objects stick together with flexible offsets based on motion.

Trail is only shown as an example of movement.

Download [.7z; 17 kb]

I believe this engine to be a great alternative to path movement for the optionality of creating multiple paths without the use of an extension as well as giving one the ability to create paths with curves rather than lines. Also, since the engine is custom it is much more extendable, such as having no real speed limit and being able to easily get the information of each node on demand.

Edit: I should have probably explained the engine better.

The Target object runs on a path, so in other words, it follows each of the Node objects based on its creation order. You can check the order of each node by clicking it in the frame editor and looking at the second number in the little blue box ( which should appear at the top-left of the object selection ).

For the non-linear interpolation example, make sure that your turns stay as close to 90 degrees each as possible. The closer to 90 degrees, the more constant the speed will stay, the happier the Target object will be during its turn. Also, try to keep the turns in a smooth fashion; placing the nodes in awkward manners will force the engine to try and compensate resulting in harsh turns.

Btw, the very first turn for the non-linear interpolation engine requires that the curve type ( in or out; 1 or 0 in the curve value ) be set at the start manually.