Sequencing Code

What's wrong with a priority queue of triggers? That can be as light or heavy-weight as you like.

That sounds interesting, I envisage that to work something like this: (assuming the string pool compare works)

void TriggerSys(char* TriggerName,u32 FrameTime)
{
switch (TriggerName)
{
case "BigEyes" :
{
switch (FrameTime)
{
case 0: MorphToBigEyes(0.1); break
case 40: MorphToSmallEyes(0.1); break
case 80: MorphToNormalEyes(0.1); break
}
break;
}
case "BoomSound":
{
PlayWav("Boom.wav");
break;
}
}
}

void TriggerHandler() {...}
MainLoop()
{

if (thisthing)
{
AddTrigger("BigEyes",0,81); // Trigger BigEyes in o frames time for 81 frames duration
AddTrigger("BoomSound",100,1); // Trigger BoomSound in 100 frames time for 1 frame
}

TriggerHandler();
}


is that what your talking about?

No, I think you could fit it in the way you initially had it, kind of like this (C++, non-proof-read, but should give you an idea):


// in header file

// void *pParams is some type (or struct) cast to void * to be passed around.
// BE CAREFUL WITH void *!!
typedef void (*tSeqFunc)(void *pParam);

struct tSeqData
{
int FrameToStart;
int NumFramesCall,
tSeqFunc SeqFunc;
void *pParams;

} ;

std::list<tSeqData> SequenceList;


void Seq(int FrameToStart, int NumFramesCall, tSeqFunc SeqFunc, void *pParams)
{
tSeqData DeqData;

// Set FrameToStart at specific frame, just add to the current frame

SeqData.FrameToStart = FrameToStart + CurrentFrame;
SeqData.NumFramesCall = NumFramesCall;
SeqData.SeqFunc = SeqFunc;
SeqData.pParams = pParams;

// insert in list, you should insert in ordered list, so earliest ones are 1st, so you can stop checking
// ones that haven't started yet. I'll let you do that
SequenceList.push_back(SeqData);
}

// in Game Loop, make check
CurrentFrame++;

for (std::list<tSeqData>::iterator it = SequenceList.begin();
it != SequenceList.end(); ) {
if (it->FrameToStart <= CurrentFrame) {
// Call function
it->SeqFunc(it->pParams);

// check if this was last call
if (it->FrameToStart + it->NumFramesCall >= CurrentFrame) {
// remove this one from the list
SequenceList.erase(it);
}
else {
it++;
}
}
else {
// if Ordered List, you've reached an element that hasn't started, so you could break here
}
}


Personally, I'd do that with milliseconds, not frames, but, I guess it depends on what you want to do.

Hey That's cool I actually did that on my first pass, a very similar mechanism of just a Func pointer and some timing, my only issue with that is, I have to write multiple callbacks. I'm using frames because it's guaranteed to run at 60fps - else I would be using parametric seconds as the timer.

If I was working with a big team - I would engineer it so it's super awesome and all that, My main thing is that I'm designing this game and writing it at the same time, and I'm finding that having to switch from engineer to design whilst I'm coding really kills the creativity, hence I was looking for a super slick way of doing it. It sounds bonkers that - having to write a small function could do that - but that really does happen with me!



void BigEyes(u32 FrameTime)
{
switch (FrameTime)
{

case 0: TweakMorphFromFile("EyesBig.txt",0.2); break;
case 50:TweakMorphFromFile("EyesMassive.txt",0.2);break;
case 100:TweakMorphFromFile("EyesNormal.txt",0.2);break;
}
}


void BlinkEyes(u32 FrameTime)
{

switch (FrameTime)
{
case 0: TweakMorphFromFile("EyesBlink.txt",0.6); break;
case 10:TweakMorphFromFile("EyesNormal.txt",0.4);break;
}
}

void MainLoop()
{

if (rr<0.01 && rr>=0.005)
AddSequence(BlinkEyes,0,11);
if (rr<0.005)
AddSequencer(BigEyes,0,101);

UpdateSequences();}

Nothing is guaranteed to run at 60fps. Use times; UTC times or tickcount at that.

boost::function (or std::function in C++11), or function objects in general are used in these cases. No need to make variadic anything when you just want to execute 'something'.

If you're using raw function pointers or void pointers in modern C++, you're likely doing something wrong.